Moody’s are the experts here, not the vested interests in Central Bank, NAMA or the Government.

The fundamentals are broken. Cost of living is beginning to rise, the Euro is in a very precarious state at the moment, the jobless figures are still rising, middle-incomes continue to feel the squeeze from new taxes and charges and new buyers are sitting on the fence waiting for a house-price decline to realistic levels (three-times principal earners salary, etc).

The Government continues to interfere with the property market as it has now a financial stake via NAMA. It is artificially propping up the market with incentives to buy, with no benefit to the country as a whole. it would be much better for everyone if property was allowed to find its natural equilibrium, with no State interference. We must purge whatever notions of “value” or “worth” we have developed over the last ten years or so, regarding property prices. We now see that we were wrong then, and we’re probably still wrong now.

Perhaps we listen to too many ‘experts’. With so many ‘experts’ around why are we in meltdown?

I have been looking at houses for last year and only ones that dropped are the ones that are in a state and need loads of work . I was looking at 200,000 price range

I’m no economist but the stark reality is that property prices must come down. In the late 70′s early 80′s, during tough economic times, the average house price in Dublin was between 3 to 4 times the average industrial wage and banks had strict conditions for mortgages, (approx £6000 average wage, 1980) At the peak, of the property boom, the average house price in Dublin was more than 12 times the average industrial wage (approx €36,000 average wage, 2007). Despite, social changes, with increases in dual income households, this is a blatant over inflation of property growth, caused by false supply and demand perpetrated by over zealous property developers, banks and councils using planning as a form of income to release zones for development and property management companies in desperate need of tighter regulation and reform.

House prices will continue to fall on average across the country, more in some areas than others, for the next 5 years at least I believe and this fall has only been delayed, or cushioned by a slow and reluctant reaction in the property market to date, due to the large number of people in negative equity. Rent markets will continue to increase in that time and as property tax becomes more established and costly, additional properties could flood the market causing a sharp depression in prices, good times for the bargain hunter!!

Its hard to disagree with their findings if evidence on the ground pretty much proves the opposite of what our government and central bank continue to tell us. The recent Allsops fire sale of properties proved beyond doubt property prices continue to plummet. There is such a thing as a bargain but mother of god, the prices being achieved at auctions are beyond dismal how any first time buyer could be encouraged to take a leap of faith is beyond me.

Think about it. How many times have you seen somebody interviewed with the banner ‘property expert’ or ‘banking expert’, ‘money expert’. etc.

Imagine if we applied that to football.
Over now to football expert ‘Brian Kerr’.

Put it like this I would listen to Moody’s advice and stats EVERYDAY OF THE WEEK over ANY Irish newspaper, daft.ie “expert”, any EA everyone if them, any politician who all are notorious liars and vested interests.

A leflet from DNG came through my door this morning stating…..

“URGENT, PROPERTIES NEEDED!
At DNG we urgently require properties in all areas of XXXXXX to satisfy demand from hundreds of loan approved buyers in our database. ETC.

It seems part of the problem is no one wants to sell their homes due to the sharp decline and there is just not enough varity to meet the demands of the many people who just want to buy a house.

The bare truth is no one really knows, certainly no one commenting here nor the the alleged experts in these nebulous ratings agencies. Economics is a pseudo science, 1% empirical and 99% guess work.

It’s impossibly to predict were prices will go, the unavailability of mortgages and lack of buying power leads to the decrease in demand and therefore supply is too high.
If banks began lending for example houses could increase or level out. People who have money now are gonna make a killing though. There are alot of houses put there which are cheaper than the cost to build them

But how could these people know what they are talking about as our experts said that Dublin House prices recently INCREASED by 0.7%!!!!!! I think our guys know what they are talking about :)))) what drop would there be if all houses available for sale were put on the market ?!

It’s annoying the way most stories on journal.ie are reported in other news sources two days earlier. Why do these other guys insist on breaking news when it happens!

The Irish are the best in the world at talking. Why do we spend €15b on education, €20b on social welfare and a few Million on Bord Failte. Why the hell isn’t someone spinning the strong fundamentals of Irish Property? The more these agencies grind everything we have into the ground especially property, the loans on them will become more distressed, the more repossessions, more write offs of private debt and more bailout required, from more taxes to recapitalize the banks.