Skip to main content

Back where we were before…and NOTHING learned! – House prices in Dublin

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Back where we were before…and NOTHING learned! – House prices in Dublin

Just 9 years ago in 2008 the country nearly collapsed when the banks and the property market got in serious trouble. People couldn’t pay their mortgages anymore because they had paid too much for the properties they lived in and for investment properties and many are STILL hurting from the losses. But memory is a short term thing!!

Back then, the mess was created by builders overcharging to make a big profit and by buyers overpaying because they expected massive profits. Last weekend it seemed as if 2008 had never happened. I heard about it on Newstalk but after a good search found an article about it in the Irish Times: Twelve out of fifteen apartments in the Hanover Lofts development at Grand Canal Quay were sold over one single weekend! The price? The 4x one-bedroom apartments start at EUR 415,000 and the 11x two-bedroom apartments start at EUR 575,000.

The madness is back with a vengeance!

What does that mean for us? If you own a property you can celebrate because the price is definitely going up. And if you don’t won any property there are two options: Either start panicking because you need to buy NOW and not wait any longer. OR: RELAX!! The prices are already FAR beyond what is affordable for many. So no rush for your buying! Maybe there will be another crash, THEN it is your turn! ;-)

Dublin, Economy, Odd, Society, ,

Are Estate Agents important celebrities?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Are Estate Agents important celebrities?

The answer is a pretty simple and very clear NO! But it seems that there sense of their own importance is coming to a different conclusion. But let me go back a few steps:

I get regularly fliers, A5 cards, letters or brochures from estate agents in my letterbox. They either want to offer me some of their properties or – and that is even more often the case – want me to sell my apartment by using their services. They won’t get anywhere with me, because I am renting my apartment and therefore won’t have anything to sell, but let’s leave that little “oops” aside for now and assume we had something to sell.

What do you think would be important information that I would be interested as a potential seller? Maybe their success rate? Maybe an estimate how much money I would get? Maybe an estimate how long it would take to sell? Maybe the amount they want from me in fees? Maybe their experience? I guess it would be some or all of these!

The A5 card that I found in my letterbox last week had four pictures of houses on them. three were for sale and one was sold and for all the price was specified, so the message of the pictures was “We want to sell a property to you!” but then the two line service description suggested that they will give me a free valuation for my property and a free “unique” report about what’s selling in my neighbourhood. So clearly THAT message was “We want to sell your property!” Sounds like mixed messages to me!

But then you turn the card around and all you see is the mugshots (portrait photos) of 18 (!!) people and I have to guess that they are the company’s employees. Just mugshots and names! No information about their experience, area of responsibility, just a picture. … Is this probably the least important information I need about my estate agent? Do I really care how he or she looks? – I absolutely do NOT care! If I was a potential client, I would just want them to get me the max amount of money!

So why do they show the mug shots of 18 people on that card?

I can only conclude that Estate Agents think they are big celebrities where seeing their picture will make me nearly automatically buy their product!?

There are professions where the face/picture is a big part of the brand and is needed for their self-advertisement. A model, a singer, a sports person and even some politicians need to be recognised to do effective marketing. But an estate agent?????

This was the promotional card from just one estate agent, but this is no exception! All four or five last fliers etc that I got from the same profession in the last few weeks had pictures on them. Odd!!

 

Dublin, Irish, Odd, ,

National Maternity Hospital – Get the religious orders out!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
National Maternity Hospital – Get the religious orders out!

It is puzzling to the highest degree how Irish politics – even in 2017 – still colludes with religious organisations. Sure there was a long history of influence and there are still plenty of politicians who still don’t understand that no church or religious organisation should be allowed to interfere with the state, but do we have to wait until they are dead before things will change?

The newest scandal is the fact that the Sisters of Charity, an order of Catholic nuns, will own the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) next to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Ballsbridge. They will not just have some shares or get a percentage of the profit, no, they will OWN the hospital. You might wonder if they will build it or buy it because if you and I own something, we usually have to pay for it? No! They won’t have to pay for it! The fact that they are owning the land on which the National Maternity Hospital will be built seems to be enough to give them ownership. That is shocking!

The Sisters of Charity were one of the religious organisations that proved in the past that back then they were NOT able to look after the welfare of mothers and children. And after the swamp was cleaned, regrettably the Sisters of Charity didn’t provide the compensation payments that they had promised to the “redress scheme”. For many, this is the reason why they are totally against that religious order to own the NMH. I agree that that definitely can’t be ignored, but for me it is even a bigger problem that the separation of church and state should just never allow such intermingling.

