Alison O'Riordan article in Irish Times....

George Orwell 1982

Some of you may remember the epic thread "I signed my life away for a city centre apartment" about Alison O'Riordan's purchase of a city centre apartment for a whopping 480k plus 45k for a car parking space bringing the total cost to 525k.

She wrote a number of articles in the SINDO about it.

Today she is back with an Irish Times article.

News of the sale of cut-price apartments at Grand Canal Square angered ALISON O’RIORDAN

LAST Thursday morning when I saw the words “A docklands deal” on the front page of this property section, I felt like crying.

All day I eyed the block in question from my fifth-floor apartment window, in the next- door building on Hanover Street.

If there was a competition for throwing dirty looks, I would easily have come first, for those aesthetically beautiful Grand Canal Square apartments are being offered to first-time buyers for a sickening €190,000.

Two years ago, with help from my parents, I bought into the same sought-after riverside location in Dublin 2, but for the horrifying sum of €525,000.

It’s such a bitter taste of defeat as I stare out my window each morning that I leave the blind down continually.

Only those in the same situation can understand why I am nursing an injury. It may not be of the physical kind but it’s a wound nonetheless, a deep financial one.

The market’s collapse is the worst thing that has happened many young people of my generation.

In 2008, even as the market was softening, I honestly thought I had found my ideal home for a reasonable price.

I got caught up in the crazy mania of feeling I must have an apartment. Sleek Scandinavian furniture, designed for modern living, a roof garden and outdoor space made it all the more desirable.

That the new Grand Canal Square Residences in the Docklands, which are above a hotel planned for the square, have “marble bathrooms, high-gloss kitchens and floor-to-ceiling windows”, has only compounded my negative equity nightmare.

As a homeowner, my load was already heavy enough to carry as, stuck with a property I cannot sell, I struggle to meet my monthly repayments.
My father reminds me on a daily basis that I ploughed in head first and listened to no one. Hindsight is a very exact science and as I read the Grand Canal brochure describing the bathrooms as “white and grey flecked marble with high-spec chrome fittings, heated towel rails and mirrored cabinets”, I chastise myself for incarcerating myself in my own financial prison. A prison, I soon learned, that had no more than about 10 inmates. Today the other apartments in my building are filled to the brim with wise renters.

The only advantages I have are a balcony and a roof garden, extras for which I paid a horrifying €295,000.

I am so worried, I can hardly think of anything else. The words “docklands deal” have dominated my life since the launch last week.

Experts say the apartment market will take longer to recover than the market for any other type of Dublin property, primarily because of oversupply.

And the most depressing thing is the value of my apartment will not rise in the foreseeable future and may fall more, so I am stuck.

Each day in the newspapers, I eyeball three-bedroom houses in affluent areas such as Ranelagh, Killiney and Ballsbridge on sale for around what I paid for my apartment.

At least I can put the newspaper down or flick over the page, however there is no getting away from the apartments across the street. With two-beds ranging from €230,000, this luxurious complex has turned into an “eyesore” of a development for me.

Yesterday the bill for the management fee came in. It is for €1,600 – another figure I carefully choose to ignore back then. And come December 7th, I will probably have a property tax on top of this.

Please try and avoid personal abuse and insults or the thread will be closed.

stovelid

I know enough people who got caught with bad property not to indulge in the widespread schadenfreude that goes on around here - as well as it just being not in my nature.

That said, people like the above and Brendan O Connor annoy deeply because there seems to be a furious subtext of I'm not like the other plebs who got caught - this is serious. A real stamping of feet.

I can't help feeling that people like that were the most aggressively annoying proselytizers for the property ladder at the time (what do you mean you're not getting on the ladder?) as opposed to the thousands of average punter who just wanted to buy a family home.

orourkeda

I love the way when someone like her gets ripped off it angers her when other people arent stupid enough to do the same thing.

Aren't we supposed to learn from ours and other peoples mistakes.

krudler

No sympathy at all for her tbh, spent ludicrous money on something without thinking of the possible consequences, now she's up to her eyeballs in debt crying for sympathy. boo hoo

Today the other apartments in my building are filled to the brim with wise renters.

This bit I laughed at, oh how people thought I was crazy for paying rent in a city centre apartment when I could have "paid a mortgage for the same amount" 5 years ago, lets see, nope, no crippling debt hanging around my neck.

take everything

Aesthetically beautiful indeed.

lynski

ok she bought in 2008, paid a silly price for a city center apartment, and was duped. But replace location with, say, Lucan, price with 340000 and year with 2006 and you get the situation thousands are in.
We bought because we thought we needed to, we paid market price and THE BANKS AGREED THAT PRICE WAS VALID and we will be staying put and paying through the nose for the next 30 yrs.
What can we do that is positive to improve the lot of people in these situations?

