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

ILA · 14-10-2010 12:51PM

bonerm wrote: »

Had a look on streetview at what (I guess?) is her apartment complex. I don't think she's that worried about the neighbours considering she appears to live in a glorified travellodge.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Grand+Canal+Theatre,+Dublin,+Ireland&sll=53.34389,-6.233486&sspn=0.003292,0.009538&ie=UTF8&hq=Grand+Canal+Theatre,&hnear=Dublin,+County+Fingal,+Ireland&ll=53.344717,-6.243095&spn=0,0.004769&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=53.344717,-6.243095&panoid=wfSfiiE1rgjKtYr6mF3wNg&cbp=12,65.45,,0,-20.51

Is that the actualy apartment complex? It's actually SAD that she and 10 others spend €525,000 on that thing!#

That's just IRISH, that is. Only one acronym for the situation:

ROFLMFAO

OutlawPete · 14-10-2010 12:59PM

So, what exactly is her problem?

Have her wages dropped?

If not, then her main issue is that the value of her property has fallen and she is now in negative equity.

However, even if her the value of her property was now worth more that what she paid, she would still be paying the same mortgage.

Sorry if I couldn't care less but, she has a great job and a great apartment, she's a lot better off than most people in this country.

Those apartments she bought into (That photo that was posted, is not the block she is in) are quite simply the best built apartments in Dublin to have bought, in that they won't fall very far in price for a variety of reasons.

The block she is in on the square overlooking the restaurants beside the theater, no expense was spared on their construction.

If only that could be said about some of the other cardboard boxes people paid €350,000 for.

Apartments where your can hear you neighbours flush their toilets.

Don't feel an ounce of empathy for her.

When the economy does genuinely turn around, those apartments will be the first to rise in value, just based on location alone.

I for one will be saving my tears for those that bought houses in counties they don't even work in and commute a four hour round trip each day just to get to and from their place of employment.

People who lost their jobs and had to hand back house keys and yet still have the banks chasing them because what the house fetched on the market didn't cover their debts.

Gorgeous apartment, great views, excellent location, five minute walk to work, excellent amenities, Grand Canal theater downstairs, O2 across the bridge, Luas stop two minutes away, balcony for sipping wine, excellent job, gets paid to blog, has her health ..

She's one of the luckier ones as far as I'm concerned.

pixelburp · 14-10-2010 01:00PM

changes wrote: »

I certainly do feel sorry for her and the thousands of others caught in a similar position. You would have to be a fairly heartless and bitter person not to.

But sadly that is life.

It's not a question of heartlessness, but a question of sense. I'm sure there are many people in her situation, but are many of them in so deep as her? Of the home owners I know (including myself in the next month or two), no one paid half a million eurobucks for an apartment. That's not just living beyond one's means, it's living beyond any semblence of common sense.

c_man · 14-10-2010 01:05PM

changes wrote: »

I certainly do feel sorry for her and the thousands of others caught in a similar position. You would have to be a fairly heartless and bitter person not to.

But sadly that is life.

Reading her articles, it's quite clear that she bought it with the intention of flipping it a few years later. She ignored plenty of warnings. Gamble didn't pay off, she should deal with it.

Morlar · 14-10-2010 01:09PM

OutlawPete wrote: »

So, what exactly is her problem?

Have her wages dropped?

If not, then her main issue is that the value of her property has fallen and she is now in negative equity.

However, even if her the value of her property was now worth more that what she paid, she would still be paying the same mortgage.

Sorry if I couldn't care less but, she has a great job and a great apartment, she's a lot better off than most people in this country.

Those apartments she bought into (That photo that was posted, is not the block she is in) are quite simply the best built apartments in Dublin.

The block she is in on the square overlooking the restaurants beside the theater, no expense was spared on their construction.

If only that could be said about some of the other cardboard boxes people paid €350,000 for.

Apartments where your can hear you neighbours flush their toilets.

Don't feel an ounce of empathy for this woman.

Those apartments won't drop far and when things pick up, they will be the first to rise in value.

I for one will be saving my tears for those that bought houses in counties they don't even work in and commute a four hour round trip each day just to get to and from their place of employment.

People who lost their jobs and had to hand back house keys and yet still have the banks chasing them because what the house fetched on the market didn't cover their debts.

Gorgeous apartment, great views, excellent location, five minute walk to work, excellent amenities, Grand Canal theater downstairs, O2 across the bridge, Luas stop two minutes away, balcony for sipping wine, excellent job, gets paid to blog, has her health ..

She's one of the luckier ones as far as I'm concerned.

Those are some good points.

Also the people to feel sorry for are the minimum wage ones faced with a massive import of cheap labour and who the dole don't give free houses to because they actually work.

Those are the people who will never even get a mortgage to begin with.

AckwelFoley · 14-10-2010 01:10PM

Anyone that was daft enough to pay 45k for a space to park their car deserved to get their money taken from them.

