DUBLIN (Reuters) – Moody’s downgrade of Ireland to junk status will make it harder for Dublin to return to funding itself through debt markets next year and undermine its efforts to generate economic growth, government officials said on Wednesday.

Ireland, like Greece before it, had planned on returning to market funding next year as part of last year’s bailout from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

But in its statement late on Tuesday, Moody’s said Ireland was also likely to follow Athens in needing a second bailout and Irish bond yields jumped to record highs in early trade, making it less likely Dublin can fund itself affordably on markets.

“The action by Moody’s will make it more difficult for Ireland to access the markets next year,” the National Treasury Management Agency’s (NTMA) Oliver Whelan told national broadcaster RTE.

Portugal, Greece and Ireland are all struggling to generate enough growth to begin the long task of reducing high public debt burdens and Economy Minister Richard Bruton said the move by Moody’s would also hurt the government’s effort on that front.

“This means for certain investors, Ireland is now taken off their radar, they will not touch Irish borrowings, that is bad for us, that makes the whole job of recovery more difficult,” he told RTE.

Moody’s move comes a week after it slashed Portugal to junk status with a similar warning about the need for a second round of rescue funds. It reflects the rating agency’s view that any further financial assistance from Brussels will require private investors to share part of the pain, possibly through a debt rollover or swap.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – A commitment to lower interest rates for countries borrowing from Europe’s rescue fund should cut Ireland’s debt servicing costs and makes it unlikely that French demands for a rise in corporation tax will succeed, the Irish finance minister said on Tuesday.

Euro zone finance ministers late on Monday pledged to lengthen the maturity of debt and lower the interest rate on loans from the EFSF, the euro zone’s rescue fund, in an attempt to bring the bloc’s debt crisis under control.

Ireland has been asking for lower rates on its European loans, expected to total 40 billion euros, but has faced opposition from France, which wanted Ireland to raise its 12.5 percent rate of corporation tax in return.

Ireland is borrowing 17.7 billion euros (15.6 billion pounds) from the EFSF and 22.5 billion from the EFSM, the EU’s rescue fund.

Noonan said the plan would make it hard for France to push through its demand.

“(It) will make it difficult for countries like France to re-enter with a quid-pro-quo,” he said, while adding that the proposed package of measures is likely to be passed.

“I’d be quite confident that anything stated in the communique last night, can in the opinion of the finance ministers be carried through their own parliaments,” said Noonan.

DUBLIN (Reuters) – A commitment to lower interest rates for countries borrowing from the EU rescue fund should help Ireland and makes it unlikely that French demands for a rise in corporation tax will succeed, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said on Tuesday.

Euro zone finance ministers late on Monday pledged to lengthen the maturity of debt and lower the interest rate on loans from the EFSF, the euro zone’s rescue fund, in an attempt to bring the bloc’s debt crisis under control.

Ireland has been asking for lower rates on its European loans, but faced opposition from France which wanted Ireland to raise its 12.5 percent rate of corporation tax in return.

Noonan said the plan would make it hard for France to push through its demand.

“(It) will make it difficult for countries like France to re-enter with a quid-pro-quo,” he said, while adding that the proposed package of measures is likely to be passed.

“I’d be quite confident that anything stated in the communique last night, can in the opinion of the finance ministers be carried through their own parliaments,” said Noonan.

Investors judged the measures too vague and dumped the euro, peripheral euro zone government debt and European shares in response but Noonan said the overall outline was positive for Ireland, which is already in receipt of EFSF loans.

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – UK housebuilders see signs that the housing market is proving more resilient than many feared due partly to pent up demand from people who need to move house despite mortgages still being tough to obtain.

Builders Persimmon , Taylor Wimpey , and Bovis Homes said this week sales in the traditionally buoyant spring period have held up, lifting shares across the sector and giving a boost to an industry that is suffering from a four-year hangover from the credit crisis.

