Around the Block

Other market stories in brief

Promising start to auction season

It lookslike the auctioneers' strategy of limiting the number of auctions is working, or maybe it's just the spring. Either way, the few auctions that have taken place have been successful, with seven out of 11 auction properties selling either under the hammer or afterwards in the last week. It also looks like the old bugbear of guide prices has gone away, and that the much maligned AMV system is actually working, with auction properties generally making pretty close to their quoted AMVs. It's still early days in the auction season but viewings are extremely high - in the case of one house in Monkstown launched last Thursday there were over 230 parties through it on the Saturday afternoon - and there is a general feeling that, as more properties are sold under the hammer, a bit of confidence will return and inevitably more houses will be going to auction.

Meanwhile the stamp duty debate rumbles on with the Government coming under increasing media pressure to reduce rates across the board, and not just for first-time buyers. It is by no means clear that Bertie or Brian will bow to the pressure in the run up to the general election, though presumably they could alter the tax before waiting for the next Budget at the end of 2007. The issue is not going away but their concern will be to find an alternative revenue stream should they change the stamp duty rate. Meanwhile the Labour party is also playing it cool at the moment, showing reluctance to harden up on its initial suggestion that the capital gains tax should be increased from its present 20 per cent rate.

As everyone knows, this tax has been bringing in substantially more since it was reduced from 40 to 20 per cent by Charlie McCreevy. No-one is likely to upset the delicate balance and go back to the bad old days when half the deal was under the counter to keep the tax man away.

Foreigners opt to rent

Estate agents who had been brushing up on their Polish and Lithuanian vocabularies can relax for the moment now that these overseas workers have virtually stopped buying into new housing developments. Last year, sales to foreign nationals were as high as 25 per cent in some schemes but, with the slowdown in the construction industry and interest rates on the rise, they are content to stay in the rental market. The days of quick capital appreciation are over for the moment so it hardly makes sense for anyone to buy-in for the short term. And with a wealth of rental property out there, the urgency has gone out of the first-time buyer market - even if there are developers willing to pay mortgages for the first six months .

Despite the uncertainty, developers are pushing ahead with their launches and there are sales being notched up in some of the better locations. Last weekend, for instance, over 50 homes were sold at Eden Wood, Cosgrave's development in Delgany.

Big bash outlook bleak

Great gnashing of teeth over the pending sale of the Burlo, Dublin's largest venue for black tie functions. Only two weeks ago the Chartered Surveyors fed salmon or beef to around 1,500 of their members, and every single one of them was quaking at the thought that next year's knees-up will either have to be held in the Mansion House or, worse still, in west Dublin at the City West Hotel. The GAA has already decamped to this outpost, but it won't suit the mohair suit supporters of the Government who knew the Burlo inside out and where to find their friend the Minister for... With the Shelbourne only able to take 350 or so and the Four Seasons little more, the outlook is bleak for the big bashes.

Does U2 Tower stack up?

The U2 Tower has long been promised for the Dublin skyline but people must be wondering if it will ever appear. Pictures of its twisted tower design have become familiar to us so it was a surprise when the Architect's Journal - a UK publication - reported that the BDCH design had been binned. Not true, said the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), who are in the process of selecting developers to build the tower, and develop an adjoining site at Britain Quay. Its shortlist includes Sean Mulryan's Ballymore Properties, Royal BAM Group, Treasury Holdings/Sisk, the River II Partnership and Sean Dunne's Mountbrook Homes which is limbering up for its own high project on Jurys. According to the DDDA, international architects such as Foster and Partners and Rafael Vinoly are among international starchitects involved with these developers but, closer to home, Tony Reddy is rumoured to be running his slide rule over the U2 tower to see if it can stack up.