Keeping up appearances? No one is bothering now says ISABEL MORTON
SOMETIMES, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. Last week, I was particularly busy (for which I am extremely grateful) and was acting on behalf of a buyer on one property and on behalf of a seller for another.But something was niggling at me, something different about the general mood, which I just hadn’t picked up on, and, I suspect, had been disguised by all the recent distractions brought about by visiting dignitaries.
With so many voicing their opinions, analyses, predictions and premonitions, it’s not easy to figure out what precisely, if anything, is going on in the Irish property market.
I went in search of a few honest views of the current property situation, not a bunch of out-of-date statistics or an economic forecast for 2012, but a here-and-now idea of what is going on. Estate agents are no longer even bothering to pretend that all is well. Some agencies, from the start of this recession, pretty much closed up shop, pulled down the shutters and went home. Others put on their armour and manic fixed smiles and went off into battle.
And up to recently, although admitting that we would never return to “the good old days”, they would nevertheless cheerfully tell you about the number of properties which they had recently sold and bore you to tears with meaningless statistics relating to previous much-doctored sales figures.
We all knew that they were sales people, trying to sell property, so what else would we expect?
Obviously, the approach estate agents took with me this week differed depending on which hat I was wearing at the time. Acting as the vendor, I was reminded of how difficult the market is now and how the asking price should be reduced in order to encourage interest, as currently there are no serious contenders on the horizon.
As a purchaser, miraculously, there was always someone else in the wings, with an offer, which would, at the very least, compete with mine. It was extraordinary that so many potential purchasers popped up out of nowhere, just as soon as I expressed an interest in a property.
But this week, when I listened carefully, I could tell that their hearts just weren’t in it. They regurgitated their usual estate-agent babble, professional to the end, but if you read between the lines, it translated as “look, we’re worn out negotiating and trying to keep you all happy, when we know that none of you are, so just give me an offer, anything, and I’ll put it to the vendor and after that, it’s up to them whether they accept it or not”.
Architects (even those lucky enough to still be working), have lost their lust for life. The chance of them realising their dream of leaving their mark on the planet by designing the equivalent to the Sydney Opera House is slim to none.
The light has gone out of their eyes, as they go through the motions of designing boring kitchen extensions, which probably didn’t need the creative eye of an architect in the first place, as any half-decent builder could have taken an educated guess at the design and built it with his eyes closed.
And talking of builders – the good ones have no time to talk. Spending their days on site and evenings working on quotations, most now do so many, that they have prices cut to the bone and yet wonder why they are bothering, as they may well be competing with a cowboy, who will cut corners to shave off more of a profit.
Needless to say, their unfortunate clients will be none the wiser until six months down the line, when they discover that their roof is leaking or their house wasn’t properly insulated, wired, plumbed or whatever. But of course, by that stage, their oh-so-cheap builder will be long gone and the cost of the remedial work will far exceed the difference between the original quotations.
And then I called my best source of honest, accurate property information – the removal companies.
Always right in the thick of things, shifting furniture and personal possessions and packing private lives into cardboard boxes, removal men always know exactly what’s going on, as they are dealing with people when they are at their most vulnerable.
“I’m old enough to remember the late 1950s and it’s an awful lot worse now than it was then. At least we had normal movement then but now sales have ground to a complete halt. Business is down at least 20 per cent on this time last year,” said one.
Another said, “We see the bathroom cabinets and the bedside lockers stuffed with medication and sleeping tablets. We’re all just sick and tired.”
Indeed, that’s exactly what I’ve been sensing over the last few weeks; that we’ve no longer got any fight left in us. Exhaustion has set in.
** Isabel Morton is a property consultant
