The week ahead in business: Central Bank pre-Budget letter, data on private household credit and deposits, and the IDA's annual report
While the annual ritual of pre-Budget submissions is well underway, the Finance Minister's thoughts may not have fully turned to what he is going to announce in October, given that he faces an election at the next meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers on July 7. Mr Donohoe is going for a third term as president, but two challengers emerged for the position just before the deadline last Friday.
Spanish economy minister Carlos Cuerpo and Lithuanian finance minister Rimantas Šadžius are the two in the frame.
The Central Bank will also release statistics today on private household credit and deposits, while the Central Statistics Office will have figures on inbound tourism for May. It will be fascinating to see if this set of figures is a continuation of the downward trend for 2025 the CSO has been reporting. This has bemused the tourism industry, which says the statistics do not reflect the steady level of business they see on the ground.
In fact, tourism industry practitioners have met with the CSO to discuss precisely how the data is gathered.
On Wednesday, the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) will be publishing its annual report, plus mid-year results for 2025. The launch will be attended by Enterprise Minister Peter Burke, as well as IDA chief executive Michael Lohan, and chairman Feargal O'Rourke. It will be interesting to hear from all three about what measurable impact tariffs have been having on foreign direct investment.
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Irish Independent
12 hours ago
- Irish Independent
More Irish homes bought by ‘non-household entities' last year than in 2023
Information filed with Revenue shows that non-household entities – which includes private companies, charities and State bodies – bought 12,696 dwellings last year out of a total of 61,471 sales. This represented a 4pc increase on 2023. The total value of the properties sold to entities other than private buyers was €5bn. This was a rise of 18.5pc on the previous year. Of this, €2.6bn related to 6,557 homes purchased by government agencies such as the Land Development Agency and Approved Housing Bodies, making them the largest non-household entities in the housing market. The volume of homes purchased by the State rose from 2023, according to the CSO, as the figure then was 5,778. The financial and insurance sector, which includes banks, trusts, funds and holding companies, was the second-biggest non-household buyer of homes, accounting for transactions totalling €746m in 2024. Just €247m in property was acquired by entities registered outside the State – about 5pc of all purchases by non-household entities. The other 95pc of purchases was by Irish-registered companies and institutions. Purchases by companies with an address in Northern Ireland were valued at €14.8m, while almost €5m was spent by firms with an address in Britain. The CSO has not provided a figure for how much property was bought by European buyers, which it has given in previous years. The value of such purchases in 2023, for example, was €250m. The European figure has been 'suppressed', with the CSO explaining that this is to protect the confidentiality of individual companies or institutions. This can be done when one institution accounts for over 80pc of the transactions in that category, or if two companies account for over 90pc. New dwellings accounted for just over half – 56.4pc – of all purchases. Some 6,804 houses were bought, of which half of them were new, plus 5,892 apartments, with almost two-thirds of those being new. Meanwhile, non-household entities sold 20,841 dwellings at market prices last year, up over 9pc on 2023. The total value of the sales was €9bn. Two thirds of the transactions were by entities in the construction sector. Combining purchases and sales, it meant there was a net monetary flow of €4bn from the household sector to the non-household sector last year. Meanwhile, there was a net flow in volume terms of 8,145 residential properties to the household sector.
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
Investors and State tied to more than a fifth of home sales last year
Institutional investors and State-backed entities such as Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) bought over a fifth of the homes that came up for sale on the Irish property market last year. That's according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO). There was a total of 61,471 residential property transactions with a value of €24.6 billion filed with the Revenue Commissioners in 2024, the agency said. Of these, 12,696 (20.7 per cent) worth €5 billion were purchases made by non-household entities. READ MORE 'Non-household transactions are residential dwelling transactions made by private companies, charitable organisations, and state institutions,' the CSO said. On the state side, these include local authorities, AHBs and the Land Development Agency (LDA). Private rented sector (PRS) investors have bought most of the apartments built in Dublin and elsewhere in recent years. New dwellings accounted for 56.4 per cent of all purchases made by non-households in 2024, the CSO said. The acceleration in housing supply in 2021, 2022 and 2023 was in the main driven by apartment developments in Dublin and other urban locations. The current stagnation in supply – new home completions dropped by 7 per cent to 30,000 last year – is primarily because of a fall-off in this type of development. Apartment completions fell from 12,000 units to 9,000 last year and are expected to fall again this year. Foreign institutional investors had, until recently, been financing an apartment building boom in Dublin and elsewhere but higher interest rates after 2022, combined with other factors, have triggered a slowdown. To entice foreign investment back into the sector here, the Government has overhauled the State's system of rent pressure zones (RPZs). Under the proposed reform, landlords will be able to reset rents at the going market rate when a tenant leaves. Smaller landlords with three or fewer units will, however, have to offer rolling six-year tenancies while large ones will not be able to evict a tenant who has complied with their obligations except in very limited circumstances. Between 2013 and 2024 total private residential investment here totalled €10.8 billion, an average of €902 million a year. The most recent figures (€1.6 billion in 2022; €597 million in 2023; and €231 million last year) highlight the slowdown. The CSO figures show that non-household entities sold 20,841 dwellings at market prices, an increase of 9.3 per cent on the 19,061 sales made by them in 2023. The total value of the sales by non-household entities in 2024 was €9 billion, up 19.6 per cent on the 2023 value. Non-household entities in the construction sector sold 13,502 residential properties with a total value of €6 billion in 2024, up 14.3 per cent on the total value of sales made by this sector in 2023. The CSO said non-household entities in the construction sector accounted for 64.8 per cent of the total volume of sales by non-households in 2024.
