State should buy surplus for social housing needs

WITH THE DREADED "R" word now scaring the hell out of the country, more and more people are looking to the Government to come up with some answers.

One solution being trotted out - yet again - is the issue of stamp duty.

This red herring shouldn't play centre stage because the reality is that the problem is more deeply rooted and won't be solved by anther cut in the rate.

The house building industry is in a state of collapse, with buyers having been frightened off and in no mood to take ever higher mortgages, even were the banks ready to cough up (which they're not).

If the new Taoiseach wants to tackle problems in the construction industry, he could ask the Affordable Homes Partnership to simply buy up the large number of apartments overhanging the Dublin market.

With 13,500 people queuing to avail of the affordable housing scheme in Dublin city and county, there are clearly plenty of buyers out there.

All they need is a nod from the Minister for Finance that they will take up the slack in the Dublin new homes market.

Surely it would be better to have these units sold, occupied and lit up at night, rather than lying empty and terrifying the life out of the builders, not to mention the bankers that financed them.

Those looking for homes under the scheme can now log onto a new website - www.affordablehome.ie - to find information on homes all over the country.

Interestingly, the site is also translated into Polish, Lithuanian and Chinese, as well as Irish.

Although with Poles rushing off to London to cash in on the Olympic build, they may not be too interested in making a commitment to a home here.

Penny's dropped on prices

NEW FIGURES ON falling house prices published yesterday by Permanent/TSB don't tell the full story.

The index shows that prices fell in May by 1.2 per cent, and by 4.4 per cent in the first five months of 2008. The 12-month figure is down 9.5 per cent.

So how to explain the real price reductions that are being seen in some of Dublin's swankier neighbourhoods? Some asking prices are back between 30 per cent and 40 per cent, simply because the properties were overvalued from the start.

Last autumn and this spring, vendors were still holding out for 2006-2007 prices, whereas they should have been looking back to 2005 and even 2004 for a more realistic valuation. The penny is now dropping and owners anxious to offload are instructing agents to get them a sale, even at drastically reduced prices.

Society misses the premium price boat on Shrewsbury

THE IRISH Pharmaceutical Society may have missed the boat in getting a premium price for its offices on Shrewsbury Road - a fine Edwardian pile on just over 0.8 of an acre. Several agents have been asked to tender for the sale with the society hoping to net over €20 million for it, and another building on Northumberland Road, also in Ballsbridge.

At least the society has divested itself of one feature of the Shrewsbury Road property - a radioactive generator that was once stored in a shed out the back and used at one stage by the pharmaceutical department of Trinity College to conduct experiments using the radioactive isotope caesium 137 (presumably without the knowledge of their touchy neighbours!).

The tar barrel-sized generator was quietly removed in 2001 and taken away to Leipzig in east Germany.

Some viewers may wish to bring along a Geiger counter when exploring the property.

Piles of value to be had down the country

ANYONE LUCKY enough to have sold a Dublin house and banked the money, could do worse than pick up a copy of Colliers Jackson-Stops latest country property brochure. It's a hefty one, full of big period piles, many of them in mint condition.

You can get a castle - Belvelly Castle - in Cork for less that the price of a two-bed apartment in town but doubtless there is a bit of work to be done on the 15th century four-storey tower house at the entrance to Cork harbour. It's asking €375,000.

If you need more space there is always the Ballyknockane sporting estate in Co Tipperary with no less than 4,250 acres on Slievenamon mountains. It once belonged to the Duke of Ormond.

In Offaly there's also the 9,000sq ft Georgian castellated house, Busherstown at Moneygall, on over 10 acres for €1.5 million.

In the same general part of the country there is also the stunning Ballyneale House (left) in Ballingarry, Co Limerick. The Georgian house comes with a manager's house, heated swimming pool, all weather tennis court and fishing lodge with well stocked carp lake and a 900-metre grass landing strip, plus a nine-hole golf course. The price is a mere €8 million.

Aldi checks out the apartment market

GERMANS ARE usually known for their good timing, but Aldi must surely be regretting their late entry into the property development game.

The discount store has just secured planning permission to build 107 apartments beside a new store in Balbriggan, Co Dublin.

Fingal County Council has granted permission for the apartments along with 4,542sq m (48,890sq ft) of office space and four smaller retail units on a 2.5-hectare site, which stretches from Clonard Hill Road to the cemetery at Naul Road.

That said, Aldi is not the only food multinational breaking into the property game.

Supermarket giant Tesco is behind a number of significant residential schemes in the UK. It has plans for close to 981 homes and a store in Woolwich, 900 student flats and 300 homes in Glasgow, and proposals for a new 8,000-home town at Hinxton Grange, just off the A11 in Cambridgeshire.

The thinking is: if you are going to expand your chain, why not pick undeveloped land and build a captive audience around your store.

Libeskind packs them in at NCH

SELL-OUT GIGS are no longer the preserve of boybands. International architects are able to pack 'em in too.

Some 1,200 architecture fans were expected at the National Concert Hall last night to hear words of wisdom from starchitect Daniel Libeskind - the man behind the new diamond-shaped 2,000-seater theatre which is taking shape in the south Dublin docklands.

ON THE MOVE

IN A MONTH when job cuts in estate agencies made headlines, three women in Dungarvan have taken the brave step to open a new estate agency.

Flavin McCarthy Walsh, an all female estate agency, has opened for business at 36 Mary Street in Dungarvan.

All three directors - Samantha Flavin, Sinead McCarthy and Miriam Walsh - have worked in the auctioneering business in Waterford and Dublin, and between them have 22 years of experience.