Just when the signs were starting to emerge of a cooling down of the property market, the queues begin.
First Dundalk and now Dublin, where more than 20 people have been outside a property agent's office since last Friday for homes which don't go on sale for another three days.
Selling agents Hooke & MacDonald yesterday brought refreshments to the huddled masses, who have been mistaken by passers-by for refugees, down-and-outs and even demonstrators on some sort of dirty protest.
"People don't believe us when we say we're just looking to buy an apartment," said Mr John O'Neill (27) from Sutton who has been house-hunting for six months. "Things have got so bad in the market, I couldn't see any alternative."
Like many, he has arranged leave from work to complete the week-long vigil, and has drafted in the help of friends and family.
"It's the least we can do. I don't envy any young person trying to buy their first home," his mother, Ms Eileen O'Neill, said after completing a four-hour shift in a deck chair.
A total of 40 apartments at Pudding Row in Temple Bar are being sold off the plans on Thursday. They range in price from £150,000 for a 500 sq ft one-bed unit to £250,000 for a 900 sq ft two-bed.
More than 1,400 inquiries were received by Hooke & MacDonald about the development before the plans were shown to the public last week. The selling agents are to give owner-occupiers priority to buy at least 30 of the 40 units.
Meanwhile, in Dundalk, homebuyers queuing to buy a batch of three-bedroom semi-detached houses at Castle Ross, will today reach the end of a four-day wait. Up to 30 people have been queueing, with some getting students to wait in line for £50 a day.
A number of those queuing for the Dublin apartments were also being paid. While some had been hired by investors, most were assisting friends who planned to make Temple Bar their home.
"There's a certain amount of camaraderie built up between us now that we've been here for so long," said Ms Margaret McCormack, originally from Westport, Co Mayo, but now living in Drumcondra.
Like others, she said Hooke & MacDonald had been helpful and sympathetic - it opened the offices yesterday to allow people go to the toilet. However, she said "we're hoping they might give us some sort of voucher which would book us an apartment and let us go home early - anything to put us out of our misery".
Prospective buyers in sleeping bags wait for apartments to go on sale at estate agents Hooke & MacDonald, in Merrion Square, Dublin. Photograph: Joe St Leger.
