Softening house market?

They don't stay in the game when it gets rough. After the fall of the Celtic tiger, there were builders tools for sale at auction for years after wards.

This recession will be nothing like the last one, celtic tiger we built too much there is still work there if the price comes down.

Anecdotal but contacted a few properties requesting a viewing in Galway/Limerick commuter towns. Had been on daft well over a month, one nearly two months. Bids currently at 5-10% over asking.

Not so sure about softening just yet.

Keep and eye on them and see if the sale falls over and gets re-lised. Im seeing this happen qute a bit.

lot of people have AIPs in place from earlier in the year when rates were lower. They are going sale agreed at their maximum then when seeking to get the mortgage, they find out lender has now re-assessed their servicability requirements due to higher interest rates, resulting in less money being offered.

If you could get Irish wages living in NI you'd be on a winner.

Honestly you think they would rather take a 100% cut in pay as apposed to say 10/20% cut in pay, really? The thing is their pay has ballooned up over the course of the last 5 years due to demand going through the roof and the horsesh1t of it being blamed solely on raw materials is just that, builders wages have gone up a hell of lot and that is by looking at the increase in the pricing of individual jobs in the last 12 to 18 months and taking away the raw material costs... This demand for construction is now on the floor. So you think they will take 100% cut and sit on the dole (I hope they saved their pennies when they were working) as apposed to a smaller cut 10/20% to their wage. Interesting, but I cant see your logic, I mean if we all took that approach no one would be working in Ireland with the impact inflation has had on wage in real terms. Your mistake is realizing people in the round want to work and builders like us mere mortals have bills to pay too.

We are Looking at selling at the moment in Castletroy....4 otherhouses in the same estate (same size - 3 bed semis) have sold in the last 6 months.....all sold for overasking by 5-10k......most recent was today and has gone sale agreed for the asking price.....

We will be putting our house up for what that has sold for (exactly the same house)...

No sign of softening here.....

Apologies for the misunderstanding....the most recent house sold for the asking price (which was set 10k above the others that sold for 5-10k over asking)....

According to the estate agent there was always good interest in houses that are ready to go.......

It is not a 100% cut in pay if they go into a different business or go abroad. It can be a 100% cut in pay to take on bad contracts in any event.

There are particular issues in Ireland. There is a very different bad debt culture in Ireland to other places. There is always cash work doing domestic small repairs. You don't understand business. It is not a question of trimming prices by 10% or whatever, it is operating in a business where the risks become greater than the potential rewards. Bad debts will increase in a recession and hence the risk of taking on a job. One bad debt could wipe out a years earnings.

In the UK if you don't pay an invoice within 30 days without a good excuse, it is a criminal offence. people pay their bills in England. Builders in ireland are always being stung. It is not a question of dropping their level of wages, it is not getting a wage at all.

Clearly, when I refused to join a blind auction I didn't buy those properties.

A blind auction where you don't know if there is anyone else involved is a very handy tool to squeeze every last drop of blood out of you. Hopefully they will one day be made illegal.

That said, not all properties are the subject of a blind auction, so if you are flexible and not tied to a specific area you will find a suitable property. One property is enough for most of us.

Thank you Claw Hammer for properly explaining it. Some people don't get it.

But this is why I am questioning it do they pack it in and go on the dole or try and reduce their wages to compete? The idea that they can either leave and go to a different country where the same issues are there that Ireland face with regards to building is farcical if anything Ireland is under supplied and the government are incentivizing building. The other theory is they will go into a different business? I mean we are hitting a recession are builders going to retrain and work in IT or Pharma or something else and then the last option is they will simply go onto the dole - like they dont have bills to pay.

House prices were way higher in the Celtic tiger and wages were lower.

There is plenty houses in cork city for under 250k. It's not difficult to save 30k between two people over 5 years. It's only 50 or 60 euro per week like.

People seem to have so much money for fashion, image, coffee, restaurants, holidays, the list goes on. There was never so many eateries and coffee shops in the country.

People never had it so good if you ask me but sure you can't open you're mouth in case you might hurt someones feelings. 😂😂😂

With all due respect, 'getting jobs done' does not equate to getting a house built.

self builds in Ireland generally operate on a stage payment basis with the mortgage company releasing funds as each stage is complete.

a typical arrangement is as follows

1. foundations and subfloors
2. Main blockwork
3. Roof Complete
4. Plastering complete
5. power on & heating running / 2nd fix joinery
6. Snagging and handover

each of those stages apart from the last once could be north of 50,000, and you're relying on engineers, solicitors and lenders to all fulfill their obligations in a timely manner to get funds released as agreed, the reality is, all it takes is one person in the chain to make a mistake, go on holidays etc, and the builder can be left carrying the can in the meantime. And by and large, work does not stop, it continues as stuff like plant and scaffolding is on hire and incurring costs, dates have been given to subcontractors, who are hard to get, and them taking on projects elsewhere will only lead to further delays and compounding costs.

Its often the case at the end, where the budget has been blown, and its the builder whos left hanging, the homeowner has moved in, and its a nightmare to collect the final balance as the funds just arent there. You can't keep people out of their houses, as by this point they'l now essentially be paying back a full mortgage as well as rent.

Source? - Myself, been in the game nearly 20 years.

On my first week in college in 2006, I was offered a 15k loan by bank who cold-called me. I had little savings, feck all employment history and no demonstrable ability to repay a loan. Naturally, I didn't the money, and I thank my past-self for knowing not to accept the devil's shilling, but that's the kind of thing that was happening in Celtic Tiger Ireland.

Simply put, it was beyond easy to buy property back then.

The point I was making is that credit was incredibly available back then. I didn't take it because I had, and still do to a point, an aversion to debt.

You said it was easy to get a mortgage because you were offered a 15k short term loan. I have more than that as a credit limit on my credit card now. It doesn't mean mortgages are freely available.

I am talking about the attitude to debt, not the quantumj of debt. This post is irrelevant.

No, I gave an anecdotal story on the availability of credit in 2006. I didn't mention anything about today.

Poster clearly made a point about the situation in 2006. They are correct. I know someone who left college with multiple of 5-figure debt purely because the bank kept throwing money at them that they didn't need. Their family bailed them out but in reality the debt should have been written off for predatory lending.