Below is a catch-up on the stories that caught my attention earlier in the week, together with some of the industry stories from across the broadsheets today (and The Examiner yesterday, which had not one, but two great property supplements!). For property businesses in Ireland, The Sunday Times is the newspaper to pick today as there is an important look at data and GDPR compliance in the property section, Move.
As always, you might let me know if I have missed out on any relevant property news by emailing carol@caroltallon.com.
(Apologies in advance for any typos, it’s difficult to get good help on a Sunday!)
Sunday Read
As regular readers will know, I am a strong proponent of industry innovation, alternative forms of housing and, in particular, the tiny house movement. I understand that this is not a form of housing that will satisfy the needs of every one for every stage of their lives, however, I genuinely believe that we need to look towards credible, short and medium terms solutions as part of tackling Ireland’s housing crisis. I came across this prototype in Birmingham and was intrigued:
3 Storey House Built on Equivalent Perimeter of a Standard Parking Space on Display in Birmingham City, UK and Valued at £170k:
A very tiny house designed by a Finnish architect and put on display in Birmingham, UK, has been given a notional value of £170,000 by a local realtor.
The three-story “Tikku House”, designed by Marco Casagrande and unveiled last year at Helsinki Design Week, was set up in the city’s Brindleyplace last week on 5 April as part of a publicity campaign by a Finnish car-busting transportation app called Whim.
At just 5m long by 2.5m wide, the house could almost fit on a standard British parking space (4.8m x 2.4m), the idea being to move people into city spaces now occupied by private cars.
Read more: bit.ly/2JUYT0A
Trending Property Story
The new Residential Tenancies Bill was approved by the Cabinet earlier this week. This Bill proposes a whole host of new measures designed to dampen rent price increases and to increase protections for tenants (only, not landlords it would appear…). If it passes through the Oireachtas, it will bestow new investigative powers for the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) and provide for potential criminal sanctions for landlords in breach of regulations. Here is a snapshot of the media reporting on this:
- Revealed: The new rent register plan to expose rip-off landlords
- Rental body gets teeth – but are they sharp enough?
Those on both sides of debate have their say as laws governing sector to change again
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/rental-body-gets-teeth-but-are-they-sharp-enough-1.3464837
- Landlords who raise rents by more than the allowed limit will face criminal charges under planned new laws – Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy today secured Cabinet approval to publish the general scheme of the new Residential Tenancies Bill.
http://www.thejournal.ie/housing-3-3962388-Apr2018/
Other property news
- Over three-quarters of all social housing delivery this year is set to come from the private sector- Social Housing Delivery Targets for Local Authorities commit to providing an additional 50,000 social housing homes by the end of 2021: http://www.thejournal.ie/housing-4-3965798-Apr2018/
- Builders warn of skills shortage after increase in house building – Irish construction activity continued to expand at brisk pace in March, figures show: https://www-irishtimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.irishtimes.com/business/construction/builders-warn-of-skills-shortage-after-increase-in-house-building-1.3462528?mode=amp
- Known unknowns: how many houses are we really building? Cantillon: We need an accurate measure of housing output if we are to address crisis: https://www-irishtimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/known-unknowns-how-many-houses-are-we-really-building-1.3461066?mode=amp
- Developers exorcise the ghost estates of the past: https://amp-independent-ie.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/amp.independent.ie/business/commercial-property/developers-exorcise-the-ghost-estates-of-the-past-36820192.html
- Former Jacob’s owner Michael Carey nominated to replace Conor Skehan as chair of the Housing Agency – Murphy has nominated Michael Carey, the former chair of Bord Bia who has extensive experience overseeing state bodies: http://www.thejournal.ie/housing-agency-chair-3964440-Apr2018/
- Regulator approves €95m sale of Elysian Tower – Michael O’Flynn built State’s tallest building in 2008 for €100m: https://www-irishtimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.irishtimes.com/business/commercial-property/regulator-approves-95m-sale-of-elysian-tower-1.3461030?mode=amp
- Roisin Burke writes in The Sunday Business Post today about the acquisition of the Belfast-based Lagan Group by Breedon Group. The group focus for the future will be on residential development and ‘FastHouse’, their modular or offsite construction business – which is a trend that I mentioned here last week.
- Jack Horgan-Jones breaks down the important numbers of Cairn Homes, asking the question: “…can the cash cow stay lucrative as it enters a crucial period?”. This is a question with no immediate answers, but it’s an interesting one to ponder as we hear rumblings of yet another home builder working towards its IPO.
- The Sunday Times has an important break down of GDPR compliance for Irish property businesses on page 10 of the property supplement.
- In his weekly column, Lorcan Sirr writes ‘It’s time we created a rent register with value’, referring to the trending property story above. He goes a step further than the government proposals and pushes for the inclusion of a “decent deposit-protection”, which makes absolute sense as it is one of the three most disputed topics to come before the RTB right now.
- The SBP has a mini magazine of Irish home design ideas to decorate, renovate and extend your home that is packed with great ideas.
Proptech
Congratulations to REA for joining the proptech revolution!
My most anticipated new book of the year arrived this week! The first proptech book (that I am aware of, please let me know if there are others) includes a list of the global top 100 funded Real Estate start-ups. By Robin Rivaton and Vincent Pavanello ‘Make Real Estate Great Again’ is an overview of the global Real Estate Tech revolution. I have only had a cursory read over the past few days but intend to get stuck in to it this week. I will post a review to prop-tech.ie, in the meantime, you can order this book on Amazon: : Make-Real-Estate-Great-Again
*The authors kindly give me an extra copy to give away to some lucky proptech innovator in Ireland – email mailto:carol@CarolTallon.com and let me know why you should get that copy (coffee with me is optional!).
- This Start-up Could Finally Bring Real Estate Into The Blockchain Era: https://www-forbes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.forbes.com/sites/jeffkauflin/2018/04/17/this-startup-could-finally-bring-real-estate-into-the-blockchain-era/amp/
- “Earthscrapers” explained: https://lnkd.in/dB-ssmT via the B1M
- 3D printer home in 24 hours costing $4,000: It could help more than 1 million people living in slums in El Salvador. Learn more: https://wef.ch/2JQ571J‘
- The world’s biggest proptech conference is just over a week away and the team at Proptech Ireland are getting very excited! Any innovators, investors and property professionals heading over to London please do get in touch as we might host a little pre-conference get-together: http://prop-tech.ie/great-proptech-debate-pioneer-vs-prisoner/
- To keep up-to-date on all things tech and innovation for the planning, construction and property industries, head over to http://www.prop-tech.ie, the national resource website for innovators, investors and mentors or email news@proptech.ie .
Property Insiders Guide
As many of you might know, my annual property book The Irish Property Buyers’ Handbook (since 2011) has undergone a rebrand for 2018 and will now appear as part of The Property Insider series, published by Oak Tree Press, the first three titles are now published and available here.