Mayo feeling property pinch

Mayo feeling property pinch


Edwin McGreal

NEW statistics show the price of residential property in Connacht/Donegal is down 7.5 per cent for the first three months of this year and two Mayo auctioneers can’t find fault with the figures.
The member survey by the Irish Auctioneers and Valuers Institute (IAVI) were released last week and Brian Moran of Moran Auctioneers in Castlebar and Richard Finn of Martin Finn and Co in Claremorris agree that the figure of 7.5 per cent for Connacht/Donegal tallies with their own experiences.
“We are seeing an occasional house being sold but it is very occasional,” says Moran. “We are selling a few but nothing like before. Much of the problem comes back to the banks - the banks are not lending money, despite what they might say. There hasn’t been a huge reduction in prices because people are holding onto their property so somewhere around seven or eight per cent sounds right.”
Richard Finn’s experiences are similar but he doesn’t envisage matters getting worse.
“Those percentages do sound right. I don’t see them going down much further, especially with the interest rate cut last Thursday (down to one per cent). There is serious value for money to be had out there now. Now is the time to be buying.”
Like Brian Moran, Richard Finn puts much of the problem at the door of the banks.
“Consumer confidence and a lack of funding from the banks are the big problems. There are people out there who want to buy but can’t get their hands on money.”
The levels to which house prices went at the height of the Celtic Tiger are not attainable now and Brian Moran points out that people need to realise this.
“If people are willing to take a smaller price than previously, then property may move. People have to be more realistic - we are not getting prices at the 2006 and 2007 levels, we just won’t sell at those prices.”
Richard Finn feels it all comes down to negotiation.
“Are sellers holding out for 2008 prices? Everything is subject to negotiation. There is a margin between the old prices and the current ones and that’s where the negotiation comes into it. I’ll put it this way, there’s no one who wants to make souvenirs out of property.”