This is a valid question. I have written about this subject in the past and have pointed out the usual relationship between annual rents and capital value is about 12 – 14 to 1 by international standards. So if rent is €1200 per month the capital value of the house should be €144,000 to €168,000.

Property values taken from the height of the boom are down about 38% in Meath, Louth about 40%, Kildare and Wicklow about 36%, Dublin 50%.

The average asking price nationally in Q2, 2010 is €244,000 ,  36% down on the 2007 peak.

McWilliams instances an average house price of €220,000 at a rent of €863 per month and says that this gives a gross yield of just over 4%. Then calculate the funding costs which will be greater and it shows that it is senseless buying property to let right now.  McWilliams writes that property will have to fall to €135,620 before it will yield a gross 7%, which is reasonable given that government bonds yield about 5%. McWilliams writes that prices will have to fall by another 30% for renters in the commuter areas around Dublin to choose buying over renting.

He says that prices in the central Dublin are getting close to the bottom.

I am not so sure about that.

Advise from Bill is to rent and not buy at present or if you suspect a fire sale offer 30% less and see what happens!

“I’m against the idea of a Fianna Fáil Minister addressing a Béal na mBláth event for Michael Collins. Béal na mBláth is almost the soul of Fine Gael. It’s recognising the sacrifice Michael Collins made for Ireland. It’s the heartland of what Fine Gael stands for,” Dr Twomey said.

“Nothing personal against Brian Lenihan; it’s just what he stands for. He’s a Fianna Fáil Government Minister. I do actually feel quite put out by the fact that a Fianna Fáil Minister is doing the Béal na mBláth ceremony.”

Collins was minister for finance in the first government after the Treaty
was signed and the annual ceremony commemorates his death following an ambush in Béal na mBláth in 1922. Dr Twomey said he grew up “only two parishes away” from Collins’s birthplace at Sam’s Cross.

“The things Michael Collins stood for, not just as a leader in the War of
Independence but also as minister for finance, were transparency,
accountability and taking responsibility for your actions,” Dr Twomey said.

“If there’s one thing you can say about the Fianna Fáil administration, it’s that it doesn’t stand for those principles. It’s the polar opposite of what Fine Gael and Michael Collins stood for.”

Judging by these sentiments, Dr Twomey is a sad relic of times past
fossilised in his prejudices. Has he ever read the 1922 Treaty? What does he think of it?

Ironically, Brian Lenihan’s grandfather was stationed Dundalk,in the Free
State Army in the 1920s. He was a colleague of Charlie Haughey’s father in that same Free State Army. Fianna Fail/Cumann na nGael. Toss the coin Twomey! The Lenihan family are honourable people. “Mammy” is a national institution. The country needs Fine Gael to steer the recovery. I have repeatedly stated that I believe that Brian Lenihan is completely wrong on the banks to disasterous effect. But is he honourable? Yes! I have opposed Fianna Failery since TACA. The problem has been that the electorate thought less of us than Fianna Fail. They have the right to be wrong and we must now perform and prove our competence. Most of the population would hardly know
of the civil war and what it was about. Smell the roses! Stay cool!

Noel Dempsey has been a long time minister (1997) in the current Fianna
Fail regime. He was around when Mary Harney used a helicopter to travel to
a pub opening. He was in Leinster House when Ivor the Driver was motoring
to and from Bantry. He must know about the Senator Larry Butler affaire
regarding the Foxrock and Kilkenny residences of the venerable senator. He
must have known about Dr Reilly’s overnights in town when he lives in North
Dublin.

Leo Varadkar represents the near neighbours of Noel Dempsey in Dublin 15,
yet he travelled to Donegal using a €55 flight to Derry Airport and a lift
the 94 km to Glenties. Dempsey sent his Garda car and driver to Derry
Airport to collect him from the government jet flight from Dublin and
deliver him to Glenties, then back to Derry Airport for a flight to London.
The cost of this was €7800 for the jet. Dempsey had the Garda drive 500 km
in an empty car. Dempsey wasted €166 million on PPARS and dismissed it on
radio. He wasted further millions (about 35) on E-voting machines.
He is dictatorial in his attitudes and even last week was telling his Meath
constituency that the Dunboyne to Navan railway would go ahead even though
it is not listed in the revised infrastructure plan set out last week by
the government.
Dempsey is quoted in the Herald as saying “The meeting (in London) was a
very important one and in this instance it was the best, most
effective and probably the only way I could do it.”
Dempsey never heard of taxis!