Sir, - The rapid rise in house prices appears to be caused by the widely held belief that interest rates will remain low, and probably will even drop further. This may well be true but why should this increase a new property valuation?
With the low interest rates, the builders' costs ate significantly down; with the strong punt and low inflation, building material costs have not risen. Granted, development land is expensive, but this is because of the policy of keeping it scarce.
If the politicians who got their combined knickers in a twist over 5p on a pint of stout would look at this problem properly, surely even they would come up with the solution. - Yours, etc.,
Celbridge,
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Co. Kildare.