On the sad scale living with your sister is pretty high, not as bad as with your parents, but still pretty high. But as I am discovering it is infinitely lower than flat sharing in your mid-thirties. Due to a combination of bad luck, limited funds and not being a great person to live with, I have never had much success with getting decent accommodation in Ireland. Hence I hate flat hunting.
My first experience was getting the bus to Dublin as a country green 17 year old. Stuck beside some old farmer who had an aversion to water long before Cryptosporidium became an issue. Across the way a mother would be feeding her child sandwiches from tin foil washed down with Fanta. I would count the towns until somewhere, generally pass Mullingar, the kid would upchuck the lot. The rest of the journey would be spent between the dueling aromas of vomit and B.O.
Sometime past mid-day, shortly after the ‘Evening Herald’ went on sale, the bus would arrive at O’Connell bridge. I’d race to get my copy of the paper and then sit down in one of the many fast food joints to plan my flat hunting day; identifying possible places to view and room shares to ring - along with 100,000 other teenagers. Early afternoon I would arrive up to some hideous bed-sit in Ranelagh to discover 20 people already queuing, generally in the rain. Out of desperation or lack of anything better to do sometimes I would que as well. Although the first person in line would always take the flat, irrespective of condition.
A mad rush for the pay phones would then ensue. The ones in shopping centers and pubs were warmer but more expensive. So provided it wasn’t too wet you’d wait for the pay boxes, gripping your Herald in one hand and notebook in the other. Despite warnings not to ring until after 7pm, around 4pm you’d start calling. Nurses just off shift and trying to sleep would scream down the phone at you, which was preferable to the endless engaged tone from everyone else. If lucky you might get to visit a flat-share off some obscure road in Rathmines. I knew every urine soaked tree on Leinster Road, trudging in the rain with my ‘Blue Book’ and asking other lost flat hunters where Kennilworth Square might be.
Appearing at the door, late, slightly sodden and trying to appear friendly but not overly keen, knowing you look like the girl at parties who tries to hard. Desperately hoping they like you enough to offer you a bed immediately and put an end to the horror of flat hunting. After weeks of searching I would end up in some hideous flat with some freak and their snake collection. Vowing next year it would be different, it never was.
In my twenties things improved slightly with mobile phones and kind friends (generally the ones trying to move me out) driving me around the various locations. But this was still basic compared to current system; visit Daft, select by location and room type, view photos and maybe even visit a few – piece of piss. I have the following tempting selection:
Bijou flat, pictured above, only 600 per month. (pic via Bloggorah/)
or
Apartment share with 42yr old man and his WWF collection, ‘I’m looking for a friend and not just a flat-mate’
Or
Double-bed to let, 800 per month, week days only.
Or
Studio apartment to share with one double bed - only 970 (don’t even want to think about how that works)
Or
Lots of rooms with ‘Owner Occupiers’, which means they will stalk every cup you put down without a coaster.
Or
‘Flat to let – 550 each for 3 people, 550 each for 2 people’ ( not sure how the maths works on that one )
Or
‘Close to Luas and excellent view of Dundrum Shopping Center’ (now I like retail as much as the next girl but…..)
Time to realise that maybe I need to buy my own place.
PS - any theories on buy now or wait much appreciated.
Assuming you are very drunk, in a dark room and squinting - a lot. Email me on Irishflirtysomething at hotmail.com
June 7th, 2007 at 10:07 am
they have some cheek flogging those bedsits they are gross..turns my stomach! get your own gaf flirty your worth it! it may cost you in short term but in the long run you cant go wrong girlfriend!
June 7th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Anon - having seen what is available I am seriously considering it. Although is a very grown up thing to do!
June 7th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Bloody teenage culchies, turning perfectly decent Dublin suburbs into fry-up stinking, cabbage-reeking bog-slums….
…if you’re really sittin on enough cash to buy in Dublin these days I’d sit tight until the winter when you’ll get more bang for your buck.
June 7th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Great post. One of your best and thankfully not about boys, make-up or girlie shite.
I didn’t know it was like that in the 80s. How did ye all survive?