They're the same people that will buy an iphone

AnonoBoy · 14-10-2010 01:12PM

Why do papers keep printing this same article?

Has anything substantial changed since the last one she wrote about this same subject for the Independent?

prinz · 14-10-2010 01:15PM

AnonoBoy wrote: »

Why do papers keep printing this same article? Has anything substantial changed since the last one she wrote about this same subject for the Independent?

Everytime the value of the apartment drops €10k.

14-10-2010 01:15PM

I'm waiting for the article "Each 20 euro handjob brings Alison O'Riordan closer to paying off her mortgage."

derfderf · 14-10-2010 01:15PM

stovelid wrote: »

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.

And there's the exact reason why people shouldn't feel sorry for her. Even if she lost her job she could move back in wit her parents, it's not like it's a family gettin put on the streets.
Through both articles you can tell the only thing that really gets to her is the fact she should have got so much more for the 525k if she waited.

take everything · 14-10-2010 01:15PM

c_man wrote: »

She took a gamble and lost. Meh.

I don't regard it as a gamble tbh.
She was happy to pay it then, so why not honour it- property crash or not.

AnonoBoy · 14-10-2010 01:18PM

Is she living there?

Maybe she could rent it out cheap to me. I'm looking for a new gaff.

Earthhorse · 14-10-2010 01:22PM

At this stage, I'm kinda concerned for her mental health. She's absolutely obsessed with this mistake she made and unable to think of anything else. That's not a healthy way to live.

daveyboy_1ie · 14-10-2010 01:32PM

I will again make the point, like I did in the other threads about her that she still looks with envy at other property that costs the same amount she paid and clearly can't afford. She has learnt nothing. If she was given a hot tub time machine to go back she would still apply (and get) the same mortgage and buya house in a 'respectable' area with help from her parents and would still be up to her neck in debt, but at least she will percieve herself as 'living the dream'. Its hard to feel sorry for someone like that, I have much more sumpathy for someone who got a mortgage to look after their family and now find themselves unable to pay off a mortgage that could put their families on the street. Thats a real worry, not the envious feelings she has.

Sorry Derfderf, just seen you made the same point, had not read past the the first few pages

Sizzler · 14-10-2010 01:35PM

You know I do have some sympathy for the girl as shes financially screwed for a very long time, not a nice feeling Im sure....BUT, the fact she insists on writing about the same thing every few months is highly patronising. If she wants to blow off steam surely there has to be a better way than subjecting the Irish paper reading public to this pure and utter venting.

Seriously, why do her editors approve such garbage to print, is this what constitutes journalism these days

oceanclub · 14-10-2010 01:36PM

3 months ago, Alison was talking about her normal life when she did a laughable "experiment" trying to live on the dole:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/on-just-euro196-a-week-it-hurts-to-part-with-the-pennies-2271802.html

Her normal life entails "shopping in Superquinn", "spending €70 a month for a gym", every "Saturday afternoon hitting the high-end boutiques of Clarendon Street", and "gulping down Cosmopolitans".

Yet in this IT article, she claims "I struggle to meet my monthly repayments."

Yeah, I think I may see a reason why, Alison.

EDIT: How much does turning oneself orange cost per month?

P.

pog it · 14-10-2010 01:36PM

OutlawPete wrote: »

So, what exactly is her problem?

Have her wages dropped?

If not, then her main issue is that the value of her property has fallen and she is now in negative equity.

However, even if her the value of her property was now worth more that what she paid, she would still be paying the same mortgage.

Sorry if I couldn't care less but, she has a great job and a great apartment, she's a lot better off than most people in this country.

Those apartments she bought into (That photo that was posted, is not the block she is in) are quite simply the best built apartments in Dublin.

The block she is in on the square overlooking the restaurants beside the theater, no expense was spared on their construction.

If only that could be said about some of the other cardboard boxes people paid €350,000 for.

Apartments where your can hear you neighbours flush their toilets.

Don't feel an ounce of empathy for this woman.

Those apartments won't drop far and when things pick up, they will be the first to rise in value.

I for one will be saving my tears for those that bought houses in counties they don't even work in and commute a four hour round trip each day just to get to and from their place of employment.

People who lost their jobs and had to hand back house keys and yet still have the banks chasing them because what the house fetched on the market didn't cover their debts.

Gorgeous apartment, great views, excellent location, five minute walk to work, excellent amenities, Grand Canal theater downstairs, O2 across the bridge, Luas stop two minutes away, balcony for sipping wine, excellent job, gets paid to blog, has her health ..

She's one of the luckier ones as far as I'm concerned.

Nicely written piece Pete. I don't think she has a great job though... and if she does she won't have much out of it for a long time.

recylingbin · 14-10-2010 01:39PM

stovelid wrote: »

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.

Top post.

