A year of two halves marks "watershed" in the market

The first year of the new millennium marked a "watershed" in the Irish property market, according to a nationwide survey by the Irish Auctioneers & Valuers Institute. In what IAVI chief executive Alan Cooke calls "a year of two halves", a marked slowdown in the residential property market followed the third Bacon report and subsequent Government measures in June. The lowest percentage increases in house prices since 1995 was recorded in the past 12 months by many of the IAVI's member firms. Mr Cooke says "a great degree of uncertainty" has been caused by Government anti-investor measures and the social and affordable housing provision of the Planning and Development Act 2000. There is also evidence that banks are "tightening the level of finance available to fund development projects". A number of apartment schemes have already been refused finance, says Mr Cooke.