Sir, - Reading the article by Kathryn Holmquist on the dilemma facing first-time buyers in the Dublin area (February 3rd), I couldn't help being reminded of a certain home truth: "beggars can't be choosers".
As a single professional looking to buy my first property I was most interested in the story of Mr Kennedy and his fiancee Ms Dillon featured in the piece. As two working professionals, looking forward to parenthood with a very impressive £25,000 saved, earning above average salaries and capable of commanding a £105,000 mortgage, they complained of not being able to find a three-bedroom house with a garden in the greater Dublin area for less than £125,000. Outrageous, is it not?
But what else can you expect in this market if you insist on looking in areas where you might find a high proportion of Irish Times readers, such as Stepaside and Sandyford? Miss Holmquist unfortunately highlighted only one option facing them: that of acquiring a property a little further out from the epicentre of the Pale - setting up a home in the Kildare towns, or the Mullingars or Dunboynes of our cosy little island. It's a pity that no word was forthcoming in the article about the fact that a three-bedroom house can be found for under £100,000 in areas such as Tallaght, Clondalkin or Finglas, all within comfortable commuting distance of Ms Dillon's workplace in Fitzwilliam Square. Only two weeks ago I had an Estate Agent call me about a wellkept three-bedroom house in a mature private estate in Tallaght up for private treaty at £78,000 - quite a snip in the light of the prices mentioned in the article. Suddenly the situation, bad enough as it is, does not seem so desperate for a professional couple planning a family. However these suburbs, developed and with a distinct sense of community (yearned for by the other firsttime buyer in the article, Ms Fennell), are indeed overlooked by many first-time buyers. I hazard a guess that I would not be too far off the mark in articulating a suspicion of snobbery on the part of some of them. Yes, there is an acute housing crisis out there. Yet if people with the means of Mr Kennedy and Ms Dillon elect to be so selective, I for one don't want to hear their complaints. The times they are a changin' and one has to change with them. - Yours, etc.,
From Eoghan Ruadh O'Neill
Monastery Drive,
Clondalkin,
Dublin 22.