Business Commons^™

Irish Agricultural Land Sales And Rental Prices, Frank Harrington

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There have been many commentaries on the Irish agricultural land market, but regrettably for those of us interested in it there have been limited reliable data to test our theories. Given the importance of agriculture to the Irish economy and society, it is surprising how little reliable primary data exists about the Irish agricultural land market. To help address this lack of data the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) and Teagasc are publishing a 50-year dataset of agricultural land sales and rentals to complement the SCSI member survey data.

Service Charge Collection In Multi-Unit Developments, Adele Mckeown, Lorcan Sirr

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Multi-unit developments (MUDs) – typically developments of apartments, or apartments and houses, but also sometimes including a commercial component – differ from traditional housing as they have three distinct characteristics: individual ownership of a unit, shared ownership of common property, and collective membership of a corporate body that assumes responsibility for the management of the development (Christudason, 2004). In the Irish case, this corporate body is known as the owners’ management company (OMC). The legal framework for ownership in MUDs is based on leasehold, which means that the purchaser owns the property but not the land on which it is …

Introduction, Lorcan Sirr

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Over many decades, it has been rare for a week to pass without housing-related issues being close to, or at, the top of news and political agendas. As everybody has to live somewhere, housing – and its related elements of property, building, planning and finance – is a topic in which everybody has both a stake and an opinion. It is the most personal of subjects – in many respects, our housing shapes our lives.

Words Worth Price And Value, Tom Dunne

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TOM DUNNE explains the terms used in relation to the valuation of property, and the need for common understanding among all parties using those terms. -

Link Levy To Services- Not Urban Middle Class Assets, Tom Dunne

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Paying any tax is an unwelcome burden, but in Ireland many have a particular aversion to taxes on their homes. We are not alone in this. Elsewhere, taxes on homes are also unpopular; witness the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation which forced the California state government to cut property taxes. Nevertheless, residential property taxes remain an almost universal feature of developed countries because of compelling economic arguments for them. Also, local property taxes are regarded as the best means of funding local government.

Rarely, it seems to me, is there such a distance between what the public wants and …

Strategic Planning In Construction Professional Service Firms: A Study Of Irish Qs Practices, Roisin Murphy

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The role and usefulness of strategic planning has been documented over several decades of strategic management research. Despite the significant body of existing knowledge in the field of strategic planning, there remains limited empirical investigation of the construction sector, specifically professional service firms operating within it. The construction sector is hugely important to the Irish economy, yet until now, no empirical investigation has been undertaken to determine the strategic planning process in construction professional service firms in Ireland. A two-phase mixed methods study was undertaken to ascertain the extent of strategic planning within quantity surveying (QS) practices in Ireland. Characteristics …

Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Tom Dunne

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Tom Dunne explores the long term drivers of dysfunction in Ireland's housing markets and what a more sustainable housing system would look like.

Tax Facts, Tom Dunne

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Tom Dunne Clarifies the issues surrounding different forms of property tax

Grade Inflation In The School Of Real Estate And Construction Economics, Dermot Kehily

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No abstract provided.

Site Value Tax, Tom Dunne

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Tom Dunne discusses some of the issues surrounding property taxation in Ireland

Nama Versus Nationalization – How To Deal With The Banks’ Toxic Loans?, Thomas Power

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Banks are indispensible to the efficient functioning of the economy. Right now they are unable to carry out their normal functions (e.g. providing lines of credit to individuals and business) because they are underfunded. They are rationing credit because they do not have enough funds. The funds they need to lend to borrowers come from deposits, equity and bonds. During the ‘boom period’ banks did not have enough funds from deposits and had to rely on the inter-bank market to borrow the funds they needed in order to lend. According to the Central Bank ‘net foreign liabilities’ of commercial banks …

Lessons For Nama From Valuation Practices, Thomas Power

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By adopting accounting values and not economic value, auctioneers and valuers contribute to property market inefficiency. The reaction to this global financial and real asset meltdown is for tighter regulation. But the difficulties now being experienced in global asset markets are not new– it’s just that it is much bigger. The common denominator is accounting based valuations.

Motorists Will Have To Pay For The Cost Of Congestion, Thomas Power

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The available road space (the scarce resource) is currently allocated by one’s willingness to sit in traffic jams. The costs incurred in sitting in traffic jams benefits no one – it is pure deadweight loss. The solution is to get the motorist to pay the social cost (marginal congestion cost). By pricing the cost of this traffic congestion in euro, this money could be collected and put to good use, perhaps on improving public transport.

Tax Treatment Encourages Residential Investment, Thomas Power

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The economic survey on Ireland by the OECD (issue 5 2008) proposed phasing out policies that distort the housing market, which in turn could help to dampen future housing cycles and maintain competitiveness in the economy.

Specifically it suggests that tax breaks favouring owner occupation contributes to making housing expensive and that these effects could be reduced either by “limiting mortgage tax relief… or by implementing a property tax”.

Global Macroeconomic Trends, Thomas Power

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The business of real estate is but a subset of the wider investment markets and macroeconomic trends will significantly shape the way real estate investment decisions are made. The McKinsey Institute is a global economic consultancy firm providing cutting-edge research on a wide range of macroeconomic and business trends. This article reviews macroeconomic trends that they believe will transform the global economy. McKinsey research show that “over two-thirds of organic growth of western companies can be attributed to being in the right markets and geographies” and “companies that ride the tide succeed and those that swim against it usually struggle” …

Land Value Taxation: Persuasive Theory But Practically Difficult, Tom Dunne

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While the theoretical case for Land Value Taxation is regarded as being very persuasive, most people looking closely at the idea form the view that the practical difficulties of introducing it into an established modern economy are compelling. Nevertheless, in Europe and America the ideas put forward by George continue to influence many people discussing issues around land use planning, urban development and methods of funding infrastructure and local government.

Ecology, Morality And Synergism, Thomas Power

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This short essay looks at the views of unorthodox members of three professions. Richard Douthwaite an anti-growth economist, James Lovelock a "mythical" scientist, and Yoneji Masuda, a Japanese guru of the Information Technology age. All three assume a re-orientation of human thinking. Douthwaite's "moral society", Lovelock's "ecological society" and Masuda's "synergistic society" have little basis in reality, despite their intrinsic appeal. Despite the "high knowledge consumption" of an information age, predicted by Masuda, history teaches us that knowledge has always been used by man to gain power and not to better the lot of mankind. There is no reason to …

Bringing The Environment In From The Cold, Thomas Power

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The aim of this essay is to present an overview of some of the basic concepts underlying the mainstream approach to the role of economics in the analysis of the causes and treatment of environmental degradation. It evaluates the mainstream view depicted by Helm and Pearce and analyses economic externalities in context, conventional economic approaches and imperfect information.

Retailing At The Periphery: An Analysis Of Dublin’S Tertiary City-Centre Shopping Streets (1972-2002), Edmund O'Callaghan, Don O'Riordan

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This research examined changes in Dublin’s tertiary city centre shopping streets over a thirty year period to 2002. An observational study of the occupancy of the city’s tertiary streetscape was undertaken in the summer of 2002 and compared with historical data. Results indicate significant change over the period examined: an increased vacancy rate, a very low survival rate, a considerable incidence of non retail specific activities, a decline in traditional retail offerings and the emergence of new categories of retailer. The paper concludes by suggesting a proactive approach is required by present day retailers in the tertiary streets to ensure …