Name - Professor James Moriarty
Sex - Male
House Buying Status - Bought a 3 bed semi-D in Sandyford in 2000. Bought a one bed studio in Budapest in late 2003.
Might be time to upscale soon.

View on Irish property - I believe prices will drop 80% from the Summer 2007 peak.

View on the private sector - The broad shouldered Software and Pharm industries are the Boxer of this Animal Farm.
We've survived despite the governments incompetence and we continue to fund the public servant sinecures.


View on Ireland - As a technical graduate with a couple of degrees and who speaks another European language I watched as men of lesser IQ's engorged themselves at the trough of Property. Now the trough has run dry, the pendulum has swung back to the technical geeks.
No one is unhurt in a recession, but some are more hurt than others, the more pain the better say I - bring it on.

Would I Emigrate? - Probably not, but I have a comfortable escape pod in readiness:
- I work for a multinational with branches in Sweden
- Wife and kids hold Swedish passports
- I speak Swedish

Name - AWAAF
Sex - Male with Wife and 3 young Kids
House Buying Status - Bought my current home in 1998. Previously had owned an apartment (There was a 2 rung ladder in those days).

View on Irish property - When the dust settles, I don't expect to have any (Real terms) capital gains on my 1998 investment in shelter/proximity to family/work/friends etc. In "hindsight" this is a little surprising but not necessarily so with "informed hindsight". Either way my investment continues to provide shelter/proximity to family/work/friends so I consider myself lucky.

View on the private sector - Have worked in Private Sector, have worked in Public Sector in very temporary capacity, now work in a relatively senior secure (-ish) Public Sector position. I took a significant drop in income to join Public Service but since then PS salaries have risen (as has been well documented here) and salaries in the area I work in (IT) have stagnated.

In my experience of both Public and Private sector many myths gain legs (possibly based on isolated anecdotes). Nonetheless there are practices in both sectors which should be changed.


View on Ireland - A lack of a Strategic focus (maybe with the exception of a few periods since 1922) leaves us in a dangerous position. I have no doubt we have talent to address this but will the problems be addressed? - I don't know!.

Would I Emigrate? - Did so in the 80's. Never considered in for 20 years until recently!

Name - InsideOutside
Sex - Female
House Buying Status - Bought my current home in 2003.

View on Irish property - What goes down must eventually come back up, however there are significant changes to be made in the property sector and how it is run.

View on the private sector - The jury is out on this one. I've spent most of my working life in the property industry in general, but now I'm redundant. I'm happy to shed some "inside" perspective on what I believe needs to change.

View on Ireland - The radical change that is sorely needed won't happen. We will all point fingers, half heartedly agree to change certain parts of the public and private sector. Then we will procrastinate about putting changes into legislation. After all this has been achieved we will finally begin to drag ourselves out of the slump and the cycle will begin again.

Would I Emigrate? - Yes if I had to, but it's not possible at present for personal reasons.

Name - LowIQ
Sex - Male
House Buying Status - Bought my current home in 2004. Now trying to sell. Will rent while looking for next house.

View on Irish property - Still overpriced. Asking price is same as price I paid 5 years ago. Expect to get less than asking if house ever sells.

View on the private sector - Worked in private sector until a few years ago. This is first job in public sector. Took pay cut in return for job security.

View on Ireland - Willful stupidity on the part of the electorate will continue to get us in to these messes.

Would I Emigrate? - Did so in the 80s to the US, then moved back. Would not like to do it again -- too stressful.

Name Bungle: The Bear

Sex: Male

House Buying Status: Sitting and waiting. Have a deposit saved at this stage but won't be doing anything in the short term. Have a one month old daughter so we'll probably look at buying something late 2009/early 2010.

View on Irish property: It's going to be a long, drawn out drop in prices. Frustrating listening to people who think "there's good value out there". People base their opinion on a 2006 frame of mind rather than looking at what houses used to cost in this country or prices in other countries. Bottom of the market will probably be 2013.

View on the private sector: Worked there all my life. Probably tends to attract the majority of chancers or cute hooers but but still a hell of a lot more productive than the bloated oand costly public sector.

View on Ireland: Needs a kick in the arse. Too much money wasted over the last 15 years which could have been invested in SME which I think are the way forward for this country. At least people have stopped asking each other how much their houses are worth.

