Low rates fuel sellers' market

A LOT of solicitors burned the midnight oil in the run up to April 5th this year. The usual four-week to six-week deadline for exchange of contracts was squeezed pinto a matter of days as clients pushed to complete investment deals before the tax year ended.

Investors had to close on the deal to avail of tax breaks for the purchase in the 1995/96 tax year.

But even after the deadline, the push goes on, according to estate agents and financial consultants. It seems that any property with a tax incentive attached will sell to the highest bidder.

Part of the boom is due to the low interest rates which have turned the property game into a vendors' market.

The buyers have been builders, doctors, lawyers, accountants.. anyone with a high personal tax bill and access to money, according to Nigel Kingston of Douglas Newman Good. He says yields are around 7 per cent, although some are less depending on the allowance level. The lowest yield from a tax incentive property was recorded in the IFSC, at 4.9 per cent.

The total cost of a new development, less site costs, can be written off against tax, with the bulk of the tax relief in the first one or two years. On a refurbishment or car-park development, 50 per cent of the costs can be offset against tax.

In the case of a consortium, the partners can decide to carve up the tax breaks between them according to their share of the investment, each holding a portion of the property.

In Dublin's Temple Bar Square, sold by Douglas New Good, the State developer, Temple Bar Properties, has to approve the use. The square was sold in five lots to a consortium, with a £45,000 annual lease on a restaurant space, two £10,000 leases and one £15,000 lease on, shops and a £4,000 part-lease on a cafe.

According to Liam Lenihan of Hamilton Osbourne King (HOK), development property with tax incentives is in short supply after the April 5th rush. Outside Dublin, there are two shopping centre developments coming onstream, one in Monaghan and the other in Cavan. The western end of Temple Bar - beyond Parliament Street - should also become available, while the main area is around 85 per cent developed.

However, some consultants believe the buying fever in investment property may result in casualties in the long term.

The former head of property at Irish Life, Bill Nolan, now a property consultant, advises caution.

Many people who aren't very familiar with property can lose sight of the long-term view and overpay for the short-term benefit of a tax relief 10 years later they wake up to the fact that they have a piece of real estate that isn't worth as much as they paid for it."

He doesn't believe the new scarcity of tax incentive property will calm the market. "It will just mean you have 10 people bidding for one property, as opposed to two."

Mr Nolan says most people are attracted by the initial chunk of tax relief in the first few years. Some deals are being made at up to 30 per cent over the odds, he says. He advises buyers to look at a potential purchase in the cold light of its worth as a piece of property, without the added glow of a tax advantage.

"The question you have to ask is, will it make sense without the tax advantages?"

Mr Lenihan argues that some people buy investment property and use the first year's lump sum in tax relief to get loans down to a level where the rental income will pay the interest.

He says he has never seen the market this strong. "People are blinded to some extent by the tax advantages. They tend to forget about the property itself. I have no doubt there's going to be some fallout later on."