TwoShedsJackson

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/1013/1224280971465.html

NEWTON'S OPTIC: Our walking tour visits the homes of some of those responsible for the economic collapse

THANK YOU for joining this political walking tour of Ireland’s “Brass Circle”, where we will visit the homes of those responsible for the State’s economic collapse. Please keep to the centre and mind your step as the path we are taking is rarely used.

No 16 Pleasant View

This is the home of Andrew and Orla Cullinane. They purchased it in 2006 with a 110 per cent mortgage for 12 times their combined salary, following a particularly creative self-assessment.

They knew it was the absolute upper limit of what they or almost anyone else could afford, even if they ate spam and cat-food for their rest of their lives.

But they still assumed that house prices would keep rising indefinitely, while never asking how they could realise this capital growth without moving into a tent. They also assumed that their jobs were completely safe and their wages would increase forever. After all, they are both teachers.

No 39 Absentee Avenue

This house, which is currently vacant, was bought by Mr Patrick Lord as a buy-to-let investment using an extremely popular loan product designed for that purpose. While not expecting to profit significantly from the rent, Mr Lord did expect to make a huge profit from the property’s eventual re-sale. At no point did it occur to him that reward is the return for risk. He has 23 years remaining for this fact to dawn.

No 85 Haughey Mansions

This is the home of Séamus and Bridget Doolally, who always vote Fianna Fáil no matter what.

No 44 Lower-Middle Close

This is the home of Barry and Linda Rooney and their five-year-old son Wayne. Through the mock-Georgian front windows you can see a 60-inch flat-screen television manufactured by the Happy Liquid Crystal Company of Guangzhou, China. The Chinese government had little option but to spend the resulting $5,000 trade surplus on US treasury bonds, thereby lending the money back to the West at nominal interest.

China, like Japan before it, has now accumulated so many of these bonds that any move to redeem them would render them worthless. In effect, Asia has been tricked into taking cheques it can never cash by a post-imperialist global financial system serving unproductive western consumers. On the other hand, Barry and Linda do get to watch Celebrity X-Factor in super-sharp high definition.

No 17 Pinewood Park

This is the home of Anthony and Aisling O’Farrell. At the rear of the property, beside the conservatory, you will see an area of decking so expansive that their neighbours secretly call it “The Queen Mary”.

They paid for it with an equity release loan against the increased value of their house, telling themselves it was “an investment” which would further increase its value. Then they could borrow some more.

No 26.5 APR Long Street

This is the home of Brendan and Kathleen Martin. The his-and-hers 4x4s you can see on the cobbled drive were purchased through a consumer finance deal, as was all the furniture in the house plus the new fitted kitchen.

However, the food in the kitchen was purchased by credit card. The Martins are now facing repossession, something they could never have foreseen.

No 1 Circular Road

This is the home of John Donnelly, who works in a bank. Everybody shout “boo!”

round tower huntsman

zanu-ff, zanu-ff,zanu-ff....................

dvpower

Another couple of thousand of these articles and she'll have that mortgage paid off.

orourkeda

lynski wrote: »

ok she bought in 2008, paid a silly price for a city center apartment, and was duped. But replace location with, say, Lucan, price with 340000 and year with 2006 and you get the situation thousands are in.
We bought because we thought we needed to, we paid market price and THE BANKS AGREED THAT PRICE WAS VALID and we will be staying put and paying through the nose for the next 30 yrs.
What can we do that is positive to improve the lot of people in these situations?

Nothing. People have to pay for their mistakes.

Anyone who pays 45 grand for a parking space has something wrong with their brain as far as I'm concerned.

The banks screwed up just as badly but knew that if things went belly up there'd be a bailout. This isn't right but thats the way it's proved.

dvpower

lynski wrote: »

ok she bought in 2008, paid a silly price for a city center apartment, and was duped. But replace location with, say, Lucan, price with 340000 and year with 2006 and you get the situation thousands are in.
We bought because we thought we needed to, we paid market price and THE BANKS AGREED THAT PRICE WAS VALID and we will be staying put and paying through the nose for the next 30 yrs.
What can we do that is positive to improve the lot of people in these situations?

She was hardly duped. Read the article.

My father reminds me on a daily basis that I ploughed in head first and listened to no one.

Yesterday the bill for the management fee came in. It is for €1,600 – another figure I carefully choose to ignore back then.