“I can see relative stability (into 2012),” Bovis Homes Chief Executive David Ritchie said, noting a 16 percent rise in first-half reservations for private homes.

Morgan Sindall confirmed a “slight improvement” in market conditions, while Galliford Try reported annual housing completions up 27 percent to 2,170 units.

“I think there is a general thawing out there … what I’ve been encouraged about is, is against the backdrop of pretty negative press commentary against the consumer squeeze…you’ve seen a much more resilient profile from the housing market,” said Chris Millington, an equities analyst at Numis Securities.

Shares in Persimmon, for example, have risen 8 percent in the past two weeks, outperforming the FTSE 250 midcap index.

The slight improvement in confidence is supported by house prices rising unexpectedly in June.

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – British housebuilder Bovis Homes said it was on track to deliver growth and meet its full-year expecations, when posting a 16 percent rise in first-half reservations for private homes.

“We are still seeing significantly more visitors per week … that gives us the confidence on volumes,” chief executive David Ritchie told Reuters on Friday.

“When you combine increased volume off a bigger business with a much stronger margin, your profitability can grow quite significantly,” he said, adding the mortgage market remained a challenge.

Rivals, such as Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey , have pointed to improved sales in recent months after activity slumped in the second half of 2010, while mortgage lender Halifax LLOy.L said this week house prices rose 1.2 percent in June, an unexpected fillip.

Bovis said it completed 801 home sales in the first half, compared with 803 homes in the 2010 period, while the average sales price rose 3 percent. It had 802 private reservations in the first half.

Stable market conditions are allowing builders such as Bovis to ramp up activity, with an expected 33 new sites to be opened this year. It is also snapping up land, saying it had agreed terms on a further 20 sites during the first half, which represents around 2,500 plots.

Analysts said higher margins coming through on land will translate into profit growth.

LONDON (Reuters) – Insurers could help get the mortgage market moving again by sharing some of the risk with housebuilders to make it easier for first time buyers get a foot on the housing ladder, the Home Builders Federation (HBF) said in an interview on Monday.

The only viable way to unfreeze the mortgage market is for third parties to bridge a so-called “deposit gap,” as high deposits continue to keep first time buyers at bay.

“The only long-term solution to this is that we get a proper insurance-based solution by third party insurers, who are after all experts,” said John Stewart, director of economic affairs at the HBF.

“Housebuilders cannot go on locking up capital in shared equity, the industry already has got about a billion pounds locked up. That is not a long-term sustainable solution,” he said. Lenders, though, are resisting a return to mortgage indemnity insurance because of its past reputation.

Data on Monday highlighted the plight of the industry, with housebuilding shrinking for the second time over the past three months, against a wider backdrop of weak consumer spending.

Lenders are reluctant to return to high loan-to-value mortgages due to regulatory constraints, an outlook unlikely to change over the next few years, said Stewart.

“I am really concerned that you may not get back to 95 percent (LTVs) on any scale at all, because of (regulation)particularly … and also the FSA (Financial Services Authority)mortgage market review. One assumes that it is going to be tighter regulation,” said Stewart.

LONDON, June 24 (Reuters) – London-focused builder and developer Berkeley Group unveiled plans to return 1.7 billion pounds ($2.75 billion) in cash to shareholders over the next 10 years, as its annual profit soared by nearly a quarter.

The company, renowned for its savvy London land buys and snapping up bargains at the bottom of the cycle, is proposing a series of dividend payments, totalling 13 pounds per share in cash.

“Shareholders put a lot of faith into Berkeley in 2008/09 after Lehmans…they let us in with 350 million pounds of cash to invest in the market, which we’ve been doing over the last two or three years,” Managing Director Rob Perrins told Reuters.

This bucks the trend of caution among British housebuilders, particularly those focused outside the more buoyant London market. Construction is at low levels as builders operate in a weak environment, squeezed by low mortgage approvals and poor consumer confidence.

Berkeley has swollen its land bank by 13 percent in the past year to a total of 27,026 plots, and will continue its investment phase for the next two years, though at a slower rate, said Perrin.