The Irish Sun
14 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
Spain hol chaos latest after fuming locals threaten to BLOCK busy airport amid protest mayhem & ‘tourist go home' alert
SPANISH union bosses have issued an update after threatening to launch strikes in hotels across the Balearic Islands this month. The unions 7 Demonstrators take part in a protest against mass tourism in Palma last month Credit: AFP via Getty Images 7 Protests against overtourism have erupted across Spain since April 2024 Credit: Bloomberg via Getty Images 7 Spanish union bosses threatened to blockade Palma's busy airport later this month Credit: Getty Images And hotels, restaurants and clubs in the The unions announcement yesterday of chaos-causing demos in airport arrivals and departures led to last-minute talks with employer representatives and a 13.5 pay increase offer union bosses accepted. And, just hours after threatening to blockade the airport on July 10, union bosses confirmed they have called off the Balearic Islands hotel strike that was due to affect Irish holidaymakers. UGT Balears, one of the two main unions behind the planned walkout over five days in July, confirmed overnight: "The strike in the hotel and catering sector has been called off following the pre-agreement between us and hotel bosses for the new collective agreement. READ MORE IN TRAVEL 'Salary increase of 13.5 per cent in three years, the largest increase in the history of the Balearic Islands." The Majorca Hotel Business Federation confirmed around the same time: "An agreement in principle has been reached and the UGT has agreed to desist from the strikes it had announced and cancel them." Second union CCOO is now expected to come on board along with employer representatives in the bar-restaurant and nightclub sectors which would also have been affected by strikes although to a lesser degree. The final agreement sealing the eleventh-hour deal is expected to be signed next week. Most read in News Travel The airport blockade threat is thought to have been key to the decision of unions and hotel employer representatives in Majorca to start negotiating again after the breakdown of talks and strike announcements last Thursday. Emergency alarm raised at Majorca airport after roof collapses The UGT announced around midday yesterday a demonstration at Palma airport would take place on the first day of planned strike action on July 10 'in both the departures and arrivals areas.' It added in a statement: 'The aim is to 'block these accesses' to the Balearic capital's aerodrome.' It also announced demonstrations in other key tourists areas including Walkouts involving an expected 180,000 hotel and catering sector workers in The salary rise over three years will see workers get six per cent extra this year, four per cent next and 3.5 per cent in 2027. 7 Hotel workers in the Balearics earn less than the average hospitality worker in Spain Credit: Getty Images 7 Protesters chant slogans at tourists as National Police officers stand guard in Palma Credit: REUTERS/Francisco Ubilla Last week an eleventh-hour deal was announced to avert the threat of hotel strike action in The lifting of the strike threat in the Balearic Islands is not expected to impact on A massive anti-tourist demonstration took place in Around 100 noisy activists banging drums surrounded upmarket eatery Cappuccino Borne next to a McDonald's in the centre of Palma after their protest finished. of dining tourists and chanted "go home" and "go to hell ". Police moved in to ease tension as the demonstrators held up cardboard posters reading: 'As You Come, I Have To Go.' The protestors also chanted ''The Streets Will Always Be Ours', Go Home' in English and 'No Balconing' in a reference to the young tourists who have traditionally been blamed by islanders for the dangerous practice of jumping from Magaluf hotel balconies into their swimming pools or trying to climb between balconies while under the influence of drink and drugs. The Balearics Islands Government vice-president Antoni Costa said afterwards their behaviour had been 'unacceptable.' 7 The streets of Majorca have seen a number of protests against overtourism since the start of the year Credit: REUTERS/Francisco Ubilla 7 Demonstrators hold 'For sale' signs during a protest against mass tourism in Palma last month Credit: Getty Images
