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Energy prices to rise further; housing in decline; and banks need to do better

Business Today: the best news, analysis and comment from The Irish Times business desk

Electricity prices could rise again for consumers and business as long-term gas prices remain stubbornly high. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby / AFP via Getty Images

Dominic Coyle's face
Dominic Coyle
Thu Oct 27 2022 - 07:19

Homes and businesses could face further energy price rises despite sharp falls in European natural gas prices, it has emerged. “Spot” prices for natural gas to be delivered the next day have fallen significantly since September, trading at 33 cent a-therm on Tuesday against a brief 600 cent high in August. But, writes Barry O’Halloran, energy companies buy supplies for power generation and direct use a year or more in advance on forward markets and prices there remain noticeably higher than at this time last year.

Housing supply is set to fall further behind demand as rising interest rates and higher construction costs choke off investment, Goodbody Stockbrokers has warned. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports that its latest housing supply tracker highlights a fall-off in commencements, particularly for apartment blocks, a trend that has accelerated in recent months.

Banks need to work harder to convince certain cohorts of customers of KBC Ireland and Ulster Bank, which are quitting the Irish market, to switch their accounts to other institutions and avoid financial disruption, according to researchers from the Central Bank of Ireland. Around 850,000 of the 1.2 million accounts affected have yet to be moved. Mark Paul looked at the report.

Sticking with consumer finance, nonbank lender Finance Ireland on Wednesday said it was “temporarily suspending” offering fixed-rate mortgages of 10 years or longer, amid heightened volatility on the international debt markets less than a year after introducing 15- and 20-year mortgages as it made a strong play for market share after Ulster Bank and KBC Bank Ireland decided to quit the Republic, writes Joe Brennan.

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Ciarán Hancock writes that Virgin Media Ireland has agreed a wholesale network access deal for the first time, allowing rival Vodafone to offer its customers fast fixed-line broadband services by piggybacking on Virgin’s full fibre network.

The Government has halved the concrete levy and delayed its introduction but builders are looking for more — urging the Government to delay its introduction for two years and conduct a full regulatory and economic assessment of its likely impact in the meantime, writes Barry O’Halloran.

It’s been a bumper year for the five-star Dromoland Castle hotel, which recorded average room rates of €700 in July as high-spending US visitors returned to Ireland. That should see the business double its revenues this year, general manager Mark Nolan tells Gordon Deegan.

There were a couple of major planning applications submitted yesterday. UK property giant Hammerson put in its plans for the next stage of its regeneration plan for the north inner city — in his case offices, shops and restaurants on lands from number 43 to number 61 O’Connell Street Upper. Laura Slattery looks at what they involve.

And housebuilder Cairn Homes has returned with an even more ambitious plan for the Montrose site in Donnybrook it acquired off RTÉ which will involve blocks of up to 16 storeys in height. Gordon Deegan reports that Cairn is using the new Large Scale Residential Development procedure which is replacing the discredited Strategic Housing Development system.

A report by S&P raises concerns about the ability of those holding Irish boom-era mortgages that fell into arrears but have since returned to making payments to see out the cost of living crisis without further problems, writes Joe Brennan.

And claims by seven members of Siptu against their union for breaching data protection rights have been thrown out by a judge who ordered them to pay the union’s legal costs. Dismissing the case, the judge said plaintiffs needed to show evidence of “more than minimal loss”, which wasn’t evident in these cases.

In our feature pages, as winter looms, Ciara O’Brien looks at technology from smart heating and duvets to heated jackets and seats, there’s plenty of gadgets to help you stay cosy through the dark days.

And in Tech Review, she looks at the recently unveiled 10th generation iPad and asks how different is it and is it worth upgrading your existing one.

We profile the final nine shortlisted candidates across three categories of The Irish Times Innovation Awards.

And finally, as Elon Musk commits to meeting the court-stipulated deadline for acquiring Twitter, Karlin Lillington looks at the wider picture of what billionaire control of almost all social media channels means for the rest of us — and especially for those most vulnerable.

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