News

Business leaders within the construction industry see the establishment of a new State Housing Bank as the preferred solution to the housing crisis, a new survey has shown. According to the latest PwC Construction Industry Survey, 44pc of those quizzed see the establishment of the bank as the most popular corrective action. The proposed bank […]

Tax officials have written to thousands of homeowners who failed to pay their property tax this year. The warning letters have been sent to 290,000 homeowners, with many of those who fail to respond set to have the tax forcibly taken from their salaries and pensions. Just 90pc of homeowners paid the tax on time. […]

Local councils will be sidelined in a new move to speed up house-building nationwide and tackle the country’s housing crisis. Housing Minister Simon Coveney will set up a new Special Delivery Unit in the department, with project managers appointed to drive specific house building projects from start to finish. He is also considering further bypassing […]

The German economy had a decent start to the second quarter but its growth pace is likely to slow during the course of the April-June period, the economy ministry said on Friday. Europe’s largest economy was on a solid growth path, the ministry said in its monthly report, but the external environment remained tough and […]

IT is getting much more difficult to sell Irish loan portfolios to international investors as interest in the country wanes, according to one of the most important figures in the property industry. Cushman & Wakefield head of European loan sales Federico Montero, said the market was “getting tougher and tougher” to sell Nama portfolios. “Nama […]

BANK of Ireland is to hold firm and resist attempts to cut its variable rate. But AIB will reduce its variable rates to 3pc for all customers, while Permanent TSB will cut its rate to the same level for new customers. There will be a reduction in the Permanent TSB manged variable rate, where existing […]

THE cost of insuring cars and commercial vehicles has gone up again. Motor insurance premium rates were 35.2pc higher in May compared with the same month last year. The figures, which have been just released from the Central Statistics Office, also show the cost of petrol and diesel rising in the month. And other insurance […]

Oil prices rose for a third day to hit their highest in about eight months on Wednesday, boosted by industry data showing a larger-than-expected drawdown in US crude inventories, worries about attacks on Nigeria’s oil industry and strong Chinese demand for oil. London Brent crude for August delivery LCOc1 was up 2c at $51.46 a […]

The Government will potentially sell shares in both AIB and Bank of Ireland next year, specialist bank Investec has said. Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said the sale of no more than 25pc of AIB will take place next year, but there are no plans as yet for the Government to sell down its 14pc […]

The Government will need an extra €6bn over the next five years just to maintain current spending needs, the State’s budgetary watchdog has said. That’s over half the projected amount of money the Government has estimated is available for extra spending out to 2021. Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said the amount of leeway the […]