On Thursday the 11th, the Lisney seminar, \u2018Building Tomorrow\u2019, brought together leading minds in the property market. The seminar was created to assess the state of the Irish property market with a focus on planning and the future of the market.<\/p>\n
By all accounts, the panellists agreed that Ireland is uniquely well-positioned to face the threats posed by Brexit and global political uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Opening the breakfast seminar was Fergal O\u2019Brien, the chief economist at IBEC, and he emphasised the solidity of the Irish economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the crisis hit Ireland in 2008\/2009 there was a sense that our economy was built on selling houses to one another. That was undoubtedly a factor in the crash but in IBEC we could see that our core economy in terms of exports was spectacularly strong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the medium-to-long-term, the growth rate in Ireland will be double the European average. That\u2019s based on our remarkably strong birth-rate which continued even through the worst of the crash\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means that we can face the challenges of Brexit from a strong position. In overall terms, Brexit is a net negative for the Irish economy and we need the UK to come out of this in good shape. But our fundamentals are solid.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien said that there is a crucial need for infrastructure development to be implemented by the government and that it is the main challenge facing the Irish economy at the minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got a population that is growing faster than any other country in Europe but we\u2019ve got the lowest level of capital investment spend of any country in Europe. We are a wealthy country; we should not accept the infrastructure development of a developing country.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Frank McSharry, divisional director at Lisney, echoed some of Philips\u2019 concerns about housing in Ireland.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at the coverage lately and you see queues just to see developments in Baldoyle and Portmarnock. And then we had the case just last week of Clonskeagh where the entire development sold out over the course of just one weekend. That\u2019s unsustainable and highlights the need for new developments and new thinking about the type of developments too. At the current rate, it will take years before we get the supply side of things right when it comes to residential property.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need higher density developments and we need to start looking seriously at high-rise. We have 1,500 emigrants returning home every week and a lot of them are used to the idea of apartment living.\u201d<\/p>\n
McSharry reiterated the thoughts of Fergal O\u2019Brien in saying that there is a drastic need for improved infrastructure throughout Ireland but especially in Dublin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a huge need for infrastructure development in Dublin,\u201d he said. \u201cDublin is the 15th most congested city in the world. We need rapid investment in transport to service the new areas people are going to be living in.\u201d<\/p>\n