Prop-arazzi

The 13.12.07 marks a new land mark in the history of Northern Ireland, no not ANOTHER peace accord, no not ANOTHER nobel peace prize winner unveiled, but the opening of the first EVER IKEA store on the island of Ireland. The crowds expected will be so large that some of the PSNI crowd control officers have had to go to Spain to brush up on their riot control skills - which is rather bizarre as they are from a city that has kinda made a name for itself in that department.

Here at Weber Shandwick we carried out the planning and public affairs work prior to the granting of planning permission by the then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Peter Hain MP. Our office in Dublin is currently working for the Swedish gaint ahead of the second store in Dublin due to open in 2008 and we wish them every success.

On Thursday NI might flip up on its side as the weight of many thousands focus on the new east Belfast store beside George Best City Airport. The above the line advertising for IKEA has been massive, everywhere you turn in Belfast, there is a billboard filled with the yellow and blue corporate colours, every NI webpage has an online advert and every NI paper has double page spreads of sofas, cups and the kitchen sink. Recently 600, 000 IKEA catalogues have been delivered to the salivating public - the region has been blitzed.

Belfast has never seen the likes of this of late. IKEA frenzy has gripped us all firmly by the swedish meatballs - yes, also available in store by the way. 

Interesting prediction from the director of research at Savills who stated last week that despite the suggestions that price inflation in the housing market will be flat or in decline in 2008 in general, growth in the prime central london market will be expected to grow by 4 or 5 per cent. However it is likley that this will cause even greater market segregation in property prices between the likes of commuter towns outside London and the central city areas. It will be interesting to see how that one pans out.  For all those millionaires looking to splash some spare change on a 3 bedroom town house in west london better get in quick.

Well after yesterday’s budget, Finance Minister Brian Cowan did unveil major stamp duty changes in a bid to boost confidence in property and the economy in the Republic of Ireland. His reform of the stamp duty system will mean that:

The first 125,000 euro of any residential property purchase will be exempt from stamp duty. The balance for houses costing less than 1 million euro will be taxed at 7 per cent rising to 9 per cent for houses over the 1 million euro mark. So in layman speak, a couple buying a home costing say, 370,000 euro will pay over 5, 000 euro less in stamp duty, not bad. For many hard working Irish people this could be the difference between being able to buy a house or having to live with mum and dad well into their late twenties - and nobody wants that!

Meanwhile in the UK we wait with anticipation to see what the Bank of England will do later this morning in terms of cutting interest rates after what The Times reports as the worst run of losses in the property market for more than a decade. 

Brian Cowan, the Republic of Ireland’s Finance Minister has delivered his budget today amidst increasing worries about the now legendary Irish Economy. Property types will be looking for some softening of the Stamp Duty rate as well as indications that capital allowances will continue to favour investment.

With house prices dropping for a second quarter (which will lead to a massive 4 billion euro dent in the tax take) in a row and fears that the international credit crunch will begin to hit home amongst middle Ireland, Cowan has a very tall order tonight.

Prop-arazzi.com will have its own take on the Dail Eireann speech in the morning. If you want to watch Cowan click here.

Some people’s idea of hell is standing in the atrium of a large shopping mall at this time of year as people push past you to get to the increasingly glitter strewn shelves lulled into a trance via shakin’ steven christmas classics and xmas instrumentals blurring out over the instore entertainment systems. Well, last night we escaped the christmas crush and executed a fantastic community exhibition on behalf of a major retailer just outside Belfast on the proposals for a large development and extention of one of the best loved shopping centres in NI.

One thing that struck us as we watched person after person visit the exhibiton was the importance of involving the local communities in plannned proposals and developments. Gaining support from the people that will be directly or indirectly affected by planning proposals is of the utmost importance and something that should not be taken lightly by property developers and companies.

What community exhibitions do is allow the local community to be part of the planning process and ensure that their voices are heard and answers given there and then to inform how they think about certain plans and to clarify any uncertainity they may have. You’ll find, as we have this morning going through the comments and feedback forms that if you bring the community on board you will be surprised at how much positive support people are willing to give in the name of development. This is only one strand of the overall communications programme we are currently undertaking but possibly the most important. So involve the community, let them know whats going on and who knows what property santa might bring…planning permission!

Hello and welcome to Prop-arazzi.com the blog of the Weber Shandwick UK and Ireland property team.

Prop-arazzi.com aims to bring you the most up to date legislative information, comment on property communcations and general info on the property sector across the British Isles from our NO.1 team headed up by some of our most experienced communications consultants in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Dublin and Belfast.

Professional and effective communciations are vital to every property company’s success whether the audience is corporate, political or the community.

Whether it is to strenghten your planning submission proposals, mangaging your community relations, establishing and managing reputation and issues or to enhance your reputation with the financial world - the WS property team should be your first port of call.