FORMER US President Thomas Jefferson once said that small landholders are the most precious part of a state.

In Ireland this phrase rang true during the boom with the first-time buyers and start-up investors who were encouraged to throw their cash into property.

At one stage the property and construction sector made up over 20% of Government income. A precious pot for the State indeed.

But just as Jefferson's ideology of giving tracts of land to ordinary US citizens ended up benefiting greedy speculators, Ireland's property investment schemes during the boom saw towns ravaged by sprawl, over-development and a plethora of ‘phantom' or ‘ghost estates' that now look unlikely ever to be finished.

So it now looks as though the landholders will be the most worthless, or even the costliest, part of our esteemed state.

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RESIDENTS in the close knit community of Cromane were this week coming to terms with the drowning, last Thursday, of a popular Belfast man who had settled in the Upper Tullig area almost a decade ago.

The body of 55-year-old Dominic Rice was discovered shortly before 8pm in a flooded trial hole close to the roadside at Tulligmore. It is believed that the deceased had made frantic attempts to rescue one of his beloved Old English Sheepdogs but had fallen into the trench and was unable to climb out.

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From a life of high-octane property wheeling and dealing to days filled with increasingly frantic attempts to keep the wolf from the door, the nightmare is getting worse on Planet Developer.

‘IT WAS LIKE a 10-year dream," says the disconsolate developer, turning his mobile to silent, in a futile effort to shut out the clamorous world. "Now it's like a tsunami that just keeps coming." And meanwhile, as one architect wryly put it, the politicians, bankers and regulators are "still playing volleyball on the beach".

The once bullish, man-about-town property developer seemed in a state of shock. "It's the suddenness of it - the high to the low," he says thoughtfully, as if seeing a catastrophe clearly for the first time. "It's certainly brought everyone back to earth with a thump."

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Tulfarris House & Golf Resort, a 200 acre development in Co Wicklow, went into receivership late on Friday night, after Anglo Irish Bank moved to protect its lendings. The development is backed by property developer Paddy Kelly and his family. Anglo is owed about €25 million in relation to the project at Blessington Lakes.

Separately, AIB has appointed a receiver to the €50 million Blarney Golf Resort in Co Cork. The bank is owed about €20 million and appointed a receiver late last week. Both Tulfarris and Blarney are continuing to trade.

The honorary secretary at Tulfarris wrote to members yesterday confirming that Anglo had installed Michael McAteer, a partner with accountant Grant Thornton, as receiver over two companies linked with the project, Comfort Hotel Holdings and Tulfarris Golf Services.

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The pyrite infestation which left large numbers of householders in Drynam Estate faced with cracking walls and floors will not lead to the establishment of a task force to eradicate the problem, as some had hoped.

Minster for the Environment, John Gormley, has confirmed that there are no plans to establish a task force on the problem or order traceability audits of infected material.

Minister Gormley said a new National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) recommendation is intended to address the quality of standards of homes and buildings affected by pyrite.

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BUILDERS could be forced to dramatically slash the prices of more than 70,000 new houses that are now lying empty across the country, a leading construction advisor has warned.

In a damning new analysis -- obtained by the Irish Independent -- it is claimed that developers will have to offload the massive volume of vacant homes in a 'firesale' before the Government's new energy guidelines come into effect on July 1.

The new study found the number of new homes lying empty in 'ghost' estates is far larger than was previously estimated. The findings reveal there are at least 100,000 'surplus' homes -- far higher than the 30,000 estimated by construction industry chiefs and estate agents.

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A construction company is claiming it faces being sued by up to 150 home owners as a result of building houses in Clongriffin, Dublin, with infill allegedly containing unacceptable levels of pyrite.

Killoe Developments Ltd, with registered offices in Lucan, Co Dublin, yesterday applied to Mr Justice Peter Kelly to have its proceedings against three companies in the Lagan group fast-tracked in the Commercial Court.

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NEW houses to the value of more than €9 billion are lying idle across the country.

Construction chiefs have confirmed that there are 35,000 new homes unoccupied at present.

