An Irish Times op-ed talks about a collapse of Ireland’s property market. A serious case of last to know.
Back in mid-2021 there had already been reports of huge property write-downs, but this was patently obvious from walks I took around Dublin long before then. The one year mark in March 2021 marked the point that a lot of businesses had decided to throw in the towel and have their retail units completely gutted. They clearly did not expect to come back anytime soon with a year and counting of unpaid bills.
All the Spencer Dock developments were already a bubble inflated on the promise of a Brexit relocation bonanza that never materialised, but the pin came when it was clear work-from-home was becoming normalised. Employees did not want to go back to Dublin’s horrible accomodation and commuting, and company bean-counters had dollar signs in their eyes just as they did with hot-desking.
In many ways all this was accelerated by the government by locking down far more than was nececcary. Even people who would only worked from home and/or shopped online because they had no choice got used to it, and after close to two years the old ways were not far off just memories.
So there is a glut at a time when major companies are vacating properties. Textbook market collapse conditions.