Madam, – When I read Jack Fagan’s claim that “there has probably never been a better time to get on the property ladder” in Property Investor (Property supplement, February 25th), I thought I had chanced upon an old advertisement for some over-priced apartments circa 2005.
Analyses of the latest hard data show property prices in freefall and likely to continue to do so. Daft.ie, the same source that Mr Fagan quotes on rents, shows no recent deceleration – asking prices fell 5.5 per cent nationally during the last three months of 2009 alone. According to the same source, Irish rental yields remain at only 3.5 per cent – well below historical and international norms. Add to this the fact that mortgage lending fell by 50 per cent during the final quarter of 2009 (it is now at a level 83 per cent below that seen during 2005-2006 (Irish Banking Federation/ Pricewaterhouse-Coopers) and you have a very powerful set of forces set to drive values down even further.
Lack of critical analysis fed the property bubble. Let’s not see additional families get trapped into negative equity. – Yours, etc,