From property porn to property taboo

[watch-this-drive]

I know there have been many threads on house prices before but this is slightly different...

how nasty could the Cetic Cubs get in a property/slump/crash/panic?
could a degree of censorship emerge? or something worse?

askaboutmoney.com had a thread debating the sentiment of the property market - it has had 480,000 views and 8,058 posts, it had also got coverage in traditional media. Lots of posters started mentioning price falls in their area with archived webpages, basically was for sale at 650,000 (click here is see history) is now for sale for 570,000 (click here)

A couple of days after the website started accepting 'donations' 'by popular demand' they locked the thread and banned posters who listed price drops.
I think someone got very upset with the exposure.

Are we seeing a new Celtic Taboo emerging? Don't mention the price drop?

[David Cochrane]

any links or evidence to prove this is the case?

[watch-this-drive]

Yes, the best background about 'dontaskaboutmoneygate' is
here
and here

[kerrynorth]

any links or evidence to prove this is the case?

This is definitiely the type of thing that you should be highlighting in the Newstalk slot tonight David!

[kerrynorth]

I know there have been many threads on house prices before but this is slightly different...

how could the Cetic Cubs get in a property/slump/crash/panic?
could a degree of censorship emerge? or something worse?

askaboutmoney.com had a thread debating the sentiment of the property market - it has had 480,000 views and 8,058 posts, it had also got coverage in traditional media. Lots of posters started mentioning price falls in their area with archived webpages, basically was for sale at 650,000 (click here is see history) is now for sale for 570,000 (click here)

A couple of days after the website started accepting 'donations' 'by popular demand' they locked the thread and banned posters who listed price drops.
I think someone got very upset with the exposure.

Are we seeing a new Celtic Taboo emerging? Don't mention the price drop?

I highlighted the possibility of this happening in a previous thread. Such are the vested interests in the property market at present that this was always likely to occur. For example the newspapers are very heavily dependant on property advertising for their strong revenues in the light of the migration of much advertising to the net. Accordingly, there is a symbiotic relationship between property interests and advertising so do not expect the papers to be bringing this to the fore. Remember the slump in the property market after the tech collapse, it nearly brought down the Irish Times which had bloated its cost base on the basis of property advertising.

Also, you may also note how all of the research indicies on property values including the ESRI etc are tied in with financial institutions. The term he how pays the piper calls the tune comes to mind!

A number of us on p.ie have been reporting what we saw as anecdotal trends for some months that have only been getting a modicum of exposure in the mainstream media only in the last month.

Do not underestimate the extent and depth of the vested interests in keeping this party going irrespective of the consequences. One-third of all government revenues are dependant on the property sector!

[Inishowen]

On Q and A last night David McWilliams made the assertion that 1 in 6 houses in the state were empty. This went unchallenged. Is it true? Are they all holiday homes?

[Eddiepops]

any links or evidence to prove this is the case?

This is definitiely the type of thing that you should be highlighting in the Newstalk slot tonight David!

Seconded!

[kerrynorth]

On Q and A last night David McWilliams made the assertion that 1 in 6 houses in the state were empty. This went unchallenged. Is it true? Are they all holiday homes?

This is correct. It came out of the census earlier this year that 16% of dwellings were unoccupied. The figure for the UK is just 3%. They have holiday homes in the UK just as we do so this cannot be the answer and arguably you will find a greater proportion more people with both city and country residences in the UK than in Ireland. The explaination lies in apartments etc. being left vacant for pure property speculation on capital values rather than for long-term investment reasons where there is an undelining economic rationale on the basis of rental values. This can be evidenced by the fact that in the Dublin region rents do not even come close to meeting the mortgage costs on the property. A clear sign of a distorted market where investors are willing to accept annual actual losses on the presumption of notional capital value gains!

[Ponzi]

Interesting that the National Association of Realtors in the US are running a $40 million campaign at the moment in an attempt to reflate the US housing bubble. I wonder if Irish estate agents will put their money where their mouths are and shell out for an advertising push in order to sucker some more unfortunates into the market?

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/roubini/155898/

[rockofcashel]

same basis on which SF and to a lesser extent the Greens get called financial illiterates/communists/anarchists in the press by "respected" economists, such as Jim Power etc..

What else are they going to say about the only parties that arent beholden to the banks .. just as they are.

If you can't beat them, frighten them. The terrible thing is, the longer you wait, the worse the dose of medicine that will eventually be needed