Buying your first home is a hard slog, needing energy, determination and steadfast optimism to cope with the inevitable disappointments that face new house hunters in the still-feverish Dublin housing market.
Catherine Foley is one such house hunter: a journalist who has lived in rented accommodation in Ballsbridge up until now, she started looking seriously for a house about six weeks ago. She thought she would have only £80,000 to spend, and would really like to buy a Stoneybatter-style redbrick, preferably in Stoneybatter.
We followed in her footsteps as she learnt some home truths about the housing market.
Cabra is a place Catherine, who grew up in a town outside Dublin, has never visited before, and at first, she's uneasy. As we walk from visiting our first house here, 326 Carnlough Road, over to view 170 St Attracta Road, she confesses "my heart sank as we came up Carnlough Road, because I didn't recognise any part of it". But she has a good feeling about number 326, a 1930s former local authority mid-terrace two-bed in need of extensive refurbishment. Mason Estates agent Gary Flood says that he already has offers up to £88,000 on the property, which has a large back garden. "It has some dotey details," says Catherine, looking at the small cast-iron fireplace typical of so many local authority houses of the 1930s. But it would need a new kitchen, and new heating system and major redecoration. (The owner came back from Florida to sell it, and took the advice to clear the house out a bit too literally.) "It has a nice feel, but it's too much work." Flood advises that after having a good look around, a first-time buyer like Catherine should decide whether she wants to live on the northside or southside, then narrow location down to at most three areas where she will do her house hunting.
On our way to 170 St Attracta Road, in a part of Cabra much closer to Phibsborough, she explains that the feeling she gets for a house, for its history is important. "I hope that doesn't sound silly, or romantic." Number 170 is a very similar style two-bed ex-local authority house, on the market through Douglas Newman Good for £80,000. It is very much in its original condition - the bath still sits in the corner of the small scullery-style kitchen, with the toilet just inside the back door. It has a slightly sad atmosphere, she feels. Douglas Newman Good agent Edel Fitzpatrick says that the house needs extensive work - re-plumbing, re-wiring, re-building the kitchen - and that you couldn't live in it and do the work at the same time. Catherine realises that she just couldn't handle this amount of work. Says Edel: "Well, there's a decision made, that you don't want a house you have to do major work on", explaining that for all first-time buyers, choosing a house is a process of elimination. "But first you have to go window shopping, you have to see what's out there, for what price."
Since she started house hunting a few weeks ago, Catherine has realised that there aren't many properties of the kind she wants in good condition for under £90,000. She doesn't want to move to outer suburbia. She wants a house in a more or less three mile radius of the city, in an area where she can feel secure. It has been hard to keep from getting downhearted as she realises that it is almost impossible to find this kind of house in this area for less than £90,000 or £100,000. (Single-storey cottages here are selling for well over £100,000 now.) So far, she has seen several apartments, but isn't keen on buying one: one quite nice one, a 500 sq ft one-bed in Kimmage, appealed but it cost £103,500, "which was a lot for what you got".
The good news is that she will probably be able to get a loan of £100,000, based on "disposable income", the new criterion some lending agencies are using, giving borrowers three to three and a half times income.
By the time we reach 28 Clonliffe Avenue, the last house we visit today, she can tell pretty quickly that she is not interested. The two-bed former local authority house is selling for in the region of £82,000 through Sherry FitzGerald, but needs major renovation. "The kitchen extension would have to be re-arranged," says the agent. "You mean pulled down?" we ask. "Um, probably." Catherine has looked around this North Strand/Ballybough/Clonliffe Road area, and quite likes the location. But number 28 is not for her - although less than a week later, Doyle reports that the property is pretty much sale agreed.
This is something else Catherine is discovering at first hand: that many of the houses she is looking at are selling quickly, so decisions have to be made fairly quickly. That, and how to read estate agency brochures. The brochure for number 28 Clonliffe Road, for example, said that it was "in need of some modernisation", which is more than a little understated.
An expedition a few days later brings her to Inchicore, Kilmainhman, and Crumlin, where she feels a bit happier, "because I can get my bearings, I know where the canal is." All the same, she's most strongly tempted by 20 Phoenix Street, a refurbished two-up twosdown redbrick in The Ranch, on the Inchicore/Ballyfermot border.
By now, Catherine has talked to several mortgage brokers who assure her that she should be able to get a loan of up to £100,000, with repayments coming to between around £517 a month and £637 a month, depending on whether the loan is over 20, 25, or 30 years. With rents rising as they are in Dublin, she would probably have to find this much to pay rent on a flat, so buying makes a lot of sense. She is determined to get the financing sorted out quickly, so that when she finds the house she really wants, she can make a bid on it straight away.
Number 20 Phoenix Street has a highsceilinged main room, a good-sized kitchen, bathroom next to it, a minuscule back yard, and two bedrooms upstairs. Catherine likes it a lot, apart from the fact that the fireplace is closed up, and she likes the area. Later that night, she drives around it to get a feeling for it. The Ranch feels a bit more comfortable to her than Woodfield Place, where another refurbished house, number 12, is also for sale. (It is in a quiet cul-de-sac, that is perhaps just a little too quiet and dark at night for Catherine's taste.)
Both 12 Woodfield Place and 20 Phoenix Street are just the kind of house she's looking for: they're big, but not too big, nicely refurbished with polished wooden floors, and period features like high ceilings, or cast-iron fireplaces. They are within easy reach of the city centre, on the number 78/79 bus routes. Best of all, both are selling for between £90,000 and £100,000.
But she isn't yet ready to make a decision, and within days, both properties are sale agreed, reports Douglas Newman Good agent Gary Jacob.
The two houses she visits in Crumlin are in the same price range, and are also quickly snapped up - although not by her. Number 93 Derry Road and 20 Derry Park are both large end-of-terrace ex-local authority houses, both selling for between £90,000 and £100,000, also through Douglas Newman Good. But they are too large for her taste.
LATER, Johnny Lappin of Douglas Newman Good shows her a flat for in the late £90,000s in HyBreasal, the converted Goldenbridge convent at the Kilmainham end of the South Circular Road. She finds it, like so many apartments, too small and cell-like, too anonymous. Better is a ground floor-apartment at Bow Bridge, Kilmainham, costing in the mid-£90,000s which opens on to a landscaped area running down to the Camac River.
Catherine has given herself until summer to buy a house, and is determined not to be panicked into buying. "I'm anxious to go through the steps, and won't be pressured." It's tough, though, as everyone who is buying a house for the first time knows. "I'm not despondent, but it's a lot of hard work. I'm bracing myself for it; there are a lot of decisions - could you live here, could you afford it, would you feel safe, is it close enough to town, how much work will it need - and compromises along the way".
