[Article] Crowds beat path to new homes as prices fall

Peace

Appologies if this has already been posted.. Thought it was an interesting article. In my mind it shows that there is still plenty of people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain.

Referenced from www.independant.ie -
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/crowds-beat-path-to-new-homes-as-prices-fall-1287576.html

Crowds beat path to new homes as prices fall

First-time buyers take advantage of 20pc cut

By Brendan Keenan and Allison Bray
Tuesday February 12 2008

Builders in some Dublin developments have reported the best weekend of sales in two years, after price cuts of between 10 and 20pc brought out crowds of first-time buyers.

The Construction Industry Federation said the sales showed Housing Minister Batt O'Keefe was wrong to accuse "a cartel of big builders" of refusing to cut prices.

Mr O'Keefe had referred to a development where reductions of €70,000 led to 40 properties being snapped up in a weekend and urged other builders to do likewise.

This was the case in the Gallops development in Leopardstown, Co Dublin, where 41 apartments were sold at prices from €315,000 last weekend, according to estate agents Savills Hamilton Osborne King.

First-time buyers camped out overnight at Manor Park Homebuilders' 'Barnwell' development in Dublin 15.

The builder reported the strongest sales since autumn 2005 after selling 122 properties, with prices set below the €300,000 barrier, even for new three-bedroom houses.

Glenkerrin Homes sold more than 40 houses in Liffey Valley at prices below €350,000.

Mr O'Keefe had claimed that builders were hoping that if they waited long enough, the present "buyer's market" would come to an end.

But Martin Whelan, head of public affairs at the CIF, said builders and buyers had both recognised that properties would sell if there was value in the price. "There is no sign of a cartel," he said.

"I think it's down to pricing. I don't think Dublin has seen a three-bedroom house on the market for less than €300,000 in a while," a spokeswoman for the Barnwell development said.

Surge

The surge of buyers will encourage those economists who believe that the higher demand from first-time buyers in Ireland than in other EU countries will give support to the market and limit price falls.

It may prove more difficult to persuade sellers and buyers of existing homes to return to the market.

Last week, Davy Stockbrokers said the housing market was now in stage two of a three-part correction process, where sales pick up as a result of the sharp reduction in new supply and deep house-price cuts.

Davy added that they expected construction to almost halve this year, to 45,000 units.

- Brendan Keenan and Allison Bray

spank_inferno

Its good to see but it is somewhat overdue.
The slump was expected as much because property was so overpriced as it was a drop in ones ability to borrow.
From what I hear the developers are taking a hit on profit margin.
Construction commodity prices are going up, wage inflation is also a factor.
But at the end of the day they have to get cash in to remain active.

SkepticOne

It is what people have been saying for a while. Bring down prices if you want to sell. Hopefully it will encourage other builders to follow. Possibly the reason builders were holding back, in addition to the belief that this was only a temporary blip, was in order to shift their own personal portfolios. Also, perhaps to offload their quota of 'affordable' housing onto local authorities.

Worth keeping an eye on daftwatch to see if inventory is shifting. Although there has been some price reductions in the new and second-hand markets, so far the bursting of the bubble has manifested itself in a massive build up in inventory suggesting that the bulk of the price cuts are still to come.

tibor

They only sold 122 out of 270 in this phase.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/property/2008/0207/1201903618441.html

jdivision

While I agree that price cuts are stimulating demand, it'll be interesting to see how many of the sales go through. Buyers would have only had to put a refundable deposit down yesterday and will now have to see whether they can get a mortage or not

Tibor "only" 122 is still some amount of business.

tibor

jdivision wrote: »

Tibor "only" 122 is still some amount of business.

The article talks about people "camped out overnight" to get places, and talks about a "surge" of buyers. It implies massive demand yet the fact is they only booked sales for 45% of the phase -that's a long way off a return to the days of developments selling out off the plans within hours. It's just a bs puff piece.

lushballs

Local residents in Ongar protested at this opening as Manor Homes have not finished off their properties.

seamus

tibor wrote: »

The article talks about people "camped out overnight" to get places, and talks about a "surge" of buyers. It implies massive demand yet the fact is they only booked sales for 45% of the phase -that's a long way off a return to the days of developments selling out off the plans within hours. It's just a bs puff piece.

I'm not sure what the breakdown is. They only launched 75 homes last weekend, according to that article. According to the agents, they sold out this phase so opened the next one prematurely hence the figure of 122. Which means that they sold and extra 48 units off the plans.

