Tens of thousands of Irish homeowners are paying up to €3,000 too much every year in mortgage repayments. According to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS), many struggling householders are losing out because they fail to shop around.
There is now an average of seven families before the High Court every week who have been [...]

Specialist lender Start Mortgages had the highest number of repossession and mortgage suits before the High Court at the end of 2007. The company had 171 suits before the court, according to figures released by the Court Services.
GE Capital had 55 suits, Allied Irish Banks had 36, IIB Bank had 30 and Bank of [...]

BUILDERS are taking the full booking deposits from first-time buyers who pull out of off the plan sales.
Previously, they would have settled for a nominal sum but now they are demanding the full deposit for withdrawing from contracts and are even asking for the difference between the price the house was worth originally and its [...]

Only 40% of households would now qualify for a mortgage on an average new home, according to the Central Bank.
Its financial stability report also shows Ireland is the most heavily indebted country in the OECD.
In comparison, the Central Bank last year found that 50% of all households would be eligible for a mortgage on an average [...]

The European Central Bank (ECB) will not raise interest rates again this year and is unlikely to cut rates until the end of 2008, a senior European investment manager said yesterday.
William De Vijlder, managing director and chief investment officer of Fortis Investments, said rates were unlikely to rise above their current level of [...]

A skyscraper soaring 197ft higher than the Spire on O'Connell Street has been chosen by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority as the winner of the latest competition for the U2 Tower at Britain Quay.
The sensational new scheme has the rock band's eggshaped recording studio suspended beneath a battery of vertical wind turbines and [...]

THE sharpest construction slowdown in more than 4 years could see house prices return to growth by summer 2008, according to a leading economist.
Ulster Bank’s Pat McArdle said he now expects just 60,000 houses to be built next year, after new research from his bank showed September experienced the sharpest fall-off in construction since June [...]