This week we launched our own Property Tax Calculator. The Daft.ie calculator is a simple tool that calculates property value based on location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and whether the property has a garden or not.
It allows you to input more information than the official Revenue.ie calculator. We believe this makes it a good alternative for estimating the value of your home.
Following the redesign of our property details page earlier this year, we are now very happy to reveal a new look for our homepage, search forms and search results pages!
As with our recent redesign of our property details page, one of our main aims here was to achieve a more modern look and feel, while continuing to highlight our most important and popular features.
Our homepage now has a neater, fresher look. We've made a few subtle changes, which we feel gives the page a cleaner look, allowing you to more easily focus on the useful information on the page.
This morning we're delighted to announce the release of our first Android app.
Over the last 18 months or so we've seen colossal growth in traffic coming from smartphones, primarily iPhone and Android devices. Following on from our previous iPhone and iPad app launches, we're delighted to be the first Irish property portal to launch a dedicated Android app.
One of our main aims when working with mobile devices is to ensure as consistent an experience as possible for users across different devices. As such, the app should feel very familiar if you've used our iPhone App or touch-optimised version of Daft.
The latest Daft.ie House Price Report was released this morning.
The report found that asking prices for residential property around the country fell by almost 5% in the final quarter of 2010, meaning that the total fall in asking prices during the year was 14%.
By the end of 2010, the national average asking price had fallen by 40% from the peak in 2007 and stood at just below €220,000. The typical time it takes to sell a property remains high but has fallen from 41 weeks to 36 weeks over the course of the year.
We're delighted to announce that this week we've released touch.daft.ie, a version of Daft.ie optimised for iPhone and Android-powered mobile phones.
Over the last year we've seen a huge increase in traffic to Daft.ie from mobile devices. Traffic from smartphones to Daft has increased by over 230% since November of last year! And this figure doesn't include the traffic coming from the Daft iPhone app or iPad app.
We've had a mobile version of Daft available at http://m.daft.ie for several years now. It was originally aimed at WAP-enabled mobile phones, so it has very few images, and is designed for a fast download over a slow mobile connection. In the last couple of years the launch of the iPhone and Android-powered phones has meant that many mobile phones are now capable of handling a much richer browsing experience.
With this in mind we set out to build a version of the site which still loads quickly on a mobile connection, but provides a much richer browsing experience than the previous mobile site.
3 Comments » | Read More »
Daft has just made it easier for you to find your dream home online!
We've just added an exciting feature to our maps called Google Street View - a 360 degree street-level view of properties, towns, neighbourhoods and streets in Ireland.
If you’re looking for a place to buy or rent, Street View immerses you in the property location, at ground level. You can move up and down streets, or look around you in 360 degree panoramas giving you a feel for the property and the area.
You can virtually explore neighbourhoods and navigate to individual homes and amenities like shops, schools, dry cleaners and bus stops. You can even check out nearby landmarks to help with driving directions to the property!
Tonight Bill Cullen starts the annual search for his new apprentice, kicking off at 9pm on TV3.
Each of the 16 contestants will spend the next couple of months battling through a variety of tasks, each designed to test their suitability for a place in Bill Cullen's business empire until only one remains.
While the contestants try to get used to the level of business acumen Bill Cullen expects from them, they'll also be getting used to the type of luxurious lifestyle the winner can expect.
For the duration of the competition, the contestants will be living in Knockbawn House - a luxury mansion located in Enniskerry, only a stones throw from Druids Glen Golf Club and Powerscourt Estate.
When a rental ad is listed on Daft, it can be "renewed" once per day. Renewing an ad is effectively confirming that the property is still available, so the ad behaves like a new listing and is pushed back to the top of the search results.
Over the course of the day other advertisers will also place new ads and renew their existing ones. This constant churn means that the ad which was renewed at 9am to go top of the listings is very unlikely to still be there come 9pm.
Ads at the top of the search results will generally get a much higher response rate than those further down the listings, so the longer an ad remains towards the top of the listings, the better it performs in terms of views, phonecalls and ad replies. As a result of this, one question we often get asked is "what's the best time of day to renew my ad?".
The latest Daft Rental Report was released this morning, covering April to June 2010.
Rents across the country fell by less than 1% during this time. In July, the average asking rent in the country was just over €835 per month, down 5% on the same time last year.
In the second quarter of the year, rents fell by between 1% and 3% in Dublin, Cork and Waterford city centres. In Galway city and Limerick city, rents increased by up to half a percent, while elsewhere in the country rents fell by 1% on average. Commenting on the report, Ronan Lyons, Economist with Daft.ie said, "The year-on-year fall in rents is now at its slowest pace in two years, suggesting that the rental market may be close to stabilising. Nonetheless, the total stock of properties available to rent remains high, which means we are unlikely to see rents rising rapidly in the near future."
With Leaving Certificate results out yesterday, the latest figures will be welcome news for new and returning college students. This is the third year in a row that rents have been lower than the previous year. Compared with 2007, a typical student renting a two-bedroom property could expect to save between €1,500 and €4,000 over the course of the academic year.
The latest Daft House Price Report was released this morning, covering quarter 2, 2010.
The report found that asking prices for residential property around the country fell by 4.2% during the second quarter of 2010. The national average asking price for property has fallen 37% since the peak and now stands at €220,000. The average time to sell a property is eight months, down from 10 months at the start of the year.
In Dublin prices fell by 5% in the past 3 months and are now 40% lower than prices seen during the peak. Elsewhere in the country, prices are 34% below the peak on average. In Cork and Limerick prices fell by 3% and 2% respectively during the last three months, while prices in Waterford fell by 7%. The largest falls in the country were in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan, where asking prices fell by an average of 11%, having been static for the past six months.
Ronan Lyons, economist with Daft.ie, said: "While falls in asking prices are slower than last year, the market is still in adjustment and the total stock for sale, particularly outside the main cities, remains high. Nonetheless, evidence from Dublin in particular shows that properties are selling. Almost half the number of properties listed in the capital in January are now sale agreed or sold."
He continued, "Around the country, about 5,000 properties were listed for sale in April. Of these, 15% of properties have already been sold, while a further 10% are sale agreed. This represents a slight slowing down, compared with the first quarter, when 20% of properties listed in January were sold by April 1, with a further 10% sale agreed."
The full report, including a commentary by Jim Power, Economist at Friends First, is now available at www.daft.ie/report.
