Aftershock, Ghost Land, slum estates.

[The Underdog]

the level of dampness after a few years will be minimal ,put the heat on for a few weeks and they'll soon dry out. there are thousands of holiday homes that are only lived in 3 weeks a year and see minimal maintenance and they are still standing.
someone posted here a few months ago that demolition costs would be around €12k if they get anything above that they should sell it to whoever and then it is no longer Nama's problem.
all these houses seemed to have large gardens there is nothing to stop you putting in your own septic tank.
the falsehood that is being peddled that demolition is the only option why can't they be sold for salvage as the stand. the wish to make work for the party faithful cannot be tolerated.

If you have a careful look at them charley you'll see many of them are scrap, don’t comply with their planning permission, or don’t comply with building regulations, and none of them meet current energy standards. They were by and large painted up rubbish thrown up to satisfy the property pyramid scheme.

[Interista]

I've a lot of sympathy for people stuck in ghost estates, but they must bear some responsibility themselves.

I agree. I'm happy to admit to being an economic gobsh1te, but despite - or perhaps even because! - of this, I knew there was something not qutie right about one of the least densely populated countries in Europe having some of the highest property prices. Thankfully, I resisted the temptation to buy, despite the urging of friends and relatives, and despite coming very close on a few occasions. As another poster said, those people who put a lot of thought and research into buying relatively minor things such as computers or DVD players didn't put anything like the same amount of thought into making by far the biggest purchase of their lives. To a certain extent, they have themselves to blame for the predicament they now find themselves in.

gatsbygirl

There is something almost Greek (sorry!) in our country's fall. Greek in the Homeric sense. It is as if the dreaded Nemesis, the agent of vengeance and fate, has finally caught up with us.........Everything we sowed, we will harvest in bitter tears...

Very true. The 'rise' was so meteroric, and the fall so apparantly sudeen and absolute. of course it was all an illusion, but one which so many of us chose to buy into. A form of collective madness on the national scale.

[Yosser]

I take your point re inquiry into historical causes, but we are not in a vacuum, nor shut off from the rest of the world - Britain, late Eighties to early Nineties ? Japan for the last twenty years ? or to stick with history - the South Sea Bubble; Amsterdam...

History provides so many lessons, it is almost insane to persist in the same irrationality. We are not slaves to our ancestors' experiences. ( Will our grandchildren be able to say that ?)

Suck it up ? There is a need to say it. I find it distasteful that I have to pay for this gluttony. Moral hazard, and all that. Having been told that I should commit suicide for having a non-mainstrean opinion.

I'm not an economist no more than your good self, and we share an anti-consumerism, but I'd hesitate to describe the conditions we have seen as 'free-market''. To me, it was a rigged market, a scheme, a con-trick. That no-one was forced to participate in.

Great points Jack and I agree with most of it. However the bit highlighted is where I disagree. Yes we have all of the information,but in my opinion Irish people in Ireland DO exist in a vacuum. I lived abroad for many years and when I came back I was struck by the insularity and the delusion that was going on. The misplaced confidence.
Many people pointed out what was going on and were laughed at. Our media participated willingly. It is extraordinary how an entire nation can be caught up in self delusion. There were a few dissenters but it was especially difficult to hold a contrarian view in the face of the overwhelming mentality that Ireland is different.

[greengoose2]

Great points Jack and I agree with most of it. However the bit highlighted is where I disagree. Yes we have all of the information,but in my opinion Irish people in Ireland DO exist in a vacuum. I lived abroad for many years and when I came back I was struck by the insularity and the delusion that was going on. The misplaced confidence.
Many people pointed out what was going on and were laughed at. Our media participated willingly. It is extraordinary how an entire nation can be caught up in self delusion. There were a few dissenters but it was especially difficult to hold a contrarian view in the face of the overwhelming mentality that Ireland is different.

I came back in 2006 and saw the signs clearly. I got fed up with people telling me that I hadn't a clue about what I was talking about so I shut my trap.

We are now being told that we are all to blame for the mess. Vacuum it is!

[Aindriu]

A lot of people bought off plans.

Then they were total morons.

There are many people who belong in jail over all this but the people that paid well over the odds for property and had mortgages that they had no hope of servicing once interest rates rose or one of them lost their jobs have also to take their share of the blame. Has no-one heard of the phrase 'buyer beware'?

We need to take the same attitude to renting that the Germans do. None of this Tommy owns three house and lets out two of them sh1te! Big landlords owning entire apartment blocks and streets of houses. Strict rent controls to protect the tenant and strict enforcement of tenancy agreements to protect tenants also.

[Aindriu]

How was a woman supposed to examine Ord. Survey maps to see if her new home was subject to flooding.

That is what you pay your solicitor for! It is one of the main roles the solicitor undertakes - a local search to establish whether or not the development is on a former flood plain and advising their client accordingly.

[Tomas Mor]

That is what you pay your solicitor for! It is one of the main roles the solicitor undertakes - a local search to establish whether or not the development is on a former flood plain and advising their client accordingly.

And of course the planning authority who grants permission to a FF developer/crony have no role in it at all. Come off it. You're sad.

[Aindriu]

And of course the planning authority who grants permission to a FF developer/crony have no role in it at all. Come off it. You're sad.

It is still the responsibility of the solicitor to advise their client if the property is on a flood plain! Of course FF, bankers and developers hold responsibility but so do solicitors and buyers.

[Tomas Mor]

It is still the responsibility of the solicitor to advise their client if the property is on a flood plain! Of course FF, bankers and developers hold responsibility but so do solicitors and buyers.

I used to think that we lived in a Republic where Gov, Local and planning authorities protected our rights, but obviously not. Are buyersd also supposed to check for radon gas, liability to landslides, volcanic eruptions etc etc. This is akin to our PIGS colleague, Spain, where some buildings were built in areas that did not have permission and had to be razed. WE are heading that way after RTE last nigfht. Meanwhile caviar in the tent at thee Galway races for those who got away with it,and let the young people trying to get place to live suffer on.

[Interista]

I used to think that we lived in a Republic where Gov, Local and planning authorities protected our rights, but obviously not. Are buyersd also supposed to check for radon gas, liability to landslides, volcanic eruptions etc etc.

Aren't there professionals whose job it is to assess properties for such things (OK maybe not the volcanos!)? Property surveyors or something like that? You hire them and they will provide a professional and objective assesment of a property you are considering buying.