“We won’t be buying as much land (as last year)…At the current time, London land prices are very strong,” he said.

The company noted that it would not start to return cash to shareholders during this two-year investment period. Payments are likely to be scheduled between 2015 and 2021, according to the strategic plan.

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) – British support services and building firm Interserve’s (IRV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Adrian Ringrose cautioned that its growth in the Middle East will not rebound to 2009 levels in the short term, playing down investor expectations.

“We peaked there in 2009, fuelled from Dubai Airport and the significant projects in Abu Dhabi and obviously those are gone, and for the moment don’t look like they’re ever going to be repeated,” Ringrose told the Reuters Global Real Estate and Infrastructure Summit in London.

“It will be a while before we get back to anything approaching the profit contributions we’ve had out of equipment services,” he said.

But he noted that the United Arab Emirate market, where it is currently constructing a shopping mall in Fujairah, is starting to come back to life.

Analysts are forecasting high growth for Interserve in the Middle East whose largest market is in Qatar where it employs up to 12,000 people, while Saudi Arabia is planning a hefty $385 billion investment in infrastructure over the next five years.

“The market (in Qatar) is still churning out a level of work, it just hasn’t taken off yet,” he added.

But growth in the UK domestic market is a drag on the outlook, with Britain suffering one of the largest downward revisions by Euroconstruct earlier this week to a 2.2 percent contraction this year.

LONDON (Reuters) – Listed infrastructure funds in Britain expect to benefit from yield-hungry retail investors who take their money out of savings accounts to escape low deposit rates and invest in assets such as schools and hospitals.

Record low interest rates of 0.5 percent in Britain are driving many to seek an inflation hedge in infrastructure, a panel of listed infrastructure fund directors told the Reuters Global Real Estate and Infrastructure Summit in London.

This has not yet led to soaring demand for them. HICL Infrastructure (HICL.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) shares are down 2 percent since the start of the year, GCP Infrastructure is down 1 percent and John Laing Infrastructure Fund (JLIF.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is flat, compared with a 4 percent drop in the London’s FTSE 100 .FTSE index.

“I’ve just been on a road show and every single person I talked to the first thing they ask is where can I get yield and inflation protection. Private client brokers all over Britain are desperately looking for homes for their money,” said Rollo Wright, a partner at GCP Infrastructure Investments.

GCP raised 40 million pounds ($63.9 million) in an initial public offering in London in August. It is one of five listed infrastructure funds in the UK.

Tony Roper, a director of InfraRed Capital Partners, HICL’s investment adviser, said it was difficult for start-ups to launch new listed infrastructure funds because they need to approach their market with a big enough portfolio of assets.

“Over half of our investors are now retail, a lot of them come from private client brokers,” Roper said.

LONDON (Reuters) – British support services and building firm Interserve’s (IRV.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Chief Executive Adrian Ringrose cautioned that its growth in the Middle East will not rebound to 2009 levels in the short term, playing down investor expectations.

“We peaked there in 2009, fueled from Dubai Airport and the significant projects in Abu Dhabi and obviously those are gone, and for the moment don’t look like they’re ever going to be repeated,” Ringrose told the Reuters Global Real Estate and Infrastructure Summit in London.

“It will be a while before we get back to anything approaching the profit contributions we’ve had out of equipment services,” he said.

But he noted that the United Arab Emirate market, where it is currently constructing a shopping mall in Fujairah, is starting to come back to life.

Analysts are forecasting high growth for Interserve in the Middle East whose largest market is in Qatar where it employs up to 12,000 people, while Saudi Arabia is planning a hefty $385 billion investment in infrastructure over the next five years.

“The market (in Qatar) is still churning out a level of work, it just hasn’t taken off yet,” he added.

But growth in the UK domestic market is a drag on the outlook, with Britain suffering one of the largest downward revisions by Eurocontruct earlier this week to a 2.2 percent contraction this year.