Gunsfortoys · 14-10-2010 01:40PM

oceanclub wrote: »

3 months ago, Alison was talking about her normal life when she did a laughable "experiment" trying to live on the dole:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/on-just-euro196-a-week-it-hurts-to-part-with-the-pennies-2271802.html

Her normal life entails "shopping in Superquinn", "spending €70 a month for a gym", every "Saturday afternoon hitting the high-end boutiques of Clarendon Street", and "gulping down Cosmopolitans".

Yet in this IT article, she claims "I struggle to meet my monthly repayments."

Yeah, I think I may see a reason why, Alison.

P.

Well I think all sympathy went out the window with that article.

Who had attempted 'sex and the city lifestyle' as her reason for buying the overpriced apartment? You get ten points.

oceanclub · 14-10-2010 01:40PM

The Waltzing Consumer wrote: »

Well, at least the Irish Times seems to do a better job editing then the Sunday Independent with this trash.

Well, either Alison or her editor (if there is one) doesn't know the difference between "chose" and "choose":

....another figure I carefully choose to ignore back then

P.

Dravokivich · 14-10-2010 01:43PM

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's as if newspapers are blogs now...

The Broadsheets are nothing more then over pumped tabloids now...

smash · 14-10-2010 01:44PM

Gunsfortoys wrote: »

Who had attempted 'sex and the city lifestyle' as her reason for buying the overpriced apartment?

Which character do you think she is? I'm gonna say Samantha!

fontanalis · 14-10-2010 01:49PM

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.

The bit in bold sums the woman up for me. A shallow, pretentious Amanda Brunker wannabe writing drivel in a rag thinking she represented ireland at the time.

oceanclub · 14-10-2010 01:49PM

I note she's trying to rent out one of the rooms (no link, but it turns up in Google her name - considering her notoriety, not very clever) for €700 a month. Pretty steep when you can rent a 1-bed for that these days (there's over 300 on Daft alone), rather than having to share with an owner-occupier.

P.

Morlar · 14-10-2010 01:51PM

oceanclub wrote: »

rather than having to share with an owner-occupier.

Oceanclub, Orange owner occupier.

oceanclub · 14-10-2010 01:57PM

I stopped buying the Irish Times around the time I realised my money was paying for Roisin Ingle's column. However, compared to O'Riordan, Ingle is Dorothy Parker.

P.

orourkeda · 14-10-2010 02:09PM

oceanclub wrote: »

3 months ago, Alison was talking about her normal life when she did a laughable "experiment" trying to live on the dole:

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/on-just-euro196-a-week-it-hurts-to-part-with-the-pennies-2271802.html

Her normal life entails "shopping in Superquinn", "spending €70 a month for a gym", every "Saturday afternoon hitting the high-end boutiques of Clarendon Street", and "gulping down Cosmopolitans".

Yet in this IT article, she claims "I struggle to meet my monthly repayments."

Yeah, I think I may see a reason why, Alison.

EDIT: How much does turning oneself orange cost per month?

P.

She now deserves even less sympathy for her current plight after writing this piece of sh*t

MySelf56 · 14-10-2010 02:15PM

I think we all missing the point, because of her mesmerising tantastic photo and beautiful scenery from her balcony.

Last week "docklands deal"

Docklands apartments beside the Grand Canal Theatre that were set aside for those on the affordable housing list are to be offered to first-time
buyers today at prices starting from €190,000.

That’s crux of the issue, poor people living next to well known national news paper journalist that is not just preposterous it is beyond contempt and unacceptable makes her blood boil.

aidan24326 · 14-10-2010 02:16PM

Gone Drinking wrote: »

One article on the subject, fair enough. Two? Fcuk off and write something decent.

This is actually her third article on this same subject in the past year. The first two (in the indo) were almost identical to each other, a copy and paste job.

derfderf wrote: »

Through both articles you can tell the only thing that really gets to her is the fact she should have got so much more for the 525k if she waited.

That's the crux of it and why I have minimal symathy for her. Take this bit:

"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".

Even though she has a high class apartment in Grand Canal Dock that's still not good enough for our little princess, and she still eyes up Killiney and Ballsbridge. Imagine the boom was still going and let's say her apartment in the docklands was now being valued at 750K, she's excactly the kind of person who would be 'freeing up equity' on her existing apartment to buy another one, or to chase that 'dream home' beside a few millionaires out in Killiney, the kind of place where (in her own pretentious head) she clearly belongs.

oceanclub wrote: »

I note she's trying to rent out one of the rooms (no link, but it turns up in Google her name - considering her notoriety, not very clever) for €700 a month. Pretty steep when you can rent a 1-bed for that these days (there's over 300 on Daft alone), rather than having to share with an owner-occupier.

P.

Good luck to her getting 700 for a room in the current market. She hasn't learned anything.

dvpower · 14-10-2010 02:17PM

Turnstyle wrote: »

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

Or not.

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

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