Would I Emigrate? No. Lived in Oz for six months, came home last year. Despite it's drawbacks I'd still rather live here than anywhere else.

Name: Rialtas

Sex: Male

House Buying Status: Sold place last year, now renting

Well I have been lurking on this site since October. I would like to claim I was a pinster long before the pin - for proof SEE

My view on property in Ireland is bearish. Due to the euro the economy can't become competitive quickly, and therefore the recovery will be slow with unemployment reaching chronic levels. This will lead property prices lower.

We have a great deal to export, particularly food and drink, but these exports are not competitive as they are priced in a hard currency. The euro will be to Ireland what the gold standard was to France in the Great Depression. Note that other peripheral European countries with limited resources and small populations that went through similar recessions and banking crises ALL had to devalue their currencies as part of their recovery formulae.

To put things in perspective, the billions spent on property and depreciating, imported assets like cars and clothes could have been used to create technology companies, indigenously owned unlike our fair-weather American friends, that would be world beaters. The €1.5B used to bail out Anglo Irish Bank would have built an Irish Nokia, particularly with so much value to be had in today's markets, just think of the technology you could acquire and transfer to ireland and the revolutionary products you could build, and of course the jobs you could create.

Name: Homemaker

Sex: F

Employment Status: 1 week away from the live register

House Buying Status: Sold late '07 now renting here, own Flat in London

View on property in Ireland: Sell crazy somewhere else, we're all stocked up

View on the state of the nation: See 'view on property'. Came back in '06 after 7 years in London can't believe that all most people have to show for the wonder years are negative equity, 08 hire purchase MPVs and wardrobes full of Applecrumble and Fish. The country isn't much better, lots of new roads facilitating the bypassing of the Semi D hinterlands and new council offices housing bad planners, not many new schools, terrible healthcare etc. etc. Big change needed at the top, leaders that are not controlled by puppetmaster bankers and developers

Would I emigrate: Husband has good job, 2 young kids so probably not

that should read 'bad councillors', it's the councillors/politicians who re-zone land, insist that 1000 houses are needed despite the strong recommendations of planners that maybe 200 were needed etc etc.. Planners get a bad name for some strange reason when in actual fact their sound recommendations are often vetoed by a group of people who do not know the first thing about planning laws or regulations.

And while I'm here I might as well introduce myself:

Name: Realtín

Sex: Female

Age: Not saying. Younger than most pinsters though!

Employment status: Not a planner anyway

View on property in Ireland: It’s still massively overpriced and has a way to go yet. I’ve friends and family who bought three years ago and I feel for them. I wouldn’t wish NE on anyone.

View on the state of the nation:
I find it very depressing, but I’d like to think that we can get through this. Through corrective means we can get ourselves back on track.

Would I emigrate: Nope, only if it was a last resort.

Name: london_irish

Sex: Male

Age: Mid-thirties

Employment status: Employed in IT...in London...

View on property in Ireland: Never bought - or bought into the hype. Still renting. In retrospect, seems like the best financial decision when I tot up all the numbers. But there was a year (2005) when I thought that I *really* had missed the boat...
Time is getting closer when I think I can get a good bargain (in UK or Ireland)....except...in real terms, its hard to see any return to 2006 values in Eire for the next 10-15 years, due to (1) future poor economic state of the country (see below) and (2) liquidation of assets by NAMA.
That's a frightening prospect and one I don't take any pleasure in. I have friends who will be in NE - AND pay out a very significant part of their take home pay - for years to come. They're going to be a significant disadvantage, due to lack of disposable income, compared to their peers who bought after 2007, or who didn't buy at all. If they manage to keep their houses. This realisation has kicked in for some of them...

View on the state of the nation:
My heart says no, but my head says yes. Its hard to believe that the nation will go bankrupt and that it won't be all right in the end. But 54M in expenditure does not go into 34M in taxes. Further, the focus by the government on NAMA seems to me like they have taken their eye off the ball. The crucial problem is the public debt - which will crucify the country on the current course.

