Talking Property

The property purchaser is not an extinct species, says ISABEL MORTON

LAST WEEKEND, feeling adventurous, I decided that I would head out on an expedition (David Attenborough style) in search of that rare breed, known as the “property purchaser”.

Few survived the stormy recession, many having perished due to starvation (of funds) but recent sightings of “first-time buyers” were reported from new housing developments, whose sale prices have just been slashed.

So I packed my voice recorder and my portable satnav (I get lost as soon as I drive out my gate) and sallied forth in the hope of tracking down a few of these elusive creatures.

My search concentrated on Adamstown, close to Lucan in west Dublin. The newly developed area is stylish, clean and very, very quiet, almost eerily so, like a recently vacated ghost town. (It reminded me of London’s Stansted airport when it first opened to the public.) And the fact that the sun was shining down from the clear blue sky only added to that surreal feeling.

There were no crowds or queues, but a respectable smattering of people examining brochures and price lists as they strolled around the sunny soundless streets.

The first couple I spoke with were recently married and in their early thirties. He is a civil engineer and she works in banking in the IFSC. He had been unemployed for five months but is now working again. They applied for a mortgage in 2007 and were cleared for a €750,000 loan. On the advice of her father, however, they did not buy at the time.

He said: “It’s sickening to think what would have happened if we had bought two years ago. We’re all being told that we have to give money back to the banks but had we bought back then, we’d have been screwed. No one would have given a damn about us if we couldn’t service our loan.”

This time around, they will not rely on both of them earning salaries, in the event that one of them loses their job again or in case that they should decide to start a family. They plan to go back to their bank to see what they will be offered now, based on one income. They both believe that property prices are unlikely to drop any further and hope to buy within the next six months.

Most viewers were aged between 25 and 35. However one man I spoke with was in his mid-fifties and wanted to downsize to a new apartment where he wouldn’t have to worry about maintaining a house and garden.

Another man in his early thirties, recently returned from working abroad, was considering buying a property “now that prices were reasonable”.

“I feel that there might be a bit further to fall and I’d be happy to hold off for another year or so, as I know there is a 12-month moratorium on bank repossessions and maybe next year some places will start coming up for sale. A lot of people will be in a spot of bother, not that I’d want to prey on that type of thing, but I just feel that it will affect the market.”

He went on to explain that although he would be below the stamp duty threshold, he knew people who were “holding off because they didn’t want to be the last person to pay stamp duty”.

A young man who works with an investment bank was eagerly looking around. “It’s hard to know when exactly it’s going to hit bottom but prices have really dropped. I’ve done the figures and it’s now cheaper to buy than to rent.”

An excited crèche worker in her mid-twenties told me that she had been keeping an eye on the development since it was first launched and, with the recent price drop, the apartment she coveted was suddenly within her budget.

A couple (she is a social worker and he is studying for his HDip) had moved from Dublin to Kerry, where she is originally from, and are now considering moving back to the city again since property prices have fallen. They plan on keeping their Kerry home and letting it, as “it wouldn’t be worth selling it at the moment”. A sales rep and his girlfriend from Poland, having rented in Ireland for over six years, told me that they had decided to buy an apartment as the mortgage would cost them €300 less per month than their current rent.

And then I chatted with Fiona, who was celebrating with her parents, having just handed over the deposit for her new apartment. She had been saving for a number of years and watching as prices fell.

She was delighted with her new home and I was delighted to have successfully tracked down a number of first-time buyers, whose existence had once been severely threatened but who are no longer on the endangered species list.