It’s hard not to be gloomy when it comes to the housing market. Eye-watering prices, mind (and bum)-numbing commutes, terrible public transport: Ireland may not be the worst country to put down roots, but, goodness, it does its best to make the process as awkward as possible.
Amid the despair, Maggie Molloy’s Cheap Irish Homes (RTÉ One, Thursday, 7pm) has been an important corrective. Housing in Ireland is a mess – but it’s important, now more than ever, to stay optimistic. Which is what Molloy does as her microbudget property show, which started as an Instagram account, returns for a fourth season.
The action begins in Cork, where Molloy and her co-presenter Kieran McCarthy, an engineer, catch up with Louis and Erin Passero. The South African couple live in west Co Cork, work in the city and want an affordable house within commuting distance.
Molloy jumps into the action in an instalment that doubles as an enjoyable guide to some of Cork’s underappreciated highlights. In Aghada, in east Cork, they explore a three-bedroom house with harbour views priced at €220,000. “This is a very undervalued part of the world,” says McCarthy, pointing out that it has “a great network of roads going up to the city”.
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Louis and Erin are impressed – “I think we have enough space for a vegetable patch,” Louis enthuses – though their hearts ultimately seem set on trendier west Cork.
So it’s off to Ballineen, between Bandon and Dunmanway and within that 40-minute-commute sweet spot. There are four bedrooms and a whopping extension that “doubles the size of the house”.
“It’s not as authentic as you might like, but it will last forever,” says McCarthy, referring to the property rather than the current line-up of the Rolling Stones. Again, the response is one of delight. “Oh my word,” says Erin, wowed by the sheer scale of the building and the €200,000 price tag.
Cheap Irish Homes then diverts back to east Cork and Midleton, where Stephen Troy has converted a cottage and turned it into a quirky bolt-hole for an all-in price of less than €300,000 – fantastic value for Midleton, which, especially since the reopening of the train line to Kent Station, has become de facto suburb of the city.
Finally, it’s off to Inchigeelagh, on the fringes of the Cork Gaeltacht, and a delightful cottage with lots of land, priced at a mere €180,000. Louis and Erin are immediately smote and put it at the top of their list. “I hope everything works out for you,” Molloy says.
Things have certainly worked out for Molloy, whose positive thinking in an era of universal teeth-gnashing has turned her into an unlikely property guru. How refreshing, on Irish TV especially, to see someone look on the bright side of life.
