€400,000 For A 3-bed Apartment In O’Devanney Gardens
Fiona Reddan of The Irish Times has the story here
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Affordable Homes Scheme – Affordable For Who?
Mortgage Switch Savings Could Reach €3,400 A Year
Inertia-
Thousands of homeowners are needlessly overpaying their banks because of their failure to switch mortgage lender.
Consumers ‘becoming more aware’: Mortgage switching expert Martina Hennessy, managing director of Doddl.ie. Charlie Weston Irish Times
Thousands of homeowners are needlessly overpaying their banks because of their failure to switch mortgage lender. The cost to the average mortgage holder has now reached €3,400 a year – a rise of almost €900 since a year ago.
The Irish Independent Mortgage Switcher Index calculated the potential savings, based on the spread between the highest and lowest interest rate on the market. It found that the gap between the current available rates has grown to 2.2pc.
Over a month, this amounts to a saving of €281 for the average home mortgage, according to the index produced by switching platform Doddl.ie.
There is a golden opportunity to switch as homeowners have risen out of negative equity, so common during the recession, while Central Bank rules have made switching easier. Some banks are even offering cash lump sums to switchers.
Switching rates has increased lately but many homeowners are still reluctant to move their mortgage to a different lender.
Some are unaware they can switch, with others fearful something will go wrong.
But experts said the reluctance to switch was costing homeowners dearly.
The Mortgage Switcher Index highlights the huge difference between the lowest and highest interest rates on the market.
Variable rates as high as 4.5pc are being charged to homeowners, but rates as low as 2.3pc are available.
Discounted mortgage rates have been ignored by the experts who compiled the index.
The managing director of Doddl.ie, Martina Hennessy, said a typical homeowner on a 25-year mortgage is paying €1,335 a month.
This same homeowner could cut their monthly repayments to €1,054 by switching. This would give an annual saving of €3,372 a year – which is about the same as the average monthly salary for an Irish worker.
For a family with a larger mortgage of €300,000, annual savings of €4,200 can be made.
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The rate of mortgage switching has more than trebled in the past four years, Ms Hennessy said. But she added that thousands more homeowners could benefit from making the move.
She said just 5pc of mortgage loans at the end of 2015 were switched. This had jumped to 14pc at the end of last year.
“Consumers are becoming more aware that switching can save them money, mainly thanks to Central Bank requirements on lenders to make mortgage switching easier,” said Ms Hennessy.
She added that property values have increased. This means loan-to-value ratios have gone down, also making it easier to switch.
Many lenders have tiered rates, with lower interest charged for those with lower loan to values. And many banks provide a lump sum amount to help defray the cost of the switching, such as conveyancing fees. The banks call these switcher packs.
“These switcher packages range from value €1,650 to up to 3pc of the mortgage amount outstanding back in cash. “The
easier it becomes to switch, the more people will realise that they are not
tied to one financial institution if there are better rates on the
market,” Ms Hennessy said.
The launch of the new switching index comes at a time when banks are continuing to cut their mortgage rates. Permanent TSB became the latest to give borrowers a break. It has reduced its fixed rates for new customers and those switching to it.
Ulster Bank this month reduced some of its mortgage rates, ICS Mortgages launched into the residential market, with some of the lowest rates, and KBC last month cut its rates.
It comes as the European Central Bank piled pressure on banks in the eurozone to lend more to homebuyers after it reduced the interest rate it pays banks that deposit money with it.
This is a way to force banks to lend more, instead of depositing money with the ECB.
Moving into your first place? Here’s what is worth investing in… and what’s not
- by LAUREN HESKIN In IMAGE Magazine
Reproduced here by Caden Grimes Estates
Don’t go completely wild when you first find you need to fill your new home. There are some interiors items worth investing in and some items you can hold off on until you’re in your forever home.
When you first get your own place, you might be tempted to totally lose the run of yourself and your tiny pencil in Ikea, and finally get to snap up all the interiors pieces you’ve been drooling over. However, it can also get overwhelming just how much you needto buy. A bath mat, dishes, cutlery, furniture for every room, cleaning things, cushions, bedsheets, light fixtures and bulbs… It’s a lot.
Knowing what to invest in and when can be tricky, so have your thinking cap on when it comes to interiors shopping. You might love that expensive and beautiful dinner set, but can you afford to buy eight of each and do you have a place to put them? If not, it’ll be impossible to buy more when you eventually need them and, unless they’re neutral, you’ll be looking at mismatched plates for years to come.
However, there are some things that are worth spending your money on now and will see you through for years (and house moves) to come. Here’s our round-up of what you should invest in now, and what you should wait to buy later.