Would I emigrate: I have already, and I'm sure I'm move further afield again, with miss london_aussie. I was lucky, in a way I only know now, to move by choice in 2004 - when I knew I could fall back to Ireland if things didn't work out. Having moved, it now makes the idea, for me, of future moves much easier. Ultimately I would have preferred to have stayed home close to family...but there is little realistic prospect of that now. And any future government would have to build a watertight case on their economic management skills to lure me back.

Name: Catdog
Sex: Female
Age: 37
Housing Status: Bought first house early 2007. Totally bought into the hype - fully paid up member of cult of property, bowed at the altar, in 2007 more likely to be found viewing Myhome than Property Pin (mea culpa).
Employment Status: Unemployed since Jan 08, ex public sector kept on series of FT contracts and jettisoned when shit hit fan
View on property in Ireland: I think it's all only really starting to kick off now, price drops so far significant but not realistic - can NAMA hold it up, maybe too late. There's a lot of variables in there but the bottom line is oversupply and overpriced - how'd you fix that?
View on state of the Nation: Hmm, well I aint no economist but I'm scared. Think though a lot of talk in media and elsewhere about cronyism, wink-wink and nudge culture - blaming this on size of country and traditional networks, etc. This has to stop. Dangerous, unethical and criminal behaviour needs to be called just that. I want to see justice, not for vengeance but to put a line under the tolerance of this behaviour in Ireland.
Would I emigrate: Never, love this place

Name : Nasdo

Sex: Male

Employment Status: Employed for the past 3.5 years after graduating.

House Buying Status: Waiting for prices to drop. Also have a deposit but looking to generate enough savings to buy a house mortgage free in 3 to 4 years when prices are expected to be near the bottom.

View on Irish property: It is in a very bad state at the minute, greedy developers and co led the country to the dark side, the longer the correction of the prices, the longer it will take to see the light at the end of the tunnel

View on the private sector: In serious difficulty as many multinationals moving out of the country along with small businesses closing shop.

View on Ireland: In serious debt, high unemployment, high tax, bad infrastructure where else would you be!

Would I Emigrate? Not likely. I do have an option though to transfer to the U.S on my current job if ever needed.

Name: tiger
Age: late thirties
House buying status: Bought in 2000 at what I then thought was the peak of the market....
AAM status: tired of registered over 4 years but using it less & less. boards/politics etc. are full of chat on Carroll this evening after the supreme court decision, but not a peep on AAM!!! In future will use it to check the price of atic insulation & such like.
View on an Irish property crash: hard to know how it will pan out. left to our own devices I think we would go Japanese, i.e. a slow painful decline and another lost decade. However we don't control our own interest rates anymore and are a more open economy.
Timeline for crash: We're 2-3 years in now it looks like. Once NAMA takes shape we should know how bad & how slow/quick it will be. Basically I expect property to be flat or negative for the next 10 years.

Name - Maor Uisce

Sex - Male

Age - 40 something

Name: Cheeky Offer
Age: 32
House Buying Status: Bought in Ireland 4 years ago. Bought in London 2 years ago.
AAM:
Occasional poster over 3 years.
Feel AAM is slightly to the left of Michael Foot.
View on Crash:
Left Ireland 6 years ago as I did not like "Bling Land". Will byt again in Ireland - possibly as soon as 12 months.
Timeline:
3 years of stubborn deflation. Global inflation may be our best friend.

Interests: Work, cars, work, more work.

Name: glasto
Age: 40
House Buying Status: We nearly bought in 2006! But then we did the sums and thought no way, we'll be broke! Thank god we did, the chorus of people telling us we were fools and rent was dead money was pretty deafening. So now we are thanking maud every live long day that we didn't get caught, like so many friends and family ( lets be honest, almost everyone we know of our age). We are now in the position of waiting for probate to be granted on my late father's estate, and then we will have the joy of selling his grotty apartment, that we'll probably get precious little for. I'm hoping it'll go some way towards a deposit for us, maybe in 2011, but I'm ready to wait longer if prices still show signs of dropping.
AAM: I've read it a bit, seldom posted though. There are some sad cases alright, I think this place suits me better.
View on Crash: Its terrifying! So many lives going to be ruined by massive mortgages, neg equity etc. I reckon we're not even hitting the worst of it for a good while yet. We're trying to hang on to our jobs, but my husband is a builder!
Interests: Reading, cooking, geocaching, wine