A decline in home sales in the second quarter of 2024 failed to arrest a rise in prices, according to property tech firm Geowox. The group’s latest report on the property market indicated a total of 12,212 homes were sold between April and June this year, down over 13 per cent on the same period last year. Dublin had the highest number of sales at 3,594 units.
At the same time the median price (or middle value) for a home sold in the first quarter was €335,000, which was up 5.3 per cent or €17,000 compared to the same period in 2023. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details.
Strong growth in key markets more than tripled profit at builders Sisk to almost €36 million last year, its holding company said on Friday.Sicon Ltd, the holding company for the Sisk construction group, reported that turnover rose 43 per cent to €2.5 billion last year from €1.74 billion in 2022.
Pre-tax profit grew more than 300 per cent to €35.9 million in 2023 from €11.5 million the previous year, writes Barry O’Halloran. Ireland’s employment market showed more positive signs in the second quarter of the year, as vacancies remained steady compared to the previous quarter. This was the first time that quarterly vacancies have not decline since 2022, and 19 sectors showed gains. Ciara O’Brien reports.
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It is EY Entrepreneur of the Year time again and we profile four of the eight finalists chosen in the emerging category. Meet our contestants from in areas from treating hair loss in men to providing e-scooters across Europe.
A former British army chief of staff gave a grim appraisal of the war in Ukraine recently in the High Court where insurers are resisting demands to compensate Irish leasing companies for aircraft lost because of the Russian invasion. The Dublin court clash involving teams of the most expensive commercial lawyers in the State – some have reportedly been paid briefing fees of up to €1 million – is just one front in an international litigation clash arising from the war, writes Colm Keena in this weeks Agenda.
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The spectacular growth in the real economy in 2023, shown in the figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) last Friday, received little attention. Gross domestic product (GDP) is an unreliable barometer of Irish economic activity and this fell, but the big story is that the appropriate measure of real national income showed the economy expanded by 5 per cent, argues John FitzGerald in his weekly column. Ireland’s macroeconomic statistics provide a range of information which corroborate that this growth is no mirage. Our economy has not run out of steam because of two interlinked factors: the expansion of the multinational sector and the influx of skilled labour from abroad.
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