Making property pay

Carmel O'Reilly, Company director 

Carmel O'Reilly jokes that she can't quite believe she has become a property tycoon in the whirlwind year since she got the all-clear from breast cancer.

"It was my first year for a long time not being ill, and I was determined to live life again as the new me." Her first investment was a three-bedroom detached house in Rosslare, Co Wexford.

"The mortgage on my home in Castleknock is almost paid, and I considered investing abroad like some of my friends, but I'm not interested in the sun and I feel property prices in Spain have gone crazy - and they can be hard to rent and miles away from everything." A house in the south-east seemed a better option. "It wasn't expensive, at under 200,000, and is due to be finished in April. Its proximity to Dublin is very important - and it is five minutes from the beach."

O'Reilly, a director of the Topflight holiday company, thinks of it not only as a getaway to escape to at weekends but also as a pension. "I live on my own and have to take care of myself and am very lucky to have a good job, earning a few euro. I spoke to a few people and property seems to be the way forward. I'm not bothered with pension plans; I might not live that long."

A friend in the property business called her when homes in the Granitefield Manor scheme, in Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, were going on sale, to tell her she had half an hour to put down an 18,000 deposit if she wanted a penthouse in the first phase. She didn't hesitate. "I knew it was a good investment. I paid 380,000 - and the second phase went up to €430,000."

She can see herself easing off work in the next five to 10 years. "I would like to manage property, spend time on the golf course and maybe get into alternative medicine. For the moment I can see myself drinking French wine out of Waterford crystal on the patio of my house in Wexford while entertaining friends."

James McManus, Chartered accountant *

James McManus and his wife were married a year and living in rented accommodation with no savings when they borrowed almost €150,000 to buy a three-bedroom town house on East Wall Road in central Dublin in 1999. A few months later they bought a tax-incentive holiday home in Wexford for 108,000.

"People were talking about property prices falling. If we had listened to them we wouldn't have bought. The worst-case scenario is zero growth for a few years. Even if property prices did drop we would still be covered. The house next door to our one in East Wall was recently sold for 280,000."

The Wexford property has been less straightforward. "The first two years we had a management company who were useless, and it made no money. Another company took over, who were much better, and we now get a couple of regular visitors. There has been good capital appreciation - it's now worth 160,000-170,000 - but without tax relief it would have been a different story. I don't think it was as good an asset or investment as we had been led to believe."

The couple, who both trained as chartered accountants, have since bought another house, on Grand Canal Street in Dublin, and put deposits on two apartments.

They were 42nd in the queue to buy one at Park West, in west Dublin, recently; a twenty-something girl in front of them was buying for friends and negotiated with them on her mobile phone. "She bought three apartments in the end. All the one-beds were gone by the time we got to the top of the queue, so I got the last two-bed, 800 square-foot dual-aspect apartment for 258,000."

"We're working on the understanding that there will be a 5 per cent increase by the time they are built, in 18-24 months, so they will have gone up €20,000 before we pay for them. On the day a huge percentage of people there were mothers and fathers buying for sons and daughters."

Their portfolio also includes a factory in Glasnevin, in north Dublin, where James's family's graphic-design business has relocated, and a four-bedroom house on three acres in Castletown, Co Wexford, which he bought for 380,000 to keep as their principal residence.

"I've been badly burned on stocks and shares, which you need to follow all the time closely. If you're not doing that you may as well put it on a horse."

Larry Boyle, Businessman

Until two and a half years ago, says Larry Boyle, a Limerick businessman, the extent of his property-investment ambitions was dreaming about buying a golf villa in the Algarve, in Portugal, but his wife wasn't keen. "She doesn't like the idea of going to the same place every year and she detests golf. I would have gone ahead with it years ago only I would have been threatened with divorce."

Then he invested as a way to help one of his children, now 17, who began talking about studying medicine when she was only 12 or 13. "At first we thought it was a phase, but she still wants it as much as ever. She's a very bright kid, so we started to sit up and take notice when her teachers started saying that she is capable of doing it. More than two years ago a friend told me he was investing in a two-bed apartment in Islandbridge in Dublin for £145,000, and the more I thought about it the more it seemed to make sense. I could let it for several years until she was ready to go to college. At the time there was a rental crisis in Dublin, and you couldn't pick up a newspaper without reading how students were paying terrible prices for awful accommodation. So I bought it."

More accommodation has come onto the rental market since mortgage-interest relief on rental income was reintroduced, but the apartment is now worth 300,000 and has earned him a steady income. "It's close to town and the fact that it is an emerging area has meant there has been good capital appreciation. Even if my daughter doesn't study in Dublin I can sell it and buy a place in whichever part of the country she gets a college place in."

He may keep it for his other children, although neither has yet expressed an interest in any career. "They have a friend whose father has bought a place near Disney World in Florida, so they're at the age when they're more interested in me buying them a place there than in Dublin."

This man's real name has been changed.

Jim Flannery, Insurance assessor

When Jim Flannery's sister in Australia gave him Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money That The Poor And The Middle Class Do Not, by Robert Kiyosaki, two years ago, it made him think about changing his outlook on his family and their lifestyle. "I realised that dabbling in investment is not rocket science."

Immediately after reading the book he set about looking at areas in Dublin he saw as undervalued, such as Crumlin, Kilmainham, Inchicore and Smithfield. He chose a 200,000 three-bedroom house in East Wall because of its proximity to the IFSC, Spencer Dock and the port tunnel.

He had no qualms about releasing equity from his home in Stillorgan, Dublin, to provide a deposit on the house. "I felt very comfortable and confident because of the advice in the book. It's as easy as ABC. These are things they don't teach in school, but because I had moved house several times, after being relocated with work, I knew the paperwork involved and how to deal with solicitors and auctioneers. Also, as part of my job as an insurance assessor with Balcombes, I've developed a good eye for property. The doomsayers said it was too late, I should have invested when it was 50,000. But it's never too late if it's the right location." Hungary and Poland are two overseas locations he is considering and he has already bought in the UK, where he believes people still have "a thing" about negative equity.

"They are afraid the bubble will burst again, so property there is still relatively good value - and it has a huge population and a good rental market." He bought a three-bedroom apartment in Levenshulme, a suburb of Manchester. "The city centre doesn't really represent good value, but in the suburbs you can get a similar type of property forhalf the price, so it's a no-brainer."

He intends to buy a number of rental properties for his daughters, now aged six and 11, as well as a property they will eventually relocate to. "With capital-gains tax it makes sense to buy, rent and eventually relocate there."

* This article was amended on May 20th, 2019