Who ARE all these rich people?

People buying and selling properties at the right time in 90s, 00s and 10s AND couples on good salaries and careers.

Remember for everyone who "lost" during the property boom, there was those who did very well.

I enjoy walking in the suburbs but I am really curious as to who lives in all the million euro homes (and multiples thereof). WHO are these people, how did they get there and what do they work at?

There are hundreds of thousands of millionaires in Ireland. Nobody should be surprised that some of them live in big houses.

not everyone earns just the 'average industrial wage' .. middle management in big Pharma / tech would attract salaries of €200k plus ... along with stock options etc ... have two good earners in the family and €1m - €2m properties are very affordable.

I know a few people who also sold businesses they started in the last decade or so for very princely sums ... it's not all doom and gloom out there

Those with highly paid jobs, those who paid of their mortgages in the 70,s, 80s, 90s, particularly those with no kids or kids fully grown up. Often they are running a business or self employed.

Doctors, lawyers, computer programmers and those in high tech such as the Intel's or medical pharma industries. Those working for multinationals, those where both parents are in highly paid jobs. Often inheritance where grand parents died and some have shares and investments in properties, companies, bank shares, bitcoins, traders. They may have multiple properties in multiple countries maybe rented out or long term let's. Some may have owned farms or land that was sold for housing. They own whole apartment blocks or have invested in commercial property.

In many cases they were born with silver spoons in their mouths and helped on to the property ladder early, possibly given their first house by parents. Some may have made their money abroad working hard in low cost countries. Some are "old money" where they don't flaunt their wealth versus new money where they buy flashy bright cars and want to be seen. The reality is it's probably other people working hard to make them money, they make money while sleeping (on investments etc) , they can spread their risk over multiple industries and have money managers to minimise their taxes and invest in low tax areas such as forestry. Some of these people barely work others work incredibly hard or are even workaholics.

Even plasterers, brickies, electricians can be on serious money if they work wisely and invest correctly. Certain jobs are paying double or quadruple what they should be due to shortages and supply and demand. E.g. Try and even get a plumber to show up at any cost.

What is this work thing of which you speak?

Really OP, if you have to consider the price of a property, you cannot afford it.

These houses weren't millions in the 70's, they would have been 'relatively' affordable to people in good jobs at the time. I know a few people who bought houses in a south dublin suburb in the early 90s for £35-40k punts, houses are now worth €750k. Wages to house value was probably 1:3 at the time, whereas now its 1:7 or more. These people are now all paper millionaires, but they probably couldnt buy the same house today without having an asset of similar value to use against it. The likes of Rathmicheal, the massive houses are probably owned by the farmers/people who used to own the land that all the estates in south dublin were built on. Looking at old maps, there was never much houses there up until the last 20 years or so

A lot of these huge houses were in a terrible state for decades and then were done up as they were sold. I remember there were tons of huge empty houses in Clontarf. Many a teenage night spent in them. We weren't idiots who smashed them up so nobody really noticed us.

I went to a college friends house in Dalkey and he lived in an absolute mansion. He showed me around and I asked what about the rest of the house? He casually said he hasn't been in parts of it and he didn't know if anybody had even been in some rooms for over 50 years. Couldn't believe he hadn't even explored his own home.

Another women from college lived in another huge house with her mother. She had inherited some 30 years earlier and never lived in it but after the husband died they were "forced" to move in and quite limited in their funds. It was full of antiques and historical family paintings. The mother reaslised with house prices the way they were she could sell it and buy a nice modern house and have a bit of money for the future. While they were clearing out the house they found the contents were worth even more than the house. Then they started finding "hidden" things like the massive old curtains didn't have lead weights in them but gold coins. Eventually they did sell the house but 10 years later after going through the entire building to check they found everything.

First rule of fight club is...

Who was living in big houses in good areas of Dublin 40 or 50 years ago, that's the 1980s and 1970s which, while a long time ago is still fairly relatable.

if I think of my own family, my father's side was moderately wealthy and my mother's side poor but several uncles and first cousins on both side have done very well for themselves. My cousins are all considerably older than me, several are successful in business with I suspect wealth into 8 figures. They have been living in big houses since the 1980s.

Another older relative, also a businesssman, had wealth close to 9 figures (and that's just what went through probate) when he died in the 1990s. The house he lived in would probably be worth a relatively modest 1.5 million today, but he could easily have lived in a much more lavish house from the 1960s on.

There is plenty of wealth in this country, inherited wealth and from businesses. Farmers are almost invariably asset rich and their children may pay very little capital acquisitions tax when they inherit as CAT for farmland is reduced by 90% if certain conditions are met. There is also a dwelling house exemption from CAT which the wealthy will take full advantage of if they can. A person can inherit a family home of ANY value and pay zero tax if they meet the conditions for dwelling house exemption. Some of the current inhabitants of those house you are seeing may have modest jobs and have inherited. They may struggle to pay the property tax.

In the 60s and 70s from people I knew

How many pubs in Dublin and the greater Dublin areas? A pub would make you a millionaire in those days I know that for a fact.

There was a lot more cash around and people paid in cash so the country often appeared to be poorer that it was, official and unofficial Ireland.

Small to medium builders, owned road companies, owned haulage companies, kitchen companies, small engineering companies, wheeler dealers of various sorts usually property but other areas as well, doctors, vets, solicitors, stud farms, old money people referred to as Colonel something or other. I am sure there were lots of others too.

Traditionally bank managers, senior civil servants, senior army personnel, solicitors, doctors etc. could afford them. As mentioned above houses were more affordable then.

It is all very different now. We sold my grand mothers ex-corpo house to an architect on either side of them are the grandchildren of the original residents.

I know a very senior board member of a very well known IT consultancy firm and he lives in Edenmnore. Some of the contractors and staff live in way nicer areas in much larger houses. The property prices in the 90s really shook up things. Friend sold a small house in East Wall and was able to buy a large house in Raheny and still have a mortgage half our size. They bought their house 4 years before we did but that was how much a difference it made

I do have a new XBox Series X. 😂😂

And I beat myself up about buying that.

I've 14 year old second hand Toyota outside. It's embarrassing the mother in law. Which is why I still have it, plus I don't drive anywhere much. 😂

Edit

I have an absolute terrible inbuilt fear of debt, so maybe that's why.