22 Aug 2009

Mortgage brokers claimed last night that banks and building societies were turning down between 60pc and 80pc of applications for home loans.

Potential house buyers are being refused mortgages because of fears about the security of their jobs and because they have insufficient savings, a survey of members of the Professional Insurance Brokers Association (PIBA) has found.

The research, seen by the Irish Independent, also found that it was taking far longer to close a loan.

However, last night the Irish Banking Federation said that many of those who were being approved for mortgages were showing a reluctance to draw down their loans.

This would indicate that potential first-time buyers were sitting on the fence waiting to see if house prices would fall further.

PIBA’s research shows that mortgage applicants were being turned down because their credit record was impaired or because they were not able to produce enough bank statements.

A lack of savings was cited by lenders as another reason to reject mortgage applications.

Director of mortgage services at PIBA, Rachel Doyle, accused lenders of “cherry picking” the best mortgage applicants.

“The banks have introduced much stricter criteria over the course of the last year. Job security is now scrutinised very carefully with lenders favouring those with secure pensionable jobs.

“Lenders are looking for records of savings, bank statements showing salary credits and disregarding overtime,” she said.

“While we expect lenders to apply prudent lending practices, the reality is that they are now applying excessively cautious criteria.”

A spokesman for the Irish Banking Federation said its members were fully committed to facilitating home ownership.

“Notwithstanding the very challenging environment, six in 10 of all new mortgages issued today are to home purchasers either first-time buyers or movers.”

23 Aug 2009 

RESIDENTIAL property values have fallen by between 40 and 50 per cent from the peak levels they achieved in 2007, according to one of the country’s leading estate agencies.

The figures, drawn up by property firm Hooke and McDonald, emerged last Thursday when lawyers for embattled property tycoon Liam Carroll presented them to the High Court as part of the Zoe Group’s last-ditch effort to secure court protection from creditors.

Valuations prepared for the developer’s companies by both Hooke and McDonald and CBRE revealed the staggering decline in both the residential and commercial property markets over the past two years.

On the residential front, the court was told of Hooke and McDonald’s property valuations expert David Cantwell’s conclusion that prices had already declined by 40 per cent since 2007.

And while Mr Cantwell’s valuation report said the asking prices of Mr Carroll’s apartments “had held up so far” in relation to the prices that had been set for them, he conceded that future sales would be considered at or “within 10 per cent of their asking price”.

Taking that 10 per cent discount into account, Mr Cantwell’s report suggests that residential property prices are already at or near 50 per cent below their 2007 peak.

The decline in commercial property values, meanwhile, continues apace, according to agents CBRE.

Details from their latest valuation report suggest that investment properties have fallen in value by between 10 and 15 per cent since the beginning of this year alone.

Unsurprisingly, development land has fared even worse, and shows a decline of between 15 and 25 per cent since the beginning of 2009.

The court also heard how since CBRE had prepared its first valuation report on behalf of Mr Carroll in December of last year, the timeframe for a predicted recovery in the commercial market had increased from two years to between three and five years.