Owing a Holiday Home or second home in Ireland is a fairly straight forward process and there are no restrictions on foreign ownership. Ireland is a beautiful country, located on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, this ‘Emerald Isle’ characterised by lively cities and endless unspoilt countryside is officially the best place in the world to live. Buying property in Ireland is not cheap, although many statistics point to the fact that there is currently a surplice of property available, negotiations can help to secure a better deal but this is practically non existing on” new builds” s where the price offered is usually what you pay. Ireland has always been seen as a wonderful place to take a relaxing holiday or vacation and there is always plenty of accommodation to choose from, especially now as more overseas investors are purchasing property for retirement purposes but intending to rent them out in the interim years.
Why Ireland?
Ireland is certainly a property hot spot, it has an economy in good shape and the environment is widely accepted to superior to most of it’s European neighbours. Ireland has recently seen a large upsurge in the purchase of Holiday Homes, mainly by investors speculating that prices will increase as it is being widely broadcast that Ireland is the ‘Best Country in the world’ and an ideal place to live. Ireland is particularly proving very popular with purchasers from the United States of America, who see the country as a dream destination for retirement, already in excess of 55,000 Americans have purchased property in the country.
Insuring a Holiday Home in Ireland – Where ever you decide to purchase, it is essential that you obtain insurance for holiday home in Ireland. A policy should include all the usual perils you would expect from a standard home insurance policy and also be extended to include Property owners/ Public Liability cover. When calculating you sum insured for a quotation, don’t forget that the sum insured on which your quote should be based, is the rebuilding cost of the property, not the valuation, often these can be vastly different and as a consequence so will be your premium. If you wish to include contents insurance as well as buildings, you must insure for the full value of all items, that is to say, the price if you have just purchased them as new. If you have a swimming pool at your holiday home, make sure that any policy you purchase will include cover for this, it is not always automatically given. As well as a standard set of insurance perils, many people overlook to ask for protection against loss of rental income. This cover is vital if you have purchased your holiday home and are relying on renting it to guests to help support the mortgage. Loss of rent cover under a holiday home insurance policy will cover you in the event of an a claim occurring following an insured event at the property. It will not cover you against loss of rent that you fail to collect from any renter.
Letting Property in Ireland
There have been some recent changes to the laws in Ireland that govern buy to let properties, but Holiday Homes are exempt. When purchasing your holiday home in Ireland expect to the fees to be approximately 5% of the purchase price, buying a new property will be cheaper as there is no stamp duty to pay on new homes.
You will need to budget for:
- Stamp Duty
- Legal Fees
- Deed Registration Fees
- Survey or valuation fees
- Management fees( if you are not going to manage the letting yourself)
- Mortgage Application Fees.
Once you have located a property (and extensive research has to be done on this front, unlike in many other countries planning applications by overseas investors or purchasers to extend property are often complicated, you may find that you will be unable to extend your dream home as you wish), the process of purchase is quite straight forward, a solicitor should be appointed as early in to the process as possible and you can expect to pay around 1% of the purchase price + VAT at 20% Stamp duty is one of the major bug bears in Ireland and there are three scales applicable to property purchase, these effect, first time buyers, owner occupies ( not first time buyers) and investors who are buying a home for letting purposes. Stamp Duty is 9% and in recent years has been subject to annual change.
Holiday Hotspots
Although the cities are difficult to match for nightlife, it is the countries rural scenic areas where the bulk of properties are being purchased. Areas such as west Cork and Kerry are very popular and the south coast of the island is being dubbed, the ‘Irish Riveria’ This areas has been attracting a steady flow of British and American purchasers for quite a while. The climate is mild, warmed by the gulf stream and the scenery is unbelievable. Properties on offer vary from starter rental homes. These are often park homes or chalets constructed of wood, through to the more traditional Irish country cottage. The later are more expensive but of course have the greatest potential for rental income. Obtaining the right property is essential for obtaining an income, whilst the above mentioned areas and the major cities can be very expensive, it is still possible to obtain relatively cheap property in Ireland in several of the inland areas. The general rule is, the further inland, the cheaper the property becomes.
Ireland has in recent years issued a town renewal scheme which encourages people by means of Tax breaks to invest in the construction of new buildings or properties that need refurbishment. There are as many as 100 towns included in the scheme. Although the tax breaks are mainly designed for owner occupier purchasers, landlords can obtain tax breaks against other Irish Rental Income of 100% on the cost of refurbishment over 10 years. These tax incentives can be passed on to the buyer.
So if you are seeking an holiday home insurance quote for a property in cities like Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Dundalk or Kilkenny why not see if we can help? The main holiday home areas are: Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kerry, Kildare, Kilkenny, Laois, Leitrim, Limerick, Longford, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Offaly, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Wexford and Wicklow