I have some sympathy for her, but not so much that I would want to pay over my hard earned money to help her out.

seaniedearg

zanu ff...

that is funny

she sort needs to understand that

life just happens sometimes...

Kintarō Hattori

I just can't have any sympathy for her, that was a ludicrous amount of money to spend on the type of apartment it is. Three years ago we looked at buying a place but held off as we recognized that everywhere was too expensive. She and plenty of other people threw common sense out the winow.

We held off and now we're looking at buying a 2 bed house for 135K and I worry a little about the future state of the economy!

But really I just can't have any sympathy for her or other people who bought places for more than they realistically were worth. All you had to do was look at what other places were going for in other major European countries and that would have given you an indication that places here were overvalued and unsustainable at those prices.

prinz

There's only one thing for the likes of this: LOL :pac: Hope she enjoys the view for a long time to come. If it's schadenfreude so be it, it's not some unfortunate accident that befell her. More like a poacher getting caught in his own trap. Ha fecking haaaaa.

derfderf

dvpower wrote: »

She was hardly duped. Read the article.




I have some sympathy for her, but not so much that I would want to pay over my hard earned money to help her out.

I like when she says her father warned her but hindsight is a great thing. He warned her at the time.

sbsquarepants

I have two words for Alison O'Riordan - Boo Hoo.
You bought an overpriced apartment and now you have to pay for it, so f'ucking what, so did thousands of others, myself included. Shut up and get on with it.:mad:
Also - you got a half million mortgage on your own? You won't starve!

mike65

Seriously, who cares? She was desperate to get the housing ladder regardless of anything else and wouldn't listen to good council or even sniff the air (spending half a million in 2008?) Some mistakes you really have to live with.

I'm trying to be kind here: the quality of her writing isn't the best.
I wonder if she has a template she likes to roll out once in a while, when she gets a chance to complain. I'm amazed there is no "chill wind" mentioned in this one!

I have no sympathy whatsoever. None. Nada.
Suck it up and stop whinging, Alison.

Nijmegen

While I feel a good measure of sympathy for folks who were simply trying to start a family and find somewhere to raise their kids, I knew too many cute hoors telling me all about how much they were worth on the way up flipping properties like football hooligans flipping birdies.

Frankly, you made your own bed love.

youcancallmeal

I'm struggling to see what the point of that article is and why the Irish Times published it? Really stating the obvious? The picture made me laugh out loud though.

howamidifferent

From a social perspective I guess she'll be one of the many single adults who make it to retirement alone....I cant see any man stupid enough to tie himself to her burden then let her "retire" with a baby while he pays for her mistake...

-K2-

These are the people crying out rubbish like "where's my NAMA?".

MySelf56

Leave Alison Alone!

PS: All she ever wanted is city centre apartment near to all squanky posh south side shopping centres which cost just half million + chique car. Oh well! at least she didnt give the money Michael Lynn for Bulgarian Apt.

ToxicPaddy

She is just another one of these silly people who were living a lifestyle they couldn't afford and now the definitely can't.. and I do know a fair few of them..

Granted the fact that apartments directly across from her are going at a fraction of what she paid would earn her a little sympathy as its really rubbing salt in the wounds, but she just did what most others did and ignore common sense. Even her parents are saying it to her, but would she listen? No!!

She wanted the flash pad, with the fancy furniture and the lifestyle to show off to her friends.. what does she have now? A life time of debt to a bank who are laughing away at her stupidity.

A maximum mortgage is a not a target to be aimed for but an idea of what you can spend on a property that's worth the money. She paid way too much for an apartment, ignored the reality of day to day costs such a maintenance, bills etc and now she is on her knees..

If she had been sensible and bought somewhere a little smaller, less flash and further out from the city centre, she would probably be still in negative equity but would still have a life and could if things pick up get out of it with a relatively minor loss..

Tox

pixelburp

Half a million Euro. I have to say it to myself again - Half a million Euro for an apartment. Seriously, I have zero sympathy for this kind of carry on, particularly as she admits herself in the article that she didn't engage her brain and probably should have listened to her Dad. Or anyone with any common sense.

Half a million Euro. Fook me it boggles the mind. 45,000 for a parking space?

I actually feel my inner keyboard-internet-socialist coming out here, because screw Sean Fitzpatrick for a second, it's people like this that ultimately contributed to the falling economy.

Don't get me wrong, I have siblings and friends with mortgages: indeed, I myself am getting into that area with a duplex I'm pursuing, but bloody hell, no one I know was talking that kind of money. I feel awkward house hunting in this climate, but the figures I'm throwing around in my head are nothing compared to this wagon. Ha, she could buy my proposed home twice over & have enough to spare to buy the ground floor apartment :eek: Shocking.

jester77

What is with this persons whining?

