housing

Oct 21 14:08

The Housing Crisis is Yet to Come

By: Ciarán Tags:

My guess is that this is the start of the next wave in Ireland's recession. While our woes are partly down to American sub-prime and the new style of global crisis, we also have the classic bust to come. Make no mistake: the demise of construction firms hurts banks.

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Sep 28 22:22

Spreading Risk or Cashing In?

By: Ciarán Tags:

Was it just me who was turned off by the following sentence about developer Donal Caulfield in Frank McDonald and Kathy Sheridan's obituary for the Irish housing market:

He has tried to spread his risk, with developments in Poland, the Canaries, London, Madrid and Ibiza.

Spreading risk by buying up property in a series of bubble housing markets? You spread risk by diversifying a portfolio, not by tyring to cash in on every property bubble going. Language appropriate to describe investment ought not to be used to dignify speculation.

Anyway, I know I've said that a dig out for banks is inevitable - or at least I think it is - because Irish banks, and everyone on this island as a consequence, will be in a whole load of bother as banking losses mount, but lets hope that the dig out doesn't either shore up developers or speculative property owners. There is more than one group interested in the politics of housing and, as this guy points out also in yesterday's Irish Times, there's no reason for privileging the interests of owners over aspiring owners (or indeed over taxpayers).

</rant>

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Sep 24 08:58

Half-House Assets

By: Ciarán Tags:

Cross-posted from the Irish Left Review, perhaps to be read in the light of this not entirely surprising news from P. O'Neill on Irish Election.

"If you owe us £1,000, it’s your problem; if you owe us £1 million, it’s our problem" was how Justice Moriarty described the AIB's attitude towards lending when he was chairing the tribunal investigating Charlie Haughey's adventures with AIB.

How right he was. While we read the good news about the American government's using vast amounts of Chinese money to rescue the global capitalist system from total collapse, we shouldn't think that takes us all out of the path of disaster.

The Irish are bound to go the same way in 2009 that Spain is going at the moment. Like us, the Spanish have been enjoying an enormous property boom for the last few years. And, as in Ireland, it has just come stuttering to a halt, prompting a massive rescue from the Spanish government as the sector struggles "with high debt, plunging prices and an overhang of unsold houses and flats."

This is where Ireland is headed, but we're probably going to experience something much worse.

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Jul 21 21:46

Ownership Sums

By: Ciarán Tags:

Congratulations to Maca, who's just bought himself some digs. Fair dues to him, and I mean that. But never let me pass over an opportunity to poo on someone's parade. So here goes...

Maca says that they bought the house because "we figure we’re better off paying our mortgage than someone else’s mortgage." Is this true in the present climate? Is the property ladder the place to be when it's really a snake?

The way I figure it, putting aside all those intangible joys like trips to Ikea etc, the 'am I better off paying my own mortgage?' calculation ought to proceed according to the maxim that the fall in property prices minus the amount paid off the principal on the mortgage ought not be greater than the outlay in rent (by the way, I had this expressed in an equation a couple of minutes ago but decided that I'd never be invited to dinner parties again if I posted it. Truly I am a sad, sad person).

So, if the amount you spend on your rent is more than a fall in value of your house minus the amount you pay onto the principal on the mortgage then buy. If not, then rent. Or, to take an example: in the first year of a mortgage, assuming an average priced €300,000 house at 5.4% APR, you will only pay about €4,200 off the principal (and €16,000 odd in interest). In that time in 2008, the house will have fallen in value by €24,000 (about 8% according to Goodbody). So the purchase of a house is worthwhile if you would otherwise fork out €19,600 in rent in the year. That's €1,633 a month. Of course, you could buy a cheaper house. It's also not unlikely, if you are renting a house, that this calculation might work in favour of buying (well, that or renting somewhere smaller). On the other hand, you could be saddled with a higher interest rate on your mortgage than I've allowed for here. Either way, what is undoubtedly true is that part of the value of the house will simply disappear into thin air in 2008/9. And lots of the mortgage will go toward the upkeep of the bank's shareholders, not towards the principal on the loan.

In which case it's not unlikely that renting until prices bottom out would be better overall than paying one's own mortgage. Let someone else suffer the loss in wealth and then jump onto the ladder. Or at least that it's not automatically the case that you are better off paying your own mortgage from 2008 than you would be leaving it until 2010.

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