The last thing we need though is the newspaper pundits to herald this as the third coming of the Irish housing boom. We need everyone to bring a bit of cop-on to the market as opposed to a few builders who've broken the mould.

seamus

Manor Park is launching 75 two, three and four-bedroom houses at Barnwell, its segment of the Hansfield site. Selling agent Savills Hamilton Osborne King will be taking bookings at show units on site this weekend.

I thought that the rest of the 270 might be made up of apartments, but according to what I checked out, they were only launching the 2/3/4 bed houses.

Confusing article to say the least. However...
http://www.savills.ie/newsandpubs/newsarticle.aspx?id=404

The property market showed signs of recovery this weekend when hundreds of people queued to buy houses in a new Manor Park Homebuilders development in Dublin 15. Buyers camped out overnight to purchase houses in ‘Barnwell Hansfield’ where sales were so phenomenal that Phase 1 sold out within a matter of hours so the developers had to open Phase 2. A total of 122 homes were sold at the development over the weekend.

gurramok

So 148 to go for a full sell-out. Maybe Austins certain prediction of 0.5% cut in rates this year propelled these set of buyers into thinking by the time its mortgage drawdown, they'll get a bargain with cheaper credit. I suspect some will pull out by that time comes of rates do indeed stay steady.

Another aspect is the state of the management fisco up that way and poor quality of some previous builds(AAM has stories of this), its obvious some buyers have been too trustworthy and clueless of the past performance of the builder.

20% drop so far, a 2bed for 274k, a 3bed for 300k. They will need to drop more to get the 'hordes of pent-up demand' in the door.

So the rest pf Clonee/Greater Blanch 2nd hand houses will have to match these new prices to compete, interesting times.
Recovery yeh right.

chump

Peace wrote: »

Appologies if this has already been posted.. Thought it was an interesting article. In my mind it shows that there is still plenty of people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain.

Referenced from www.independant.ie -
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/crowds-beat-path-to-new-homes-as-prices-fall-1287576.html

Ah come on now. You're quoting one article from the indo to back up that "there is still plenty of people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain."

It's the "plenty of" I have the issue with.
How can these ANECDOTEs provide support for this notion?

Exchange the "plenty of" for "some" and it sounds a lot more suited to the evidence put forward.

"there is still some people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain."

Peace

chump wrote: »

Ah come on now. You're quoting one article from the indo to back up that "there is still plenty of people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain."

It's the "plenty of" I have the issue with.
How can these ANECDOTEs provide support for this notion?

Exchange the "plenty of" for "some" and it sounds a lot more suited to the evidence put forward.

"there is still some people out there looking for property but they are just waiting to snap up a bargain."

I see no reason for me to rephrase what i said. Neither "plenty" or "some" are good descriptors as both are open to interpretation of the reader of what exatly they mean.

Honestly, don't you have something better to do that pick through peoples posts and moan about the exact wording they've used?

chump

Peace wrote: »

I see no reason for me to rephrase what i said. Neither "plenty" or "some" are good descriptors as both are open to interpretation of the reader of what exatly they mean.

Honestly, don't you have something better to do that pick through peoples posts and moan about the exact wording they've used?

I don't really Peace, but no reason to be offended.

Do you have anything better to do with your time than quote an article in its entirety and then post something that adds nothing to the already weak article?

A bit of criticism never did anyone any harm.

Can you explain to me exactly what you hoped to achieve by posting this in the first place.

Price reductions lure eager buyers?

homah_7ft

Isn't this "Article" simply based on a press release?

http://www.businessworld.ie/livenews.htm?a=2019030;s=rollingnews.htm

In other news Ma Hubbard's cookies are the best cookies around according to a press release by Ma Hubbard PLC.

confuzed

its like M&S sale after Christmas. People flock in just for bargain and its nothing to do with actual sale. I dont understand why every politician and media man is interested in keeping prices high.

ongarite

lushballs wrote: »

Local residents in Ongar protested at this opening as Manor Homes have not finished off their properties.

I was there at the protest. Manor Park threatened to sue us if we protested at the opening of their new development across the road.

bill_ashmount

ongarite wrote: »

I was there at the protest. Manor Park threatened to sue us if we protested at the opening of their new development across the road.

They must be getting worried.

SimpleSam06

confuzed wrote: »

I dont understand why every politician and media man is interested in keeping prices high.

They know who pays their bills.

Peace wrote: »

Honestly, don't you have something better to do that pick through peoples posts and moan about the exact wording they've used?

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