June 7th, 2007 at 10:37 am
‘If lucky you might get to visit a flat-share off some obscure road in Rathmines. I knew every urine soaked tree on Leinster Road, trudging in the rain with my ‘Blue Book’ and asking other lost flat hunters where Kennilworth Square might be.’
How much your experiences mirror my own (though I can assure you I wasn’t on that bus - we were ‘lucky’ to be on the Sligo-Dublin line).
If it’s any consolation, flat-hunting in Paris is ten times more hellish, with the only decent deals coming via word-of-mouth. And the flats are small and expensive too, but at least French property letters have the decency to avoid using the word ‘bijoux’ - it being French after all, nobody here would be taken in by it.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Conan - was pasta and beans but I take your point
Driven demented some people say buy now before the first timers flood the market and others say don’t touch - what to do…..
Blarney - thanks, Challenging is the polite word I think!
Sean - can’t imagine how hard Paris must be. Seems to be compulsory to use French words when describing property in Ireland.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Lordy, Flirty, those prices! Up here in the nearly-North sticks you can buy a farm with 4 acres, an orchard, a duck pond, random outbuildings and they’ll probably throw in the tenant farmer too.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:07 am
how weird. had discussion with boyf last night about finally building our house before the planning runs out… all a bit scary isn’t it, grownupness.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:50 am
flirty i moved into my own house last fri..its so nice to just have own place..im still an immature git so that proves you dont have to grow up just becasue u have ur own place!
June 7th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Cherry - i’d settle for the tenant farmer, assuming he was male and cute.
Towny - freaks the hell out of me!
June 7th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Well Flirty, as I’m organising my plastic bags for me to move back to Ireland a bit later in the year, with a dog and a big bicycle (size matters), oh yeah and penniless, you’ve gone and cheered me up no end.
And I had really wanted one of my ends cheered up.
June 7th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Anon - would be great to have my own pad, am swaying a lot.
Eolai - Not as crap as flat hunting in the 90’s, now places have Neff appliances and stuff.
One of your ends
June 7th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I cannot believe that picture � 600 a month, are you joking?
June 7th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
why don’t you look into the financials of it all..how much you could borrow and how much it woudl cost have a loko at a few places and then see how you feel…..then stay at your sisters and think abotu it next year…
June 7th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
meanwhile, i will attend a typing course
June 7th, 2007 at 1:26 pm
You’d need your head examined to buy now. Look at the propertypin forums and see how things are. Sure there’ll be a little upsurge when stamp duty is reduced but the underlying trend at the moment is downwards, and its soon going to nosedive.
Wait for the 30%-40% drop and you’ve sorted yourself out jobwise, and then buy yourself a whole lot more bang for your euro close to wherever you end up working.
June 7th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
Neff appliances? This is obviously something that’s happened to Ireland while I’ve been away. All I want is a kettle.
I would sleep with a kettle. I would. Again.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Buy outside Ireland and rent - think of it as offsetting.
Also means you can do a runner anytime.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
That just brought the whole nightmare back to me. I remember once in desperation trying to trip up a guy on rollerblades cos he was getting to all the flats faster than me (they’re damn speedy if you can manage not to fall over).
Property prices seem to be falling or at least stabilising so I’d wait six months and see what happens…
June 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
WAIT!!! I told ya back in February. This ’soft landing’ has only just begun. I’d be thinking of staying out of the market for at least another year, if I were you.
June 7th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
Wait-Buy-Wait-Buy-Wait-Buy… the bottom line is, do you want to pay €600 a month into someone else’s mortgage or your own? If you can afford to, rent a place and wait (although am not convinced you’ll recognise “when” you should buy)… if your sister can tolerate you for longer (rent free i assume) better again… but if it’s a NO to both, you have to jump in at some stage……. or hang all your hats on Plan B… a guy with his own place!!!
