The Property Professional Summer 2016 IPAV 45th AGM & ANNUAL CONFERENCE THE PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL Welcome | Summer ‘16 Message from the CEO ear Member I wish to sincerely thank all the members who attended our recent AGM and D Annual Conference in Castleknock Hotel & Country Club on June 11. I wish to congratulate our new President Alan Redmond who took over the reins of office from Eamon O’Flaherty. I know Alan will continue Eamon’s great work in representing members’ interests over the coming year. The new President outlined his priorities to the Annual Conference and a summary is contained in this issue. Congratulations also to our new Senior Vice-President Brian Dempsey and our new Junior Vice-President Ella Dunphy on their election. The Conference and Annual Gala Dinner again saw a huge turnout by members and guests Front cover: Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald TD and IPAV President Alan Redmond which is a real sign of the thriving and forward-looking organisation that IPAV is today. The afternoon Conference was another opportunity for members to upskill in various aspects of THE PROPERTY PROFESSIONAL our profession as well as being a great social occasion to meet fellow members. IS THE MAGAZINE OF This year we were particularly delighted to have the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice & THE INstITUTE OF PROFESSIONAL Equality Frances Fitzgerald present to officially open the Conference. We were also delighted AUCTIONEERS & VALUERS to welcome back once again as our Conference Facilitator Ivan Yates, whose skills gave a sharp and focused edge to the presentations. Details of the Conference and Gala Dinner and 129 LOWER BAGGOT STREET DUBLIN 2 a photo special are featured in this issue. The AGM saw longstanding IPAV member John Hodnett from Clonakilty elected to Tel: 01 6785685 National Council as a representative for the Munster area. Outgoing members Tom Crosse, Fax: 01 6762890 Mervyn Lloyd and Dara Furey were re-elected to Council. I wish to thank outgoing member E-mail: [email protected] John Shaw for all his work on Council over the years and to wish him well for the future. Websites: Full coverage of IPAV’s Annual Conference and Gala Dinner is contained in this issue. Also in this issue property journalist Donal Buckley looks at indications of the spread of the www.ipav.ie property market recovery to cities outside of the capital which is good news. There is also an www.onview.ie interesting article on property in South Africa by Anne Porter in Cape Town. TEGoVA Website: In our Member’s feature section, we feature North Wicklow agent Rory Fenelon who recently opened a new office in Bray and is expanding his practice. www.tegova.org In mid-May, MEP Mairéad McGuinness presented TRV Certificates to the most recent CEI Website: group of IPAV members who undertook the valuation standards course and the www.web-cei.com presentation ceremony is featured on pages 22 and 23. Chief Executive Officer IPAV’s Annual presentation ceremony for participants in the Fine & Decorative Arts courses Patrick Davitt FIPAV MCEI took place on May 19 and there is photographic coverage of the event on pages 30 and 31. Editor Finally, I would like to remind all Members that we will again be running a full CPD programme over the next year including a Valuation Summit on Friday, October 21. Details Tim Ryan of this event and all of IPAV’s course will be emailed to you in the coming weeks and Grand Canal Consulting months. Tel: 01 661 3788 Best wishes www.timryan.ie Patrick Davitt Advertising & Design CEO Designroom [email protected] Tel: 01 615 4714/15 Contents Publisher Property Recovery Spreading PG: 6-7 Designroom Annual Conference Special PG: 8-19 www.designroom.ie South Africans looking for Opportunities PG: 20-21 PROPERTY PROFEssIONAL Presentation of TRV Certs PG: 22-23 SUMMER 2016 Rural Affairs Seminar PG: 24-25 Views expressed by contributors or correspondents are not necessarily those of IPAV or the publisher Fine Arts Presentation PG: 30-31 and neither IPAV nor the publisher accept any responsibility for them. 1 President’s Message | Summer ‘16 President’s Message ear Member I was delighted and honoured to be elected President of IPAV at our recent AGM in Castleknock D Hotel & Country Club on June 11. It was great to see such a huge turnout of IPAV members for our AGM, Conference and Gala Dinner all of which are signs of a very vibrant and progressive Institute. I was also delighted to welcome the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice & Equality, Frances Fitzgerald to officially open the conference and a summary of her remarks is contained in this issue. The Conference also generated substantial media interest with a report carried on RTE’s Nine O’Clock news. As President I was also delighted to welcome the Director of the Property Services Regulatory Authority, Maeve Hogan, to our Conference. During my term of office I will be asking her to ensure that many rogue agents who continue to operate without a license will be put out of business as quickly as possible. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all who attended for part or all of the day. I hope you found the speakers at the afternoon Conference beneficial and useful in your day-to-day work and that you found the overall get-together a great networking and social occasion for meeting colleagues many of whom you may not have seen for a long time. The hotel’s location, on the edge of the Phoenix Park and the capital itself, also made it a wonderful venue for some relaxation, given the many nearby attractions. I wish to congratulate our new Senior Vice-President, Brian Dempsey and our new Junior Vice-President, Ella Dunphy on their election as well as our newly elected National Council member John Hodnett from Clonakilty. I very much look forward to working with all members of the national Council and our CEO Pat Davitt in the year ahead. I wish to pay tribute, also to John Shaw who has left Council and to thank him sincerely for his contribution to the Institute over many years. This is the second time I have had the honour to serve as IPAV President and the honour for me and my family is no less this time. During my last term of office in 2008/9, although we were unaware of it at the time, Ireland was heading into a deep and prolonged recession which hit our industry harder than most because of our location at the very cutting edge of the property industry. While we have now recovered from that recession, the country is still faced with many major challenges including a housing crisis. In my address to members, I outlined a number of proposals which I feel would be of major benefit in tackling the current crisis and these are outlined elsewhere in this issue. Among the proposals was an urgent review of the future role, if any, of vulture funds in Irish society. Many of these funds are simply driven by greed to flip the properties as quickly as possible with existing tenants often needlessly forced from their homes. In my view, the arrival of these vulture funds in the midst of a housing crisis is highly questionable. As we go forward, Irish society needs to look at the notion of selling many more tenanted properties, much in the same way that the commercial sector operates. Tenants should have a more secure fixture of tenure which should only be broken for breach of obligations, such as the failure to pay rent. However, increasing regulation and the lack of any incentives have seen many ordinary landlords drift out of this sector at a very critical time. As part of its Budget 2017 strategy, I called on the Government to introduce real tax incentives for ordinary buy-to-let investors to encourage more to enter the sector. These investors should also be given the same tax latitude as the so-called vulture funds which do not pay income tax on rental income. I also called for greater density of housing in the capital. Whether we like it or not, more and more people, notably younger people, will continue to live in the capital which will be the major source of employment for the foreseeable future. And in order to facilitate this growing population we have to build upwards as well as outwards. It is clear that cities around the world that have restrictions on height have high rents and high levels of homelessness. In relation to rural Ireland, I called for an urgent action on the extension of broadband nationwide which in parts of the country is extremely weak or non-existent. Mobile telephone reception is also very poor in many areas and makes it extremely difficult to carry on a business. Since the appointment of Pat Davitt as our CEO three years ago, the Institute has been transformed in many respects and now operates on a very high level of professionalism. In fact in many areas IPAV is leading the way in the EU, notably in our association with TEGoVA, the European Group of Valuers Association. With over 300 members now awarded “TRV” and “REV” status, it will ensure members are qualified to a consistently high European standard as well as recognising residential valuations are conducted to ‘Blue Book’ standards. Over the coming year, IPAV will be continuing with its programme of seminars at various points around the country and I look forward to meeting as many members as possible.