I don't get it. An apartment was on sale, she obviously thought it was worth the asking price, otherwise she would not have purchased it, and she could afford the repayments. I bet she was all happy and smug when she got the keys and opened the front door for the first time.

What has changed? Should it matter if it is worth 10 times more or less than what she paid for it? She bought it to live in, she is still paying back what she was happy to agree to, everything is the same for her. So what if the apartment next door is worth more or less than hers, that has no impact on her repayments.

Gunsfortoys

I have to say that article has me interested in those apartments on Grand Canal, thanks Alison!

howamidifferent

I'd imagine it's the fact the building is now primarily occupied by renters thus relegating her luxurious apartment to a flat in a social housing complex...:D

123balltv

€525,000 crazy money
today with €525,000 I could buy 1 appartment and 2 houses
actually if the economy gets any worse I might buy 3 houses
with that crazy amount of money sorrry Alison:o

ToxicPaddy

Gunsfortoys wrote: »

I have to say that article has me interested in those apartments on Grand Canal, thanks Alison!

So you're going to buy one, get all ur mates around and give her a big wave everytime you see her moping around on her balcony/rooftop garden???

Cruel cruel person but I like it..

Luxie

She could get a gig marketing Ikea.

Sleek Scandinavian furniture, designed for modern living

Red Hand

youcancallme>al wrote: »

I'm struggling to see what the point of that article is and why the Irish Times published it? Really stating the obvious? The picture made me laugh out loud though.

It looks like an industrial estate.

Luxie

You'd expect this from the Sindo, I would have thought the Times had more cop on.

c_man

She took a gamble and lost. Meh.

pixelburp

It's worth taking a wander around that Docklands area, it really is enlightening as to the folly that was the Property madness. I work near enough the area & it's a total wasteland; grey "luxury" apartments, surrounded by grim warehouses and a few council estates. No decent amenities or facilities. Everything grey as you'd expect being near the docks. Nearby, the proposed new headquarters for Anglo sits half-finished. Half the apartment blocks look empty so I'd say in a few years those developments are going to deteriorate pretty quickly.

TJJP

'I am so worried, I can hardly think of anything else'.

Meanwhile her 'flat mate' just happens to be out for a bite at the Unicorn 'one of Dublin's top restaurants', 'favourite of the great and the good'.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/a-pint-of-guinness-and-a-bag-of-cheese-and-onion-arrived-at-the-next-table-little-did-i-know-they-were-for-bill-clinton-2362705.html

pog it

youcancallme>al wrote: »

I'm struggling to see what the point of that article is and why the Irish Times published it? Really stating the obvious? The picture made me laugh out loud though.

Anyone else get the feeling that she could be writing this on behalf of the Grand Canal Dock property company? It read a bit like an advertisement....

orourkeda

TJJP wrote: »

'I am so worried, I can hardly think of anything else'.

Meanwhile her 'flat mate' just happens to be out for a bite at the Unicorn 'one of Dublin's top restaurants', 'favourite of the great and the good'.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/a-pint-of-guinness-and-a-bag-of-cheese-and-onion-arrived-at-the-next-table-little-did-i-know-they-were-for-bill-clinton-2362705.html

Firstly, how is it possible to get published and paid for writing an article about Bill Clinton drinking a pint of guinness.

Secondy, who reads it.

PCPhoto

jester77 wrote: »

What is with this persons whining?

I don't get it. An apartment was on sale, she obviously thought it was worth the asking price, otherwise she would not have purchased it, and she could afford the repayments. I bet she was all happy and smug when she got the keys and opened the front door for the first time.

What has changed? Should it matter if it is worth 10 times more or less than what she paid for it? She bought it to live in, she is still paying back what she was happy to agree to, everything is the same for her. So what if the apartment next door is worth more or less than hers, that has no impact on her repayments.

I wonder would she have the same reaction if the other apartments were designated for social welfare housing ?

While I have little sympathy for her - she managed to earn a little - to pay off the debt by re-hashing "her story" when it was deemed appropriate.

in fairness as everyone else has already stated - there are a lot of people who are in the same or similar situation, they cant expect the government to bail them out - I personally dont think the government should have bailed the banks out.... if you study AGM reports over the last 15-20years the banks were posting millions in profits - where has that money gone ?

