Stories from the Celtic Tiger Years Mod Warning in OP PLEASE READ

ChikiChiki · 30-06-2020 5:21pm

partyguinness wrote: »

I blew €2000 on Blackjack online
I had the Celtic Tiger BMW
I flew Cork to Dublin a few times for the feck of it
Ordering 3 bottles of Champagne in the Palace bar
Several skiing trips
Weekend breaks away to European cities
In the position I could buy pretty much anything I wanted without being too bothered about the price.

By the end of 2008 I had €54k of unsecured debt. I was 30 yrs old and on €70k pa with no kids or mortgage. It all got a bit real then with wage freezes and cuts. Went on massive drive to pay back everything and cleared it all by the end of 2010

Fair play, must have been absolutely sole destroying.

I worked in the bank in 2008/2009 and even as things were going bad I spotted a car on my lunch break, got a rush of blood to the head and fired off an internal mail asking for 10k, loan docs were faxed through immediately, signed and approved in the space of about 2 hours.

Paying that back was soul destroying so can only imagine what 54K was like.

tylercheribini · 30-06-2020 5:23pm

Sesame wrote: »

When the pub times changed and pub were allowed to open until 12.30 am, wasn't it the same for Thursday nights and then there was some outcry about people not turning up for work on a Friday morning so they had to set it back an hour on Thursdays? I vaguely remember that happening but those years were pretty blurry.

I got married at the end of the tiger time and the prices for bands and photographers were astronomical. Looking back now on my leather bound €3k photo book as a lasting memory

I do remember being out on Thursday nights in a small Irish town and it was jammers,busier than any weekend night there now,said venue was a hotel so they could get away with serving late, we were all residents sure, I cant remember what time they closed those nights but it defo wasnt 11.30.

Sebastian Dangerfield · 30-06-2020 5:26pm

tylercheribini wrote: »

I do remember being out on Thursday nights in a small Irish town and it was jammers,busier than any weekend night there now,said venue was a hotel so they could get away with serving late, we were all residents sure, I cant remember what time they closed those nights but it defo wasnt 11.30.

Early 2000s in a small Clare town, some of the pubs had music 5 nights a week, with a decent few in for pool or darts the other 2. Monday nights were particularly busy - the same places wouldnt have music on a Saturday night now unless there was a 21st or something like that.

tylercheribini · 30-06-2020 5:28pm

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

Early 2000s in a small Clare town, some of the pubs had music 5 nights a week, with a decent few in for pool or darts the other 2. Monday nights were particularly busy - the same places wouldnt have music on a Saturday night now unless there was a 21st or something like that.

Yea it really was like living through the roaring 20's only I didnt realise it at the time. My mates were all tradesmen raking it in and on more than one occasion would pay through the nose for ****e chanpagne in the local night club.

Hibernicis · 30-06-2020 10:53pm

Sesame wrote: »

When the pub times changed and pub were allowed to open until 12.30 am, wasn't it the same for Thursday nights and then there was some outcry about people not turning up for work on a Friday morning so they had to set it back an hour on Thursdays? I vaguely remember that happening but those years were pretty blurry.

You are correct about late opening on Thursdays. The Intoxicating Liquor Act 2000 abolished the traditional summer and winter opening times and the Sunday "holy hour" from 2pm to 4pm and allowed 30 mins drinking up time. It set opening hours as follows:
On Thursdays, Fridays and Saturday nights, drink will be served until 12.30 a.m.
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, pubs will stay open until 11.30 p.m.
On Sundays pubs can serve drink until 11 p.m. on Sunday night.
On the eve of public holidays, closing time will be extended by one hour.

The Intoxicating Liquor Act 2003 altered this and made Thursday the same as Monday to Wednesday.

The pressure to change the hours In 2003 came largely from the VFI because the majority of pubs (especially the rural ones) didn’t want the hassle and expense of late night opening on Thursdays; it was simply extending the working day (cost) bringing no additional revenue.

talla10 · 30-06-2020 11:00pm

One of my biggest memories was joining an Emergency Service in 2005 and telling my mates what my wages were and the salary scale I was on.

