The Cheap Shoebox In Dublin City Centre.

Sponge Bob

Some single commuters may be interested in what happens when a property market finally turns. The shoebox apartment market gets it first . The cheap shoebox is a future thing not a now thing .

Story from NZ is here. There is such an oversupply of shoeboxes that they cannot get planning permission any more. The REALLY interesting thing is that OVERALL property prices are rising in NZ at a higher rate than in Ireland presently and there is still an expectation that this will continue , see here. What has happened is that entry level property for a single city worker has suddenly become more realistic within the overall property market .

"The council was still getting weekly applications from developers to build apartment blocks, often of more than 50 units. But the report had vindicated moves by the council on June 3 to ban smaller units.

Developers are banned from building studio units under 35sq m, one-bedroom units under 45sq m, two-bedroom under 70sq m and three-bedroom under 90sq m"

**Note** Decent sized apartments are not that badly affected by the decline in property prices.

ohh and todays times

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/1107/2435154999HM1EMMET.html

While not disagreeing with the figure presented, the Central Bank officials indicated their nervousness about presenting such figures in public. The OECD records them as stating: "They suggested that any numerical estimate of overvaluation should be presented only with extreme caution to avoid destabilising the market.

In plain english that means. House prices are 15% too high but the Irish Central Bank is sh1t scared of telling that to the Irish public in case the prediction becomes a self fulfilling one and they get blamed for it.

The reality is that the shoeboxes will decline by up to 50% , particularly in bad areas. The average decline will be 15% (or so) !

MorningStar

You seem to have a particular slant to your view there. The ICB didn't hide the info they just didn't bring it to everybodies attention as they know what they say can effect the Irish economy. Not an amazing piece of news one way or the other as I have heard people quote 300% over valued property is the norm in Ireland.
Anyway the universal rule has always been buy a good property as your home and even if the market fails you will be effected less and reover quickly. The New Zealand report is very specific to a specific development. I don't disagree with your view on small apartments but I don't think that story is that relevant. WE have our own bad designs with their own unique problems.

Shouldn't this be in the property section anyway?

Victor

Moved to my other board.

rooferPete

Hi,

New Zealand is a good market to watch when comparing building standards with Ireland.

While everything is upside down regarding time zones and seasons their climate is not much different to ours, also the housing boom in the last few years had them move away from traditional construction similar to us.

The side effects are really starting to show now, they used to build based on British Standards, not a bad system as the products, methods of testing and standard of workmanship were by and large covered by the standards.

Now they have the "Branz" system a type of self controlled Agrement Certificate, the result has been many changes turning back to the British system, in fact if you have any form of qualification the local authorities want building control inspectors so a visa is no problem.

Having seen their attempts to copy American systems of timber frame and cladding / siding systems to keep up with the demand and now how many of the big price houses are actually being demolished within five to ten years I wonder how long will it take our Government to revert to the old building bye laws instead of the current largely self policing building regulations.

Sometimes the best education is in the very recent history of other countries.