^{Grand Canal, Dublin [photo credits to infomatique]}

If the Emperor Napoleon was alive today (but hopefully not planning an invasion) he might describe the Irish as ‘a nation of property investors’ both at home and abroad. Now that the outlook for residential investment is dimming somewhat, both nationally and internationally, a lot of questions remain about Irish property investment. Will there be a bust and, if so, how long for? Will better value at home mean Irish capital invested overseas in property being repatriated? Is there a ‘whole of Ireland’ market for residential real estate and are types of property or parts of the country still offering alluring opportunities?

As far as the Republic is concerned, there certainly seem to be most of the ingredients for a serious downturn in residential property prices, chiefly very substantial increases in property prices over the last 10 years (the average price of a new house rose from €87,202 in 1996 to €305,637 in 2006) and a substantial oversupply of housing. Out of the country’s housing stock of 1.77m dwellings, 216,000 (12.2%) are unoccupied and this figure doesn’t include the Republic’s 50,000 holiday homes.
Read the rest of this entry »