They all laughed and the usual I wouldn't get out of that bed for that type comment. Then they'd tell stories of their bonus's, companies arranging outrageous parties all the usual craic.

Fast forward to the crash and I suddenly was vastly overpaid

freshpopcorn · 30-06-2020 11:00pm

Before iphones, etc this and in pink for the ladies.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater · 01-07-2020 1:09am

talla10 wrote: »

Fast forward to the crash and I suddenly was vastly overpaid

Don't worry, you're just about coming back to being on huge money again, let the good times roll!

PTH2009 · 01-07-2020 2:50am

freshpopcorn wrote: »

Before iphones, etc this and in pink for the ladies.

Jesus blast from the past, think I had one of them once upon a time. Anyone have one of those little mini cameras ?

Was in secondary during the Celtic tiger but can remember lots of money around with pubs etc been busy and very little closures (sadly few pubs started to close from 2008 on). Plenty of jobs around in the 2000s even for secondary/college students and often people moving jobs quickly.

Could be wrong but were concert/match tickets actually cheaper around that time than they are now ?

PhilOssophy · 01-07-2020 8:39am

Yeah the only thing which never reduced was the price of concert tickets, even during the down turn post Celtic tiger they didn't reduce very much, if at all. We still paid more than other countries even in 2011/2012.
I was trying to think of modern day excesses similar to the Celtic Tiger, without wanting to derail the discussion and dive any deeper than this, I think the only really obvious examples I can think of in recent times where money was spent/wasted with abandon is the Children's Hospital and the new Pairc Ui Chaoimh. But sure Frank Murphy got his new trophy stadium!

01-07-2020 10:10am

This celtic tiger development Belmayne always struck me as a mirror of the times.

* Eye watering prices
* Over the top advertising.
* Celebrity endorsements.
* Bubble bursts
* Developer goes bust
* Turned into a ghost estate for a time.
* Fire safety issues with some of the buildings.
* Eventually completed with a large allocation of social housing.

gmisk · 01-07-2020 10:45am

ronoc wrote: »

This celtic tiger development Belmayne always struck me as a mirror of the times.

* Eye watering prices
* Over the top advertising.
* Celebrity endorsements.
* Bubble bursts
* Developer goes bust
* Turned into a ghost estate for a time.
* Fire safety issues with some of the buildings.
* Eventually completed with a large allocation of social housing.

Who was the target market with that ad?! Dracula?

Montage of Feck · 01-07-2020 10:48am

The local rural pubs have been in terminal decline since then, with a whole generation of customers gone to oz.
What's left of them will surely be gone with covid.

Canyon86 · 01-07-2020 11:05am

ChikiChiki wrote: »

Irish weddings are a load of **** until about 11pm when the formalities go out the window due to the copious amount of drink consumed up to that point.

Absolutely hate the standing around and small talk in church car parks and stately boutique hotels that lasts for about 8 hours. The money spent on these things is eye watering for one day.

I've been at a few foreign weddings of Irish people, with smaller gatherings and less formal. Way better craic in my opinion. And obviously a fraction of the cost and stress.

Couldnt agree more, top post!!:D

Leg End Reject · 01-07-2020 11:32am

gmisk wrote: »

Who was the target market with that ad?! Dracula?

I'm guessing exhibitionists and voyeurs.

Showing a couple getting down to business on the kitchen island when you can see how close the houses are behind probably wasn't the brightest marketing idea.

Odelay · 01-07-2020 11:36am

Leg End Reject wrote: »

I'm guessing exhibitionists and voyeurs.

Showing a couple getting down to business on the kitchen island when you can see how close the houses are behind probably wasn't the brightest marketing idea.

They had the patio door open and all. Shire that would have let in a heap of midges.

Leg End Reject · 01-07-2020 11:44am

Odelay wrote: »

They had the patio door open and all. Shire that would have let in a heap of midges.

