Talking Property

We have no one to blame but ourselves, says Isabel Morton

SOMETIMES WE NEED to remind ourselves how small, insignificant and parochial we are by comparison with pretty much anywhere else in the world. Having experienced a mere decade of economic growth, we all became rather obnoxious about our success. (I blame it all on Riverdance - Ireland never saw itself as sexy before 1994.)

We are a nation of dramatic extremists. One minute we are sobbing about the famine, bemoaning forced emigration and singing plaintive melodies. The next, we are the capitalists from hell, systematically buying up half of all the real estate on the planet.

It didn't take us two minutes to latch on to the jetset lifestyle - and we did it all with manic leprechaun grins on our little red faces. "Sure 'tis the luck of the Irish. And didn't we deserve it? Haven't we suffered long enough?"

Now of course, we are in deep depression and no longer skipping around, doing high kicks and tossing our auburn ringlets.

We blame the banks, the Government, the weather, this property supplement, indeed everyone and everything - except ourselves. There wasn't a peep out of us when times were good. Now it's all tears and recrimination.

This week I am in London, a city which makes Dublin look like a small suburban town. Its transport system alone puts us to shame.

The underground system here was built in the 1860s and yet, 150 years later, we haven't even started building one in Dublin. And if the Port Tunnel is anything to go by, it may be another 150 years before we have one in operation, if ever.

At the moment, I happen to be involved in buying, selling and letting a few properties in both places at the same time and I am reminded daily of the differences between the cities. It tends to put the situation at home into perspective.

When chatting with the sales and letting agents here, I realise that, while they would have a reasonable idea of the overall market, they can only really concentrate on having an intimate knowledge of their own particular area. This city is just too vast, the concentration of properties too high and the differences between areas too great.

The general word on the streets of London is that things are to get worse. Depending on who you listen to, it can range from a dip to a dive. As usual, it's all down to location. And location in London is so important, that one side of the street can differ greatly from the other. In London, there are two worlds: central London (north of the river, within Zone 1) and the rest of London. The price of a five-bedroom terraced family home in Putney (five stops further down the District line) will just about buy you a two-bedroom basement flat in South Kensington.

And even within central London, there are different planets. As I am currently dealing with the rarified world of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, I have to remind myself that this area does not reflect the rest of London.

A short walk around South Kensington alone gives you a clear picture of the vast wealth of the area. Rows of meticulously maintained elegant seven-storey Regency and Victorian townhouses surround immaculate garden squares. Charming, brightly-painted coach houses line the cobbled laneways.

And nasty "For Sale" signs are forbidden, as they would detract from the appearance of the area. (So much for our much celebrated Georgian Dublin - all three square feet of it - now littered with estate agents' advertising boards.)

Unlike Dublin, property sales in smart areas of London are supported by strong international purchasers, and prices remain stable as buyers at this level are not dependent on mortgages. Furthermore, as rich people do not need to sell, there are far fewer properties on the market in these areas at the moment.

I am working on the sale of a property which has doubled in value since it was bought just three years ago. Two offers have been received already and the brochures have yet to be printed - not a bad starting-off point, even by Celtic Tiger standards. Of the five parties that have viewed it to date, none have been English and none are subject to mortgage approval.

The sales and letting agents here love us. Irish clients are not caught up in the English property chain; have money; speak English; are decisive and fast-moving purchasers and appeared to thoroughly enjoy the process of buying up half of central London.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that they had probably seen the last of us. For a while anyway.

'I didn't have the heart to tell them they had seen the last of us