ISABEL MORTONlooks at the good, the bad and the ugly
IT’S BEEN an odd week, filled with a strange mix of property-related snippets, which could be described as the good, the bad and the ugly.
Searching with difficulty for bits and pieces of furniture, I was beginning to feel depressed about the closure of the latest tranche of interior shops, when I was told about the recently opened Lost Weekend in Blackrock, Co Dublin. According to my friend Catherine, it would cheer you up with its smart, sophisticated display of furniture and accessories, including an exhibition of Eileen Gray-
designed items. It is apparently worth a visit, if for no other reason than to congratulate them on having the guts to open an interiors shop in this miserable financial climate.
Although some businesses have given up in despair, others are managing to survive by becoming inventive and creative, as I discovered when my baby grandson received a gift of a little hat with his name embroidered on it.
Having recently almost given up trying to find a company, that would personalise items with a company logo, I diligently tracked the baby hat back to the Imperial Gift Shop on the ground floor of the Dún Laoghaire Shopping Centre. Apart from supplying personalised gifts, they can also replicate your company logo in embroidery on uniforms, towels, pillow cases or any other fabric item – quickly and at a very reasonable price.
Indeed, our banks could take a leaf out of their reliable book. Earlier this week my normally very calm and controlled husband ended up practically shaking with rage during a lengthy, unproductive phone conversation with one of those how-can-I-help-you-Sir?, sickly sweet but totally useless people in a bank call centre.
He was trying to track the whereabouts of a sterling cheque, which, despite having been lodged two weeks earlier, had not appeared in the account. The irritating voice calmly informed him a sterling cheque “could take anything from four to six weeks to clear”.
It would make you wonder how Irish companies manage to conduct any business at all, let alone trade with other countries and currencies. Our banks appear determined to bankrupt our country by whatever means they can.
And on that subject, another crowd who appear to be on a go-slow these days are the planners, who apparently are so terribly busy they can’t find a second to glance at a set of plans or make the promised return calls to distressed (in more ways than one) architects.
I’ve recently heard of four different planning applications for modest domestic extensions, which have met with requests for “additional information” or, better again, “clarification of additional information”.
The last straw, according to one frustrated architect, was when a planner told him, “well, it’s just not exactly what I want to see, although obviously, I can’t direct you”. In other words, “go back to the drawing board and with any luck you might have a psychic moment and come up with something I may possibly like but I certainly won’t be giving you any clues as to what that might be”.
Architects are having a tough time of it these days. As one couple explained, “you’d be ill advised to marry someone in the same profession, as we’ve found out to our cost, since we’ve both lost our jobs”.
Having designed and built their own home, they must now sell it at a loss, pack up their young children and leave Ireland for the second time. “First time around it wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t forced on us and as we were young, it was all a bit of an adventure. This time it’s quite different, particularly with two young children and a large debt in tow.”
You’d be tempted to despair of it all, and indeed, despair was the word that came to mind this week, listening to a solicitor express concern for some of her clients who are struggling to hang on to their homes.
One was so distraught about her husband that she dissolved into tears when describing the deterioration in his mental and physical health, due to worrying about their financial situation.
As one accountant described the current mass exodus: “many are preparing for Armageddon and cashing in what’s left of their chips and leaving town”.
Yet, in the midst of it all, there are a few people who, through luck, fluke or circumstance, are now in the enviable position of being able to buy into the top end of the Irish property market.
Indeed, I met one of that rare breed recently, when viewing a large period house, who reported that having recently returned to Ireland after decades abroad, he was now able to get a lot more bang for his buck. He also intends buying investment property and has his eye on an entire block of “very well-located” apartments, which he believes he will get “for half nothing”.
These days, one man’s poison is another man’s meat.
* ISABEL MORTONis a property consultant