Why have the neighbours just watch when they can hear too?

seenn00J · 01-07-2020 12:52pm

That Belmayne development is so crowded, it's like they had a competition to see how many apartments/duplexes could be crammed into the smallest space. It's the type of housing that would be perfectly suited for city centre living. How much were they going for at the time of the Dracula ad? Here's a link about the structural defects the owners were hit with a bill for:

www . irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/belmayne-it-will-take-an-actual-fire-to-reveal-the-truth-934852.html

Also just read Jamie Redknapp and his wife attended the launch in 2007. Half a million! It's basically an extension of Darndale lol!

Less than half the apartments, which eight years ago ranged in price from just under €300,000 to almost €500,000, were built, and a large number of them remained unoccupied for several years after construction, turning the development into a ghost estate.

In 2009, Clúid, with housing associations Hail and Sonas, bought 75 completed units in Belmayne. At the same time, Dublin City Council bought 59 of them and appointed Clúid as management agent.

At the time, the estate was in a very poor condition, Clúid spokeswoman Karen Kennedy said.
‘Rubbish piled up’

“When we first visited this development over six years ago, there were high rates of anti-social behaviour, rubbish was piled up on the streets, and there were derelict buildings everywhere.

KungPao · 01-07-2020 1:04pm

I remember the done thing for students who worked part time in a shop was to go traveling for months on end. Always south east Asia. Paid for by the folks or big loan. Their bebo profiles were all the same, with nauseating posts of them acting like they are some pioneering discoverers of lost ancient civilizations. Yes we know, it’s hot there and they like to eat weird stuff.

Still, I would have liked to have done it myself!

CrankyHaus · 01-07-2020 1:14pm

seenn00J wrote: »

Also just read Jamie Redknapp and his wife attended the launch in 2007. Half a million! It's basically an extension of Darndale lol!

Yes. Parts of it are majority social housing, the big no-no of modern residential development, if you add the Council and Housing Agency properties in certain blocks. In fact there are plenty of Council Estates I'd prefer to live in.

The J Stands for Jay · 01-07-2020 1:34pm

One More Toy wrote: »

Don't know why because the bank itself isn't in great shape to be sold off, look at the share price since the govt sold a tranche

I don't know specifics but I'm pretty sure KBC was the only bank not bailed out by the state. So fair play to them I'm sticking with them

They were bailed out by their Belgian parent. No idea of the parent was bailed out by their government

BattleCorp · 01-07-2020 1:42pm

gmisk wrote: »

Who was the target market with that ad?! Dracula?

Chiropractors.

He's obviously about to fix her back.

bear1 · 01-07-2020 3:14pm

Well I as one of the fools that got sucked into the "easy" credit scenario.
Got a job in AIB around 07 and the money being thrown at ya for being a bank employee.
Whilst still being on a temporary contract they gave me a credit card with a "low" limit of 4.5k.
Then I took a cash loan to buy a car - that took minutes.
I then topped up that loan twice when money started getting tight.
I was young and beyond dumb.
Ended up essentially defaulting on both the loan and the credit card.
I was so so stupid.
Spending the money on weekend trips to Copenhagen, random trips here and there, eating out almost constantly and renting an expensive apartment.
The bank was one thing offering the money non stop but I was the bigger idiot to keep asking and agreeing.

ChikiChiki · 01-07-2020 3:22pm

bear1 wrote: »

Well I as one of the fools that got sucked into the "easy" credit scenario.
Got a job in AIB around 07 and the money being thrown at ya for being a bank employee.
Whilst still being on a temporary contract they gave me a credit card with a "low" limit of 4.5k.
Then I took a cash loan to buy a car - that took minutes.
I then topped up that loan twice when money started getting tight.
I was young and beyond dumb.
Ended up essentially defaulting on both the loan and the credit card.
I was so so stupid.
Spending the money on weekend trips to Copenhagen, random trips here and there, eating out almost constantly and renting an expensive apartment.
The bank was one thing offering the money non stop but I was the bigger idiot to keep asking and agreeing.

