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A new consumer monitor shows that 45% of all the properties sold last year were bought with cash or savings. The latest quarterly Consumer Market Monitor, from the Marketing Institute of Ireland and UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, shows that 55,000 homes were purchased in 2018, an increase of 8% on 2017. The monitor […]

Approximately 45pc of all properties sold in 2018 were paid for with cash or savings. This is similar to the level of cash purchases made during the recession years of 2009-2013, when mortgage approvals were at an all-time low. Overall and growth in the property market remained “sluggish” in 2018, despite a high demand for […]

Ireland is spending “hundreds of millions of euros” on preparing for a no-deal Brexit, which would be a “crazy outcome” of three years of EU-UK negotiations, Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said. “We are spending hundreds of millions of euros in Ireland preparing for a no-deal Brexit to try to protect Irish citizens in those circumstances,” […]

Weekend newspaper supplements often quiz somebody reasonably well known about their finances. The answers are often the same: ‘money is not my main motivation, my priorities are my family, friends and employees’ and other assorted fibs. One question that always receives the same answer is about property versus shares. People always say that they much […]

A good friend of mine was caught out by a scam before Christmas. He received a call on his home phone from an individual who claimed to be from Mastercard. The individual told him that a fraudster had got his hands on his debit card and used it to steal money from his account. My […]

Not that long ago a friend sent me a yellowing magazine story about famous Fleet Street editors, with a Post-it note attached saying: “Those were the days.” I saw what she meant as soon as I read about the late Charles Wintour, a former London Evening Standard editor with a flair for the withering memo. […]

POLICY makers across developed economies have struggled to lift wages since the great crash – a big factor in the slow return of inflation. While it suits many employers, it’s seen as one reason overall growth remains dangerously sluggish. Spain’s decision to hike its minimum wage by 22pc, even though unemployment remains high, signals a […]

New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that consumer prices rose by 0.7% in January compared to the same time last year. The CSO said the gain came on the back of higher rents and mortgage interest repayments as well as increases in the price of electricity and gas and higher prices for food […]

Property prices are continuing to rise, but the rate of increase is down indicating a slight cooling down. New figures from the Central Statistics Office show prices were up by 6.5pc nationally in the year to December. This compares with an increase of 7.2pc in the year to November and an increase of 12.1pc in […]

Banks have paid out €647m in redress, compensation and costs to customers caught up in the tracker mortgage controversy, new figures from the Central Bank show. The number of borrowers identified as being affected by the issue had risen by 1,400 since the end of August to 39,800 by the end of December, the bank […]