However, this figure has been disputed by economists, who say the number of idle properties is likely to be in the region of 50,000-plus, meaning the value of these properties would be a staggering €13bn, given that the average price of a new home is close to €270,000.

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BACK in 2004 we wrote in this column that finally after many delays such as re-housing the rare breed of bats which occupy the site that the project of the new Dunboy Castle Hotel was to start on the 4th July, 2005, but that date wasn't kept except for some enabling work on the Puxley Mansion.
At the time we also noted that at a recent annual dinner of the Dublin Mayo Association the committee held a raffle and one of the prizes was a weekend holiday for two at Dunboy Castle Six Star Hotel in Castletownbere, Co Cork for Christmas 2006.
Now four years on there seems to a question mark still on when the hotel will open.

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Celtic Tiger bites them on the backside?

BACK in 2004 we wrote in this column that finally after many delays such as re-housing the rare breed of bats which occupy the site that the project of the new Dunboy Castle Hotel was to start on the 4th July, 2005, but that date wasn't kept except for some enabling work on the Puxley Mansion.
At the time we also noted that at a recent annual dinner of the Dublin Mayo Association the committee held a raffle and one of the prizes was a weekend holiday for two at Dunboy Castle Six Star Hotel in Castletownbere, Co Cork for Christmas 2006. Now four years on there seems to a question mark still on when the hotel will open.

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OVER 20,000 Irish people have applied for grants to install wood, solar and thermal heat systems in their homes under the greener homes scheme operated for the Government by Sustainable Energy Ireland (SEI), the Bioenergy 2008 conference was told yesterday in Athenry, Co Galway.

Pearse Buckley, biomass project manager with SEI, told the 150 delegates that there had already been 20,500 applications under the greener homes scheme launched in March 2006.

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THE EUR5m earmarked to improve energy efficiency in older houses cannot be used as nobody is qualified to assess the houses.
Last month, Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Eamon Ryan, announced that up to one million homes in the country require some investment to improve their energy efficiency.

But despite the funds being there to carry out the work, not a single person in the country is qualified to carry out an assessment of existing buildings.

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ITS DEVELOPERS call the three hundred islands laid out in the shape of the world map just off Dubai's coast the "most innovative real-estate development on Earth". These new artificial islands, known as "The World", are just part of a plan to create hundreds of kilometres of new waterfront for Dubai, attracting visitors and wealthy home-owners from around the (real) world.

The World's developer, Nakheel, built its first artificial-island chain in Dubai in 2001 in the shape of a palm.

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European governments and the European Commission are being urged to hasten the development of housing that produces no greenhouse gases.

The European Energy Network (ENR), which includes energy advisory bodies across the EU, says better enforcement of green building codes is also needed.

Less than a quarter of EU states have introduced certification schemes for houses, as required under EU law. European governments have agreed to boost energy efficiency by 20% by 2020.

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Bungalow-type dwellings have been found to be the least energy efficient when it comes to complying with new energy regulations, according to a UCD study.

From July 1st, new dwellings seeking planning permission will have to achieve a 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption and a 40 per cent reduction in related CO2 emissions.

The UCD study, commissioned by the Department of the Environment, looked at nine different-sized detached, semi-detached and terraced houses and apartments, to see how they would comply with the 40 per cent reduction in energy consumption.

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PROOF of the slowdown in the house building industry in Laois was brought home this week after two major employers let off over 60 of their workers. And more lay offs are expected.

ONS, formerly known as Owenass Development Limited, called in its 400+ workers at their site on the Ridge Road in Portlaoise three weeks ago and told them they were placing them all on protective notice.

A week later 53 of their workers were let go.

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FOUR construction companies are seeking to be indemnified by three companies in the Lagan Group for the estimated E20m costs of repairing damage allegedly caused by the use of "defective'' infill in the construction of houses on three housing estates in Co Dublin.

The proceedings came before the Commercial Court yesterday and relate to houses on estates at Drynam Hall, Kettles Lane, Kinsealy, Co Dublin; Beaupark, Clongriffin, Dublin 13; and Myrtle, The Coast, Baldoyle, Dublin 13.

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