The way I look at it having been in the same boat is, it's a good lesson to learn early about drowning in debt. My parents never thought me any financial discipline growing up which I think is so important. I'm much more prudent nowadays.

partyguinness · 01-07-2020 3:40pm

I remember applying for a MBNA credit card in 2005.

When I got it had a quick glance- it was with a €800.00 limit. Grand.

Looked again it was €8,000.00..nearly fainted. They put it up several times without asking- think it hit €15k at one stage. I actually put a stop to it.

Remember the 5 years SSIA between 2001 and 2007? Banks were throwing out loans, credit cards etc so you would rake up the debt and use the SSIA to pay it off.

Spent before it even matured.

paw patrol · 01-07-2020 3:45pm

partyguinness wrote: »

I remember applying for a MBNA credit card in 2005.

When I got it had a quick glance- it was with a €800.00 limit. Grand.

Looked again it was €8,000.00..nearly fainted. They put it up several times without asking- think it hit €15k at one stage. I actually put a stop to it.

Remember the 5 years SSIA between 2001 and 2007? Banks were throwing out loans, credit cards etc so you would rake up the debt and use the SSIA to pay it off.

Spent before it even matured.

my mate who is useless with money was same
started off on a 3k limit when construction crashed he owed 18k to MBNA
they wiped it for 2.5k which he borrowed off his dad.

said he'd have a bad credit rating but he didn't care...never borrowing again he said...

tylercheribini · 01-07-2020 4:24pm

seenn00J wrote: »

That Belmayne development is so crowded, it's like they had a competition to see how many apartments/duplexes could be crammed into the smallest space. It's the type of housing that would be perfectly suited for city centre living. How much were they going for at the time of the Dracula ad? Here's a link about the structural defects the owners were hit with a bill for:

www . irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/belmayne-it-will-take-an-actual-fire-to-reveal-the-truth-934852.html

Also just read Jamie Redknapp and his wife attended the launch in 2007. Half a million! It's basically an extension of Darndale lol!

Joanna Lumley opened a shopping centre in Arklow too! See below

https://youtu.be/dYzb5qiXSL0

Sebastian Dangerfield · 01-07-2020 5:37pm

partyguinness wrote: »

I remember applying for a MBNA credit card in 2005.

When I got it had a quick glance- it was with a €800.00 limit. Grand.

Looked again it was €8,000.00..nearly fainted. They put it up several times without asking- think it hit €15k at one stage. I actually put a stop to it.

Remember the 5 years SSIA between 2001 and 2007? Banks were throwing out loans, credit cards etc so you would rake up the debt and use the SSIA to pay it off.

Spent before it even matured.

My sister got a letter in the post, which seemed to have been part of a random mailshot, saying she had been "pre-approved" for a credit card of €3,000. She happily filled in the form, and took it out in cash over the course of a couple of weeks, making the minimum payment of I think 1% per month, with 20% apr applying after the first 6 months. She got several "Good news! We've pre-approved you for X amount extra" and proceeded to do the same til she was probably in for 5 figures. I think at one point she just stopped paying them, or settled a fraction of the debt.

I actually had the opposit problem a couple of years later - having also been stung with easy credit, I wanted a credit card for online bookings but didnt want much actual credit. I had so much trouble trying to get a limit of just €500, PTSB gave it to me eventually after a bit of whinging.

tylercheribini · 01-07-2020 7:06pm

Sebastian Dangerfield wrote: »

My sister got a letter in the post, which seemed to have been part of a random mailshot, saying she had been "pre-approved" for a credit card of €3,000. She happily filled in the form, and took it out in cash over the course of a couple of weeks, making the minimum payment of I think 1% per month, with 20% apr applying after the first 6 months. She got several "Good news! We've pre-approved you for X amount extra" and proceeded to do the same til she was probably in for 5 figures. I think at one point she just stopped paying them, or settled a fraction of the debt.

I actually had the opposit problem a couple of years later - having also been stung with easy credit, I wanted a credit card for online bookings but didnt want much actual credit. I had so much trouble trying to get a limit of just €500, PTSB gave it to me eventually after a bit of whinging.

