The housing crisis remains an ever present fixture in the headlines this morning as a new report from Ireland’s largest estate agent shows the sale of land for development in the Greater Dublin Area and the regional centres of Cork, Galway, and Limerick sank to its lowest level in more than two years in the second quarter.
The report suggested policies announced by the Government over that period to address the housing crisis are likely to have delayed decision-making and stalled activity as stakeholders take time to digest how things are likely to pan out.
In Q&A, Dominic Coyle stresses the importance of drawing up a will as he deals with a query from a parent on how they can pass on a share in their son’s apartment to his bereaved partner in a tax efficient manner following his unexpected death.
“Regular readers will be familiar with my view on wills and their importance,” he says. “I sense that most people have the view that even to entertain the notion of drawing up a will is almost like putting one foot in the coffin but it’s not.”
Sale of development land sinks in second quarter
‘I took few steps back in my career to get a foot in the door at Penneys’: An Irishman in the Dutch village of Enter
VitHit founder Gary Lavin: from insolvency in 2007 to selling 45m bottles in 18 markets, including New York
Trump’s pharma rant puts Government in difficult position
Budget retailer Lidl and its famed middle isle has fast become a favourite of Irish shoppers. From inflatable pools to chainsaws, you never know what might find there. But few Irish shoppers know how the chain secures its flow of weekly special offers: with its own shipping company. Derek Scally has the background story of one of Germany’s most successful brands.
Actor Don Wycherley is the narrator for Guy Barker’s Soho Symphony in the RTÉ Concert Orchestra’s concert, A Night in Soho, on Friday at the National Concert Hall, Dublin. He tells Tony Clayton-Lea how he got burned by Eircom shares in 1999 in Me and My Money, putting him off shares for life.
Over decades, Ireland has invested heavily in education, and now has one of the highest shares of the population in the world who are graduates. This is a fundamental driver of our high standard of living.
In his column this week, John Fitzgerald tells how foreign multinationals operating here would not be on our shores without our highly-educated workforce.
In other news, new data from jobs platform Indeed suggests jobseekers have significantly lost interest in both academic and trade roles over the past year, with the advance of artificial intelligence leading people to seek out more tech-facing roles.
In this week’s opinion piece, Fine Grain Property chief executive Colin MacDonald runs his eye over the recent announcement of the largest capital investment programme in the history of the State: the €275.4 billion National Development Plan.
He argues the moment presents an opportunity for Ireland to renew its commitment to the partnership between public vision and private enterprise.
Electric carmaker Tesla has pledged to award its leader Elon Musk some 96 million Tesla shares in two years, if he stays put for five. The shares would be worth about $30 billion to the tech mogul. Stocktake mulls the market reaction to the news.
If you’d like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money, the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.