Northern Ireland

[SSNomadic]

"Would sir like like to invest in our wonderful company. It's called the South Sea Company and we are very very rich!"

Scroll forward several hundred years ...

"You've got to buy one of the luxury executive lifestyle appartamentos in the Titanic Quarter ... only the richest, most exclusive people will be able to live there"

Surprised me too! If I could be arsed I do an update ... but I can't be arsed. Someone needs to take me out with a pen a some paper and buy me pints all day while I spill forth

The luxury apartments sector actually appears to be holding up quite well, with lesser reductions than the majority of other property types.

I still remain optomisitic about the Titanic Quarter and have it on good authority that the development plans for further retail/office space are scheduled to go ahead as planned.

By 2012 and to the long term, i think once this largest waterfront development in Europe has completed and bedded in it will be seen as a huge success story for Belfast.

[subby]

The luxury apartments sector actually appears to be holding up quite well, with lesser reductions than the majority of other property types.

I still remain optomisitic about the Titanic Quarter and have it on good authority that the development plans for further retail/office space are scheduled to go ahead as planned.

By 2012 and to the long term, i think once this largest waterfront development in Europe has completed and bedded in it will be seen as a huge success story for Belfast.

my own theory is that it'll lie 1/2 empty till prices drop further which will then draw, and pardon my apparent Eliteism here, families from the more ...err.....socially disadvantaged areas, in.

anyone think that will be the case or will we have an uber elite living there with KEEP OUT signs for anyong not earning over 25k a year??? (tongue in cheek)

[FrustratedFTB]

my own theory is that it'll lie 1/2 empty till prices drop further which will then draw, and pardon my apparent Eliteism here, families from the more ...err.....socially disadvantaged areas, in.

anyone think that will be the case or will we have an uber elite living there with KEEP OUT signs for anyong not earning over 25k a year??? (tongue in cheek)

Well according to Newsline the new Belfast Tech building will be delayed an extra year to 2011 due to financial problems.

[nemesis]

The luxury apartments sector actually appears to be holding up quite well, with lesser reductions than the majority of other property types.

I still remain optomisitic about the Titanic Quarter and have it on good authority that the development plans for further retail/office space are scheduled to go ahead as planned.

By 2012 and to the long term, i think once this largest waterfront development in Europe has completed and bedded in it will be seen as a huge success story for Belfast.

Early, early days! There is no logical reason why these flats should hold their price in the medium term if you could buy a much more substantial and priced reduced property a few miles away - with a bit of grass and somewhere to park the car. When the speculators have been exhausted and disappear it's hard to envisage much of a market remaining. Apartment developments don't seem to be holding up well in other UK cities - what's so special about Belfast?

I remember the experience of a friend who bought a "studio" in Norwich in 1988 - it dropped in value by about 60% over the next 2 years and he still couldn't sell it.

Different this time? Different over here? I doubt it!

[Belfast Boy]

Love the new avatar sophia. An enigmatic beauty!

[azogar]

remember the days when we used to migrate here for our daily dose of sanity in the face of overwhelming opinion to the contrary?

[JoeDavola]

remember the days when we used to migrate here for our daily dose of sanity in the face of overwhelming opinion to the contrary?

I was having the exact same thought 5 mins ago, was gonna take a look at some posts from a a year or two back for a dose of nostalgia.

Edited October 2, 2008 by JoeDavola

[Belfast Boy]

Guy at work said to me yesterday, "We used to laugh at you, but you were right."

People are now asking me about bank safety and savings limits.

The surprising thing now, is that I'm getting the occasional snide remark from people I tried to warn about what was going to happen

Edited October 2, 2008 by Belfast Boy

[cacot]

Guy at work said to me yeaterday, "We used to laugh at you, but you were right."

People are now asking me about bank safety and savings limits.

The surprising thing now, is that I'm getting the occasional snide remark from people I tried to warn about what was going to happen

I get the same! I used to get the same snide remarks.

I stopped them all the other day by saying "Think about 6 years from now when your kids can AFFORD a house, I never wanted to be a property tycoon I just wanted to have the same chance as they had to get a house at an AFFORDABLE price. I have not profited from the situation, the situation has just come back into line."

[subby]

Guy at work said to me yesterday, "We used to laugh at you, but you were right."

People are now asking me about bank safety and savings limits.

The surprising thing now, is that I'm getting the occasional snide remark from people I tried to warn about what was going to happen

just got this PM in a football forum I'm on....same as you BB

Hi mate,

Didn't want to keep throwing my very same question in to a thread where it isn't massively related but wondered if I could pick your brain on the currency exchange business.

I read this morning that the pound will briefly move to around 1.85+ to the dollar but then fall like crazy after that down to possibly 1.5. Does this sound right to you and if I am planning on going to the states in Dec/Jan would it be wise to grab some currency now?