I remember mbna harrasing drunk revellers to sign up at slane concert no less, free umbrellas were exchanged for every application,which were promptly confiscated by security.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater · 02-07-2020 12:59am

tylercheribini wrote: »

Joanna Lumley opened a shopping centre in Arklow too! See below

https://youtu.be/dYzb5qiXSL0

I remember Jordan opening a nightclub in Ballinasloe circa 2002.

Airyfairy12 · 02-07-2020 1:26am

Parents bought name brand food, the shopping was done every week, we didnt have to cut mold off bread, got nicer Christmas presents and could buy clothes from real shops not just st vincent de paul, my mother bought me a hoodie and a top from Diesel, I wore them like a uniform for months . My parents built a new kitchen and I remember my mother turning to me and saying this was the first time she'd never had to be worried about money.

I moved out for college towards the end of the Boom, rent was so much cheaper, I moved into a really nice 3 bed apartment that was right in the center of the college town, it cost 350 a month for the whole place so was only paying roughly 100 euro a month on rent for good size room. I recently saw that same apartment on Daft listed for 850 a month. Crazy.
At the time I got a part time job in a cafe working a few evenings a week and Saturdays, think I got about 350 a week which was enough to pay my rent, bills, shopping and have a good amount left each week to go out and pay for college supplies, I was also getting a grant which was great, cant remember exactly how much it was but it was decent. The recession came and the cafe closed down so I lost my part time job and couldn't get anything else, the grant was cut to 300 a month, my sole income and 100 of that went on rent while 50 went to bills.

Seems like everyone who worked during the boom was earning a livable wage, even the social welfare payment was higher and things were cheaper so people could afford to live. It's crazy that we have allowed things to get so bad and the vulnerable and people in precarious employment - which really common nowadays - are the people to really suffer.

Purple Mountain · 02-07-2020 1:31am

I was 21 and had maxed out my €2,500 limit credit card.
I had nothing tangible to show for it bar a trip to America that was funded all by credit amongst other little purchases and nights out.

James Bond Junior · 02-07-2020 9:11am

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater wrote: »

I remember Jordan opening a nightclub in Ballinasloe circa 2002.

I remember that. She was spitting in peoples drinks and acting like a total scumbag.

El_Duderino 09 · 02-07-2020 10:09am

talla10 wrote: »

No matter how much money people have you can't buy class.

The only real surprise in hindsight was that it lasted as long as it did

Claw Hammer wrote: »

The real problem was not people not managing money, it was their behaviour when they had it. They were far too ostentatious, lacking discretion and vulgar.

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwing money around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been loads of philosophy over thousands of years (and more recently psychology) on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on. Or someone who thinks that having money means they should be unkind to waiters or other service workers. That can't actually make a normal person happy, it'll just make you feel like a dick because you're behaving like a dick.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

nthclare · 02-07-2020 10:14am

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwingonwy around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been load sod philosophy, over thousands of years, on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

pgj2015 · 02-07-2020 10:14am

James Bond Junior wrote: »

I remember that. She was spitting in peoples drinks and acting like a total scumbag.

She was probably just trying to fit in.;)

nthclare · 02-07-2020 10:14am

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwingonwy around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

There's been load sod philosophy, over thousands of years, on what constitutes "the good life". It's really unlikely that throwing money around will make ypu happy beyond the thrill of throwing money around (similar to gambling). It's a bit much to ask people to sit and read philosophy, but it's not too much to ask people to think what they actually enjoy doing and why they enjoy doing it.

The saddest thing of all is to see someone who has struggled without money, finally get some money which they could use to make life more comfortable over the long term, and they spaff it away on keeping up with the Jones because they didn't know what else to spend it on.

There's load of literature on how to figure out what you consider to be a "good life". I think people would be a lot happier if they had a think about it before they become rich.

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

Ush1 · 02-07-2020 10:16am

nthclare wrote: »

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

A lot of better off pay to be in suburbia/the city.

I'd rather be poor somewhere where there is lots of opportunities close by but of course poverty is more complicated than that.