Invest in: A good armchair
Cube Bordeaux Chair, €529, Woo .Design
Whether your place is a shoebox and only has room for one piece of furniture and triple-jobs as lounging seat, desk chair and dinner table pull-in, or you have slightly more room, buying a gorgeous armchair will see you through numerous moves.
If you buy a small one it’ll work great as a bedroom or nursery chair in later years and it’s guaranteed to be the first thing you move in every place after this. That, and the kettle.
Don’t invest in: A sofa
Styles, room and requirements will change between this home and the next. Right now you might want that plush pale two-seater sofa, whereas next time you might want something that’ll hide stains and sticky fingerprints and one you can properly stretch out on. This isn’t to say you should buy a cheap one, we desperately need to move away from the current throwaway culture and that goes for small things like plastic toothbrushes to chunks difficult-to-recycle couches. Hunt through charity shops, ask your parents and family friends, check DoneDeal and Facebook sites. You’re bound to find out that, maybe you don’t love, but you can definitely tolerate.
Invest in: A luxury throw
Beyond Darkness blanket by Wild Cocoon, €350, Irish Design Shop
Remember that sofa you’re tolerating? A snug throw can cover all manner of sins, from a simple white Ikea throw to cover up a shabby chair or a beautiful blanket that you cuddle into every time you sit down. Being skint in your first place isn’t meant to be all hardship. Treat yourself to the small things and you’ll suddenly find that next time you look at that second-hand sofa, all you’ll see is your favourite blanket.
Don’t invest in: A rug
You should buy a rug for a room and it should neatly fit the shape and colouring of that space. A good rug is also worthy of investment, anyone who has been spent a few months hoovering up escaped threads from a cheap one will know why.
It’s simply not worth buying a rug unless you’re going to stay for the lifespan of that rug, otherwise, you’ll just be dragging it from room to room of your next home and finding it just doesn’t “work”.
Invest in: A good duvet
Via Ikea
My mother bought me a kingsize down feather duvet when I first moved out. At the time I thought she was being ridiculous (she bought in TK Maxx but still, they are not cheap) but I have thanked her for it a thousand times since. Unless you’re sleeping in a single bed or superking, a kingsize duvet will never be too big and it means that you can just buy kingsize sheets. It’ll stop a build-up of double, queen and king-sized sheets in your cupboard, keeping you on the straight and narrow from the get-go.
Invest a large, top-quality duvet and you will be patting yourself on the back every time you clamber into bed after a long day.
Don’t invest in: A bedframe
A divan will do for now or a good charity shop find will do for now. Your bedroom style will change and shift, as will the size of your bed probably, so don’t buy the dream bed frame in a double, only to have to relegate it to the spare bedroom in five years’ time.
Dublin costliest city in euro zone because of high rents
Fears are growing that expenses such as high rents could deter multinationals from locating in Dublin, as these costs make it more expensive for organisations to move managers to the city to oversee these investments.
From Barry O’Halloran
Dublin’s high rents make the city the costliest in the euro zone, a survey published on Wednesday says.
The Republic’s capital has fallen 11 places to number 43 in an annual cost of living study of the world’s cities by pay and pensions specialist Mercer, which advises businesses when they want to move workers from one country to another.
The figures show that Dublin remains the most expensive city in the euro zone in which to live, ahead of Milan in Italy at 45 and French capital Paris at 47.
Noel O’Connor, senior consultant at Mercer’s Irish operation, blamed high rents, a consequence of the Republic’s housing crisis, for making Dublin an expensive place to live.
“High demand coupled with supply constraints in the private rental market mean that expatriates may face serious problems finding appropriate accommodation, often the biggest cost for companies placing employees on assignment,” Mr O’Connor warned.
Multinationals
Fears are growing that expenses such as high rents could deter multinationals from locating in Dublin, as these costs make it more expensive for organisations to move managers to the city to oversee these investments.
The cost of living survey uses New York as its base city. Its calculations take everyday expenses including rent, the cost of a cup of coffee, cinema tickets and buying a pair of jeans into account. Mercer surveyed more than 200 cities around the world in March.
Hong Kong topped the rankings this year, followed by Tokyo in Japan at number two, Singapore at three and South Korea’s capital Seoul at four. Zurich in Switzerland was Europe’s most expensive city at number five. Belfast came in at number 158.
Mr O’Connor noted that the euro’s fall against the dollar made living in the euro zone cheaper, but within the single currency region costs remained relatively the same as in 2018.
He suggested that Dublin could cut the cost of living by expanding the number of homes available to rent. “Nevertheless, Dublin remains an attractive location for multinational organisations,” he said.
Other expensive western European cities included Switzerland’s Bern at 12 and Geneva at 13, Copenhagen in Denmark at 20 and British capital London at 23.
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