June 7th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Agree will all re the market downturn and waiting but the difference between rent and mortgage is not massive - ahhhhhhhhhh
June 7th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
It’s true that the difference between rent and mortgage can be small, but the big difference for most people between renting and buying is location. You can probably afford to rent anywhere to Dublin, but there are far less places you’ll be able to afford to buy. Most first-timers I know have to choose between places like Clondalkin (thanks Liam Lawlor and co) or smaller and older gaffs in East Wall or the Liberties.
Having said that, it’s not just about economics. I bought 3 years ago and it was definitely a wonderfully freeing feeling not to have to rent again. Personally, I think the markets going up and down are only relevant to investors - if you’re looking for your own home, the markets don’t really matter.
Having been keeping an eye on the markets in Dublin for the past 6 months for a friend of mine, I also think prices are much lower now than 6 to 9 months ago. I would buy now.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Looking for advice? forget the daft.ie descriptions and stay away from the agencies. Myself and Ms 73man found a great house for the two of us with a spare room for 1400pm. It sounds pricey but mortgages are more expensive. Don’t listen to all the “must buy” talk. Renting is the future, put the remainder in a good pension. My 2cents.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Wait!
June 7th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Yes I’d say wait until the market’s bottomed out and you could get a really great place for a knock-down price. That’s what Jenny and I did in the early 80s property slump in London - we got a huge flat in a fashionable area we couldn’t possibly have afforded a couple of years before. If we’d bought earlier we would have paid over the odds and got caught in the negative equity nightmare that left a lot of people heavily out of pocket.
June 7th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Brian - prices are falling but if stamp goes then reckon price may rise, who knows!
73 - how did you find place?
June 7th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
‘excellent view of Dundrum Shopping Center’ - I love it
Flirty - come to Holland - accommodation is better, the weather is better, the beer is better and the men are infinitely better looking!
June 7th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Too bad you live in Ireland. I’m looking for a roommate.
June 7th, 2007 at 11:07 pm
Oops, I meant the early 90s and not the early 80s. Some day I’ll learn to count….
June 7th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
We used Daft.ie and because we were quite strict about what we wanted (2 beds, a defined area) it was easier. I know that 1400pm maybe a little pricey. We did trawl for a serious three week period because we had to leave our old place quickly. Pick for our five, visit them and make a decision based on your gut…not that you have one my dear! Got 16 matches to my fairly strict criteria tonight alone.
http://www.daft.ie/218510 ??
June 8th, 2007 at 8:23 am
Nick - result on your place, judging the bottom is the problem.
Con - It’s starting to look very attractive!
Sassy - I could commute
73 - thanks!
June 8th, 2007 at 1:46 pm
Judging the bottom?? keep it clean, Flirty….
June 8th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Hey…. check out http://www.camelotproperty.com. They have properties that are waaaaay cheaper than those you wrote about
June 8th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
flirty, buy my flat, cos I’m onny dying to move. I live nortside but.
and also -mortgage paying for several years hasn’t made a dent in my irresponsibility, general drunkeness and shoe purchasing ways, so fear not.
June 9th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Kistie - you’re an inspiration but DNS, the shock could kill me!
June 9th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Your post reminded me so much of those old days in Dublin. I was in that queue! Really happy to live in Cork now where things are not so crazy.
Am also at buy or wait stage. On the one hand I really want my own place so I can scribble on the walls in crayon if I want. On the other hand I don’t want to be so broke that I can never leave the house again.
Start looking around at places and throwing bids in anyway, it’s a huge learning experience. Then you can keep an eye on the market yourself. I always have an offer in on some old hovel, it’s kindof like a part-time unpaid job.
June 11th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
While I’m a bit late with this, if you still want to rent, you should use daft.ie
Me and three others are looking for a flat in Clonskeagh near where our digs were last year and they have a massive, and mostly affordable, selection.
June 11th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
Photo above nearly gave me a heart attack. Eeekkk…
I would consider the owner occupiers. Not all are insanely house-proud. And there is always the advantage that if something breaks, they’ll be bloody keen to fix it.
June 20th, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Re: when to buy - everyone’s an “expert” when it’s not them buying, so ignore them all and buy when it suits you. Even people who bought weeks before stamp duty was cancelled for 1st timers the last time, still didn’t regret doing so!