El_Duderino 09 · 02-07-2020 10:20am

nthclare wrote: »

Absolutely, money is a curse.
Although I'd say its much nicer and easier living in a village or rurally if one's not well off.

I'd prefer to be poor in solitude rather poor in suburbia.

At least in natural surroundings one can enjoy what the so called better off have to pay for.

It goes in roundabouts.

Money can be a curse but if you know what makes you happy then you can use money to achieve it. And that's where reading and thinking about "the good life" comes in.

I come from a small village so I'd probably agree that it's better to be poor in the countryside but it can be very isolated. If you're OK with that then you're laughing.

w/s/p/c/ · 02-07-2020 10:34am

seenn00J wrote: »

That Belmayne development is so crowded, it's like they had a competition to see how many apartments/duplexes could be crammed into the smallest space. It's the type of housing that would be perfectly suited for city centre living. How much were they going for at the time of the Dracula ad? Here's a link about the structural defects the owners were hit with a bill for:

www . irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/views/analysis/belmayne-it-will-take-an-actual-fire-to-reveal-the-truth-934852.html

Also just read Jamie Redknapp and his wife attended the launch in 2007. Half a million! It's basically an extension of Darndale lol!

I lived here for 5 years 2013-2018 rented a house with my other half. Never had any issues in relation to anti social behavior etc (that seemed to come from the social housing apartment blocks). Girl who owned our house no doubt probably paid a pretty penny for it when it launched, turned out that the house had a pyrite problem. All the neighbors availed of the grant to get the work done and houses fixed, our landlord never bothered. She is going to have some loss if she sells. I still know people who live there and from their facebook group page there is nothing but anti social behavior going on, its gotten worse over the last couple of years. Teenagers running amok in apartment stairwells causing property damage, seen some pics of take away food being spread over walls in halls. Cars constantly broken into in the underground carpark. Tales of packages of online goods being delivered during lockdown being stolen by people.

Glad we got out of it when we did its turned into an absolute kip.

partyguinness · 02-07-2020 10:37am

There was a race to get on the property market- easy money apparently. It was actively encouraged.

I remember a mechanic sitting in front of me in 2006/2007- mid 30s, stay at home wife and young kids, mortgaged residence and earning about €30k pa. He was buying 3 buy to lets. I couldnt understand it. I was on nearly €50k, no kids or mortgage and no properties but yet this guy was on the verge of owning 4. An accountant friend explained it to me but it was a case of "Eff that"- I do not need the stress.

Circa 2005, every Tom Dick and Harry was now a budding 'property developer'- you were a right edjit if you didn't have a few buy to lets in some God foresaken midlands town.

I recall my parents discussing friends of theirs who had jumped on the bandwagon ****ting on back in the pub about their rental properties blah blah blah and being right smug gits. My parents never bought into any of it.

Of course their friends got royally stung and in severe financial difficulty.

partyguinness · 02-07-2020 10:46am

Actually during the height of the property boom I remember sitting in front of buy to let buyers and thinking to myself on many occasions:-

"So...what happens when the Poles go home? Who is going to pay the mortgage"

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me mid 2000s was that the Eastern Europeans in general were not putting down roots. In other words, they were not buying property i.e. they had no intention of staying.

Montage of Feck · 02-07-2020 10:52am

Receiving MBNA junk mail every other day.

facehugger99 · 02-07-2020 11:19am

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

There's a bit more to it than that. The real question was whether the peope throwing money around were happy and whether throwing money around made them happy. In most cases I really doubt it did.

You need to figure out what makes you happy.

I love to travel, the boom afford me the opportunity to see a lot of places between 99-07 which I wouldn't have been able to get to (or at least not as many places), if I hadn't been getting a Celtic Tiger salary.

irishgeo · 02-07-2020 11:24am

partyguinness wrote: »

Actually during the height of the property boom I remember sitting in front of buy to let buyers and thinking to myself on many occasions:-

"So...what happens when the Poles go home? Who is going to pay the mortgage"

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me mid 2000s was that the Eastern Europeans in general were not putting down roots. In other words, they were not buying property i.e. they had no intention of staying.