Sorry to be a pain.

Cheers,

Max

so I went from being laughed at to people asking me about oil prices, stocks, CDS etc....

[Vespasian]

FTSE down 6.7%

This is getting very significant. House prices are so screwed

[pootle]

FTSE down 6.7%

This is getting very significant. House prices are so screwed

Ha! Keep up!

FTSE 100

4,589.67

-390.58 (-7.84%)

And dropping - that figure is 15 min delayed. Rumour is that it is currently down over 8%

EDIT:

4,568.10

-412.15 (-8.28%)

Edited October 6, 2008 by crash_bang_wallop

[azogar]

real time

http://www.igindex.co.uk/

[Malthus]

FTSE down 6.7%

This is getting very significant. House prices are so screwed

ISEQ down 9.47%

[Smash Reckitt]

Think this one is just on the market.

http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?p=PWCPWC1431

For me, this type of house coming on at this price is significant. Admittedly, it's one bed (which is weird because I thought these houses were 2 bed as standard), but at peak these east Belfast terraces were commanding 150k easily, close to 200k in some cases. The whole lower Cregagh/Castlereagh area was BTL mecca, and even rough "do-up" jobs were going for big money.

It'll be very interesting to see where the prices end up in this area, where investors represented a sizeable chunk, dare I say it, the majority of purchasing activity during the boom. Without that propping the market up, I think prices could go very low indeed.

[pod]

It's more or less at RV too.

[talksalot81]

I wonder do the 'powers that be' know that the roofspace has been used for living area!?

[Malthus]

http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?r...=1&sort=h2l

picked up this new entry with property bee.

looks like the day of the £200k+ 3 bed semi is long gone

[JoeDavola]

looks like the day of the £200k+ 3 bed semi is long gone

I remember at the peak, semi's in our street were apparently 'worth' over £300k. (bear in mind my parents bought the house 10 years ago for £80K)

As for that house, I think £100K is a fairly generous offer, since it doesn't look like that big a semi; they should accept that offer IMHO.

At the peak, the likes of this house would have been on at the best part of £300K; now it's listed at £150K:

http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?r...=1&sort=h2l

I wouldn't be surprised if it sells fairly quickly. Wonder how long it will take for most semi's in Belfast to be around the £150K mark - another year perhaps?

Edited October 20, 2008 by JoeDavola

[subby]

do you really see prices dropping as much over the next 12 months mate? this time mext year will things still be dropping or leveling off???

[Traktion]

There was 30% off this year, so I can imagine at least another 10-15% off next year, if not 20%.

This thing is unravelling at scary speed if you ask me!

[BelfastVI]

There was 30% off this year, so I can imagine at least another 10-15% off next year, if not 20%.

This thing is unravelling at scary speed if you ask me!

I agree, most of the drops have been in the new-build sector. Whilst we are starting to see drops in the resale (which represent 60%) of the market the majority of drops in that sector have yet to come. Will they drop as much as the newbuild?

[paul65]

There was 30% off this year, so I can imagine at least another 10-15% off next year, if not 20%.

This thing is unravelling at scary speed if you ask me!

I agree Traktion the speed is fast and lets face it if a conservative estimate shows that prices went up 80% over the last 2 years then the 30% drop we have seen recently has already wiped off a 50% increase on the way up. An extra 15% drop on top of that 30% drop will then have effectively killed off the entire 80% increase on the way up. We could be back to 2005 prices very quickly indeed and lots of homes purchased between '05 and summer '07 will be in negative equity positions (on paper at least). The EA market may get a lot tighter still if diminishing transaction volume occurs.

Edited October 21, 2008 by paul65

[JoeDavola]

do you really see prices dropping as much over the next 12 months mate? this time mext year will things still be dropping or leveling off???

Well in all honesty I have no idea - but I have seen plenty of semi's in East Belfast starting to approach the £150K mark, so I will say that over the next year, at the very least, there will be a big increase in 3 bed semi's available in Belfast for around £150K.

On propertynews if I search for 3 bed semi's in East Belfast for under £170K I get 49 houses returned. I'll do that same search same time next year and see what happens - someone remember to remind me on 21 October 2009!

Edited October 21, 2008 by JoeDavola

[Jacko79]

At least the rental market is in fine form -

4 Bedroom house in the middle of Rental Market Heaven, no sweat - right?

£800 a month anyone? http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?r...=1&sort=h2l

Oh, ok then - £700? http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?r...=1&sort=h2l

What!! Ok, surely £580?? http://www.propertynews.com/brochure.php?r...=1&sort=h2l

I have noticed properties in this area not renting, sitting on the market for months on end, some with multiple EA signs on them, some with For Sale and To Lets on the same house.

There must be a good few investors out there unable to rent or sell their property, and it losing a few hundred pounds a DAY!!!! Almost makes you shed a tear for them:)