I was told in 2005 by my parents to try buy a place instead of renting - at the time I simply said I couldn't afford it an average city centre apartment was €300,000, something I felt I couldnt repay - especially being self-employed.

this reporter - purchased a year, almost 18months after the bubble had burst - recent figures put the peak in summer 2006, some put it in 2007 - either way - she purchased despite all the news in the media (where she works) about falling house prices - banks burst etc etc....for this reason I have little sympathy for her.

has anyone considered taking action against financial institutions about the advice they were given (post bubble burst 2006/2007) - banks and other financial institutions were still trying to give the big sell.

Gunsfortoys

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

So you're going to buy one, get all ur mates around and give her a big wave everytime you see her moping around on her balcony/rooftop garden???

Cruel cruel person but I like it..

House warming topped off with a fireworks display and invite everyone in her building except her.:D

maninasia

pog it wrote: »

Anyone else get the feeling that she could be writing this on behalf of the Grand Canal Dock property company? It read a bit like an advertisement....

Well she did repeat everything they come with a few times and the price..so it's pretty obvious, Irish newspapers have no standards, they should declare advertising!

gazzer

derfderf wrote: »

I like when she says her father warned her but hindsight is a great thing. He warned her at the time.

The parents still helped her with a deposit though. The father should have put his foot down and told her to eff off.

Blowfish

lynski wrote: »

We bought because we thought we needed to, we paid market price and THE BANKS AGREED THAT PRICE WAS VALID and we will be staying put and paying through the nose for the next 30 yrs.

The banks were spot on, the market determines the price, hence the price was valid.

I'll never understand people who complain that the banks should have told them not to get a mortgage. They are a business who make 5 figure sums from each customer. As long as you can afford the repayments, why the hell would they care if the money gets spent on something overvalued or not?

TwoShedsJackson

jester77 wrote: »

What is with this persons whining?

I don't get it. An apartment was on sale, she obviously thought it was worth the asking price, otherwise she would not have purchased it, and she could afford the repayments. I bet she was all happy and smug when she got the keys and opened the front door for the first time.

What has changed? Should it matter if it is worth 10 times more or less than what she paid for it? She bought it to live in, she is still paying back what she was happy to agree to, everything is the same for her. So what if the apartment next door is worth more or less than hers, that has no impact on her repayments.

Good points, except you are assuming she thought about all this and gave it careful consdieration, whereas the tone of her why-me article seems to point to the opposite.

I really doubt she or many others actually thought about whether their house/apartment was 'worth it' when they bought, otherwise they would not have bought. 525,000 for an apartment in Dublin? 45,000 for a parking space?

She points out that she was advised by all and sundry that she was mad to go ahead with this and she did it anyway, so any sympathy you might have had for her evaporates there. She sounds like she was desperate to get in on some sort of faux-Sex & The City lifestyle so she decided to sign most of her working life away - idiocy.

It's value seems to matter to her because she seems to have assumed it was going to keep going up in price so she could sell it on in a few years and make a nice profit, or buy a proper house somewhere in the 'burbs. The though that the value might go the other way and leave her stuck paying it off and unable to sell never crossed her mind.

My name is URL

Her constant shite flows abruptly

stovelid

It also doesn't really help her case when the overwhelming theme of the article is one of distaste that she is now stuck in an apartment complex that is now allowing in cut-price riff-raff while her dream homes glisten - forever out of reach - in the tonier suburbs.

The Waltzing Consumer

Well, at least the Irish Times seems to do a better job editing then the Sunday Independent with this trash. Gone are the notorious anonymous quotes, the ridiculous phrases she used to spew out, and her overall plan to build solar-powered windmills to pay for the apartment.

Good to have her back

Duckjob

The funny thing is - I still don't think she get's it.

She talks about how long the apartment market will likely take to "recover". I think in Alisons mind, what's happening now isn't as "the recovery", but rather some sort of protracted glitch in the matrix.

Welcome to reality Alison. Your foolishness saw you insisting on paying for your apartment probably 3 times what it is worth. It is directly because of your actions and others who did similar that prices ever reached such stupid proportions.

3 words Alison: SUCK IT UP.

Terry

I spent €9 on the lotto last night. I didn't win. Again.
Mutual hug, Alison?

Turnstyle

typical gombeen product of the celtic tiger, the sex and the city lifestyle and the half a million pad. Its not manhattan and you got burned, quit whinging and move on. 525k and 45k for a parking space in dublin, wtf... 190k is about right for one of these

Gone Drinking

Morlar wrote: »

I don't think anyone has said she is a candidate for mensa.

No, they didn't. But i'm sure she's intelligent enough to understand the decision she was making and the advice she was being given. I'd feel sorry for her if she was a dribbling idiot.

But she isn't, so i don't.