House market to shrug off rise

THE half per cent interest rate rise is unlikely to have a significant effect on the booming Dublin property market because borrowers have already built in to their calculations the prospect of fluctuation in the run up to EMU, several leading estate agents believe.

"Interest rates are still historically low and, if you compare them to the almost 15 per cent they reached in 1992, they are very low. Also, the rate increase is not the result of economic factors; it is a reaction of the Central Bank to speculation, so I can't see it having a huge impact," said Ms Marian Finnegan, an economist with Sherry FitzGerald.

Currency speculation and even a run at the pound by traders had already been built into the property market, she added, although most observers had not expected fluctuation before the last few months of 1997 and the start of 1998.

Mr Peter Stapleton, a director of Lisney, said that, while there could be an almost imperceptible cooling-off period, there would be little long-term effect.

Mr Ken MacDonald, the managing director of Hooke & MacDonald, a company that specialises in new houses, agreed that the increase would not dampen the demand for housing, especially in the Dublin area. "It won't change the root of the problem."

The half-point rise on a £40,000 mortgage over 20 years would add about £12 to the monthly repayment. On a £60,000 mortgage it would add around £18 a month.