Irish Property Market chat II - *read mod note post #1 before posting*

I worked out a while ago that if went on the dole today that i have already paid enough in taxes to pay me the dole for the rest of my life. I thought that was kid of funny, but sure once you are a tax slave you are there to be milked. Get my teeth cleaned every year on it though, so there is that.

"Tax slave" is a little harsh. I much prefer "GDP Cattle".

europe's powerhouse economy:

Germany ‘in permanent crisis’ as property market crumbles

Recession beckons for Europe’s largest economy as it shrinks in latest quarter

Property prices are falling and developers are cancelling projects, prompting a downturn in the construction industry.

Very much so - German economy is also struggling to deal with the impact of climate mitigation and the Ukraine invasion. They are heavily gas dependent, and didn't do enough mitigation to renewables when they decided to shut nuclear stations.

Ireland is still reeling from the impact of the 2008 recession in ways Germany is not. We had a lower number of homes per capita that was beginning to be addressed (legacy of large families, communal/institutional living & high emigration) when the great recession hit and fell further behind after the construction sector collapsed. They have 515 homes per 1000 citizens compared to 415 in Ireland.

Number of dwellings per 1,000 citizens Europe 2022 | Statista

If they kept the nuclear power plants, wouldn't that have helped with climate mitigation?

If prices are too cheap why dpes BNPs data show institutions are no longer buying?

I have seen couple of properties back in market after sales fall through..reason buyers pulled out due to being nervous whatever that means ! I dont trust the agents at all

and yet despite all the "high standards" and high prices here we have been beset by pyrite, mica and fire safety scandals that would make any sane buyer questionning purchasing property here

I know a few people who still think Homebond is worth the paper its written on.

When the pyrite problem appeared they covered people, until they found that there were a lot more houses with pyrite. Then suddenly homebond wasnt worth the paper it was written on. Scam.

There are a LOT of Celtic Tiger era builds that are really not looking their best these days, and there a plethora of cases of apartment blocks with issues. There's an apartment block near my house that's of the era, and it really does look rough. A lot of the houses from that time were of poor quality too, and one has to wonder how they will fare in another 20 years.

One would hope that the current generation of new builds are of a higher quality, but we may be assured of one thing; the builders will be long gone if there are problems with them in 20 years.

Well in the block I'm thinking of, the render is filthy, and the window frames are covered in moss on the outside. It doesn't seem especially well-maintained, so I'd wonder how much the management company is doing for the property.

I went sale agreed 3 times last year, didn't buy any of them.

1. The house was a bit of a wreck and needed an extension, we budgeted €450k for renovations and an extension and an architect gave us rough costs or €700k to do the work we wanted. Had this more or less verified by a QS and withdrew our offer almost immediately.

2. The house was supposed to be B3 rated and in great condition but a survey threw up a lot of little issues and we caught the seller outright lying about one of them when queried on it so we didn't trust a thing we were being told about the house and pulled out. It was very expensive for what it was and only made any kind of sense of you didn't need to put a cent into the existing structure, that wasn't the case. It was taken off the market before Christmas, didn't sell. The agent was also somebody you wouldn't trust in the slightest.

3. Great house, loved it and we were very happy with the price even though we'd agreed to pay €45k over asking, no issues with the survey this time. 7 weeks go by and the deal hasn't moved an inch, eventually the estate agent calls us to tell us the sellers are getting divorced (not disclosed to us initially, we were told their kids had grown up and they wanted to downsize) and the wife now wants to pause the whole thing (husband very much the opposite). We were fed some bullshít about her changing solicitors and this being her new legal advice but I'm pretty sure she never had any intention of selling the house based on how the process never moved at all. I'm guessing she played along with the sale in order to get the husband to move out and then reneged on it as soon as he was gone so she could stay living there by herself.

So there you go, three different reasons why a sale might fall through. I doubt an agent would be honest with anyone about the first two, and the third one the house wasn't for sale anyway so they just took the ad down and I doubt it will be going back on the market anytime soon. I would say she fed us a lot of bullshít about why the seller has changed their mind to save face, she got duped by them initially.

What kind of extension were you looking at? I'm in the same boat trying to weigh up buying an already extended or doing it myself. Most things online will say cost is 2,500-3,000 per sqm. We'd be looking at a 50-70sq m extension which would be in our budget but then all I hear are stories of people being quoted 300-400k for a bog standard semi d extension. 700k sounds like madness!