Keep the interests separate from each other and you won’t get into dodgy or tricky situations when certain treatments could interfere with religious principles. The Department of Health claims that they are in charge and won’t let anybody interfere, but there can’t be any guarantee for that.

The solution? Buy the land from the religious order! I think the Sisters of Charity should pay what they owe regarding the compensation that they are due, but at the same time, the state should fairly then pay for and afterwards own the land the NATIONAL Maternity Hospital stands on. There is NO other option!

Catholic, Dublin, Health System, Irish, , , , ,

Trust issues – Is the Irish Police Force dodgy?

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
Trust issues – Is the Irish Police Force dodgy?

The An Garda Siochana, the Irish Police Force, is – like every other police force in the democratic world – the one and only enforcer of right and wrong in the country. They are not the judge if it is REALLY right or wrong, that’s what we have the judiciary (the courts and judges) for, but the police has to enforce the laws.

If you enforce the laws, however, you should also be obliged to stick to the laws. It increases your credibility tremendously and you set an all important example. If the rules don’t apply to the enforcer of the laws, then people behave like the children of parents that don’t stick to the rules they spout out. They become unruly and break the rules.

A small example: It is wrong for the Gardai to be allowed to use/handle mobile phones when driving, as long as all of us are not allowed to use mobile phones. And I think that EVEN if the mobile phone use is exclusively in the pursuit of their job….because we all know that it is NOT only in the pursuit of their job when they use the phone.

This is however a really small example and the Irish Gardai do it better:

1) Over the last few years they claimed that they carried out 1.9mio roadside alcohol test, but the Medical Bureau of Road Safety only knows of 1mio. How can there be a discrepancy of nearly a million? (RTE Report)

2) 14,500 people were prosecuted for road traffic offences and will have their convictions quashed because the gardai screwed up. They were brought to court without getting a fixed charge notice first. Not ok! (How come it took so long to come out?) The people that now get their money back and points removed because they drove 3km/h too fast (I got 3 points for that. Grrr!) are ok in my eyes, but what about people that committed serious traffic offences and who will also go without any penalty now? (RTE Report)

3) The Sergeant Maurice McCabe saga that is also called the Garda Whistleblower Scandal where Maurice McCabe lifted the lid on Garda corruption around the penalty point system and was threatened within the police force and a cover up was attempted is still not completely sorted. 5 years after it started!

4) This week it emerged that there are financial irregularities at the Garda College in Templemore. They had 50 (!) bank accounts for the college and used money for entertainment and presents that should not have been used for that. (RTE Report)

5) And now the Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan indicates that this might not be the only falsifications there are.

Can we really trust our Police Force? I am sure (and know) there are many Gardai that can be trusted but if there are soo many problems, there seems to be a huge systemic problem and if you need LUCK to get to deal with a “good” Gardai then that doesn’t instill confidence in the enforcer of right and wrong in our country.

Dublin, Justice, Odd, Politics, , , ,

30 km/h Speed Limit on all Residential Roads!

Written by Joerg Steegmueller
30 km/h Speed Limit on all Residential Roads!

You might think it is an April Fool’s Joke, but such nonsense is just day-to-day business in Dublin: From 01 April there is a 30 km/h speed limit on all residential roads between the canals all day, every day. I am totally on favour of 30 km/h speed limits near schools, in areas with a large amount of pedestrians and in other danger spots. But a blanked speed limit of 30 km/h is total nonsense.

Dublin City claims it will save lives, but they don’t seem to substantiate that with clear numbers that tell us how many people actually died in traffic accidents between the canals in the last 12 months or the last few years. And out of these fatal accidents, I would like to know how many involved a speed of the car of more than 30 km/h. I bet Dublin City has NO such numbers or statistics, so they just use the emotional argument that lives will be saved, expecting that everybody will shut up then.

Speed limits should make sense, then the majority of people will stick to them. But where they don’t make sense, the “30” signs are a waste of effort and the speed limit will have absolutely no effect.

At the time of writing this, the new speed limit wasn’t in effect yet, so we will have to see after 01 April if the “residential road” classification was applied to the right streets, let me know if you find streets that are in the speed limit zones that shouldn’t be. Oh and if you think it won’t affect you because you don’t have a car, think again: Every bus and every taxi will also have to adhere to the limit. (Only cyclists don’t have to! They can now easily overtake busses and cars at any speed they like because they can’t be taken to task when exceeding the limit.)

Dublin, Traffic,
 
Malcare WordPress Security