Dublin MumsNetters - do you think property prices will go up or down in the next few years?

[bran]

We will probably be moving back to Dublin in the next 3 years and I was wondering how people who are living in Dublin felt the market was moving. The advice from my mother is to buy a house as you can't lose with property, but then her experience is of continuously rising prices. She thinks it wouldn't be a bad idea to buy now in Dublin (sell our London property and rent) in case prices continue to rise at a rapid rate. But I remember the UK house price crash of the late 80's/early 90's and I feel that Dublin prices are now at an unsustainable level and if they drop a little the market will lose confidence and there could be a similar crash, and so it would probably be worth our while renting for a while when we move back.

I've been saying that Irish house price growth was too rapid for about 7 years now and I've been wrong because it's just kept on rising. But now my brother has been telling me that quite a few houses are failing to sell at auction and are coming back on the market for tender at prices below the auction guideline.

What do you think? (Sorry, very dull I know.)

Of course, Malahide has really gone downhill since Brian and Kerry moved out.
I live in Meath, (ahem, Kteepee!) We have a 5 bed detached house, it's more than doubled in value since we moved here 6 years ago. Definitely would agree that it's houses on the top end of the market that have slowed down. Immigration is at an all-time high, the population is increasing and the newcomers have to live somewhere.

There are a few reasons that I need to live in Dub PT. I want to be near my parents. I'd quite like ds to go to a particular secondary school because I went there and really liked the ethos. I strongly suspect that dh will still be working in London for at least part of the week (although he maintains that won't be the case) so we need to be close to an airport that he can fly to from City. DH doesn't drive so we need to have decent public transport so that I'm not his full-time chauffeur.

Sorry, I was in a hurry when I last posted and it came out terser than I intended.

I would quite like to live outside Dublin and have looked (online) at houses in other, smaller, cities and in the countryside. There are some really lovely properties out there, but in the end whenever I look at a beautiful house I can't help calculating how many hours I will spend in the car ferrying DH and DS around and visiting my family.

I still really fancy this one though, and this , or perhaps something by the sea.

Hi Bran just to let you know that I'm living in Co. Kildare and although the prices have gone up and up the market is slower this year than last year. But I did hear on the news that the prices will probbly go up another 10% in the next year so if you are considering it you could end up paying a lot more in three years. Also if you bought now you could but something smaller than you are looking at and rent it out and take your profit in three years and get something you really want. Maybe a new development close to bus and trains.

didn't sound terse at all bran

that first one in roscommon is gorgeous, so light and airy!

cork is a lovely city as well and a bit cheaper. and has direct flights to all london airports (my dad used to commute so can swear to that one)we lived 10 mins from the airport so it was really handy for him.

as for commuting to see family, my gran was all the way up in mayo and we still saw her every bank holiday and school holiday, wasn't too bad. you might be surprised how long you spend commuting in dublin, lol. i lived in rathfarnham and my aunt and another cousin were in d4, and i didn't see tham for months on end because it was too far in dub traffic

I'm hoping to be able to see my parents a couple of times a week, and I want to be close enough not to have to stay overnight if I visit (I turn back into a teenager when I stay with them). At the moment almost all of our holiday is taken up with visiting my family in Dublin and dh's family in Malaysia, so if we live near to my parents then there's a chance we'll have time for proper holidays as we won't be using holiday days to see them.

I checked out the London City Airport website and they don't have any flights to anywhere else in Ireland except Dublin unfortunately.

VeronicaMars, that's interesting about the price forcast. I will have to think about whether that might be an option to buy somewhere small and then upgrade later when we move over.

lol, know what you mean about not wanting to overnight with the parents. does my head in too

i hope you find something reasonable in the end, whoever suggested buying something and renting it has the right idea, at least that way you wouldn't feel to bad either way as it'llbe making you money in the meantime.

(strange about the city flights, my dad used to fly in every friday night and out again on mon morning and he always flew to city. they mustn't have been busy enough)

Something very strange happened yesterday, I was working from home and I got up to close the window and there on the windowsill was the book that KTeePee recommended and that I added to my basket on Amazon (but fortunately hadn't bought yet). I don't know where it came from, but I'm thinking hard about Green&Blacks chocolate and I will be checking the windowsill in a minute.

The author reckons that Ireland is in stage 5 or 6 of a 7 stage house price boom. Stage 7 is a price crash, he seems to think that all that's needed to bring prices down is a trigger to decrease confidence in the housing market, like a rise in interest rates or a price crash in another housing market that Irish residents have invested in (perhaps the current price instability in the USA might trigger it). It's quite an interesting read.

Hi everyone

Am living abroad with property investments back home. We have seen at least a 10 per cent increase annually over the past few years. Property is the one reliable investment. Interest rates have risen scarily in the last few months with two hikes and another predicted before December. Anyone who is not locked into a fixed rate should do so. Especially when starting out so as to be sure of monthly repayment. I doubt very much that house prices will drop. Mortages might just be that bit more expensive.

www.ireland.com/newspaper/property/2006/0928/1158591129810.html

Good news !!!