Yep they sent all the money home and built fine houses in their own countries.

um7y1h83ge06nx · 02-07-2020 11:46am

I graduated in 2005 into the IT industry that was only beginning to recover from the dot-com bubble bursting around 2001.

My father has a great story directly from the person involved. Father was a FAS instructor and at one stage was running basic IT courses for people that were on social welfare, in theory to make them more employable.

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development. As the details of the deal were being ironed out he went to the bank and borrowed money to start up a business based on the promise that he was getting €12M for his farm. Crash came, land deal fell through, his business failed and he ended up in severe debt instead of a multi-millionaire. I can't believe he didn't just focus on pushing the sale through and have that in the bank before borrowing money.

For those that say a boom is coming back, I can't see it with the Covid-19 situation. There might be a small bounce as people spend money in pubs and restaurants again but the economic outlook worldwide is uncertain, tax takes etc. have been down and the Covid-19 payments are a big cost to the economy. Once the initial buzz around the lifting of restrictions dissipates people will tighten their belts.

My own job in the mythical, supposedly fantastic IT industry has become a bit uncertain in the last few months, my company are looking to cut costs in a big way.

Badger2009 · 02-07-2020 12:21pm

I came out of college in 2008 after finishing an engineering degree. I started a job with a company I had worked summers for.

I took out a 20k loan to buy a brand new car even though I had only just started working and had no credit history. I was crazy taking it and the bank were crazy giving it to me.

I was let go a few months later and started a funded masters which paid the bills while getting an additional qualification.

Moved to London in January 2011 and sold the car to pay off the loan. Moved back in 2015 to a civil service job. Decent pay but could prob do better in private sector at the minute but security is more important to me now.

I’m just glad I didn’t finish college earlier as I would probably have got caught up in the whole thing. The car loan was a lesson learned thankfully.

I feel most sorry for people who didn’t have buy to let’s or fancy cars but had built up a decent pension (not greedy they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

BattleCorp · 02-07-2020 12:23pm

Braylee Fat Kicker wrote: »

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development.

A guy near me was clever enough to sell a large chunk of his farm to a developer for a rather large fortune.

But then the farmer invested it (almost all of it) in Anglo shares.

:(:(

Mickiemcfist · 02-07-2020 12:29pm

Badger2009 wrote: »

I feel most sorry for people who didn’t have buy to let’s or fancy cars but had built up a decent pension (not greedy they just paid into a bog standard pension pot) and pretty much lost it all overnight and are now left with a lot of uncertainty in their retirement. It’s those people who really lost out imo.

Yea so true, they weren't the 'speculators' in normal terms, they were doing what's pretty much universally stated as the prudent thing financially & got badly burned.

CrankyHaus · 02-07-2020 12:41pm

Braylee Fat Kicker wrote: »

Anyway, one guy in a particular course was offered €12M for his farm towards the end of the boom for development. As the details of the deal were being ironed out he went to the bank and borrowed money to start up a business based on the promise that he was getting €12M for his farm. Crash came, land deal fell through, his business failed and he ended up in severe debt instead of a multi-millionaire. I can't believe he didn't just focus on pushing the sale through and have that in the bank before borrowing money.

"Accidental millionaires" were some of the funniest cases of the boom. I was told of a couple of middle-class junkie brothers who in middle-age inherited a pile in one of Dublin's nicer suburbs. Inevitably it turned into the place where they and other gearbags would be partying but they let it be known among their circles that they were offered a seven figure sum but wanted to play the long game to maximise value.

More likely they were too busy getting mashed to be bothered with any of the work involved. I don't know eaxactly how it ended but since I was told the stroy as it was ongoing in early 2008 I strongly suspect they never sold before the crash as they were too busy on the sesh. Knowing how junkies take on debt against anticipated windfalls I wouldn't be surprised to find they'd told some tall tales about pots of gold to various dealers around Dublin too.

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