Review of the market

RECOVERY in the property market? A bit like Kildare footballers, and Waterford hurlers, it’s a case of dragging out the cliche: “Maybe next year.”

We’re five years into a property downturn, the world economy is teetering, NAMA owns half the country and is busy flogging the cherry-picked bits of prime Irish-owned real estate overseas and finally there’ll be the start of significant NAMA releases of Irish stock in 2012.

2011 was the year of distressed auctions, with the bottom-feeders out for clear value. Hundreds of properties did shift via this auction route — to a mix of chagrin and relief among vendors, helping to put a floor of sorts under the market.