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Home ownership among adults of prime working age has “collapsed” since the financial crisis, according to a report from the Parliamentary Budget Office. Using an international housing affordability survey, the Parliamentary Budget Office concludes the cost of housing here is “severely unaffordable”. The report says this is partly due to “rising rents” and “surging house…

The Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI) has said it expects the median price of a home in Ireland to increase by almost €14,000 this year. A poll of its 580 members predicts a 5% rise in property prices, with most of that frontloaded to the first three months of the year. It reveals that…

The unemployment rate, adjusted to include those on the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP), rose to 7.5% in December compared to 6.9% in November. The traditional seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate fell from 5.2% or 135,000 people in November to 5.1% or 132,100 people in December, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show today.…

Ireland’s mortgage rates for new loans remained the second highest in the euro area in November, according to the Central Bank. Greece had the highest rates in the euro area. The weighted average interest rate on new mortgages was 2.7% in November, a reduction of 8 basis points or 0.08%, on November 2020. The euro…

The right to request flexible work arrangements is set to become a reality this year for Irish workers as the EU’s Work Life Balance Directive must be implemented by the Government by October this year. The EU Directive means that employees who are in a caring role such as parents or carers will have the…

The rate at which the price of used cars is increasing has reached a new high, driven by the supply shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. In the last three months of the year, the inflation rate for used cars grew a further 7.7%, the second highest quarterly price rise since 2011, according…

Almost 5,000 mortgages were approved in November, up 8.6% on the previous month but down 4.6% on the same time last year. New figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland reveal that over half of all mortgages approved during the month were for First Time Buyers (FTBs), while mover purchasers accounted for just under 28%.…

The average take home pay of workers on the minimum wage increased over the years from 2016-2018, according to new research from the Economic and Social Research Institute. The report also finds that the hours worked by some on the minimum wage, fell by almost one hour per week. But the increase in the minimum…

Thousands of public servants will have their working hours reduced back to lower pre-austerity levels from 1 July, if a recommendation made by an independent body examining the issue is accepted by the Government. Extra working hours were introduced for the public servants under the 2013 Haddington Road Agreement. The mechanism of additional hours was…

Only one in 10 World Economic Forum members surveyed expects the global recovery to accelerate over the next three years, a poll of nearly 1,000 business, government and academic leaders found, with only one in six optimistic about the world outlook. Climate change was seen as the number one danger by respondents in the WEF’s…