Sindo: I signed my life away for the sake of city centre apt

[mambo]

Alison O’Riordan, a gung-ho first-time buyer purchased her city pad while the market was still buoyant but now struggles to pay the bills and a sizeable mortgage
independent.ie/opinion/analy … 06182.html

[SamG]

and swapped the leafy suburbs of my family home in Rathmines for life as a city slicker in the sought-after riverside location of Grand Canal Quay

With that standard of journalese she’s right to be concerned about her career prospects and subsequent ability to service her debt.

[Calina]

Haven’t we heard her story already?

[everybody_knows]

I have to have a lie down . 525,000 Euro for a 2 bed apartment plus 45,000 Euro for a parking space in Dublin ,in a ’ softening ’ market with warnings from her parents and The Central Bank ?

[Enoch_Root]

With that standard of journalese she’s right to be concerned about her career prospects and subsequent ability to service her debt.

From her article -

But I worked hard to get here and put myself through tedious years of college so I could afford my own place, so I will persevere.

So tedious that she couldn’t be bothered to learn how to become a journalist.

[jonny]

I don’t get it. Does she want to move somewhere else? She got exactly what she wanted.

[CJ1]

@everybody knows

. 525,000 Euro for a 2 bed apartment plus 45,000 Euro for a parking space in Dublin

Article gives no indication as to what kind of salary multiple that would be?

[hairy_cake]

@Calina

Haven’t we heard her story already?

I thought so too and here it is viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23011&start=0&hilit=alison

Is it such a slow news day that they have to recycle this kind of pap? Aren’t there real stories that she could investigate using those years of training?

[grumpy]

Not to worry. If it’s dropped 50% it will only take 35 years at 2% per annum to recover it’s nominal cost and she can sell at a profit.

[Ivor_Lot]

I give up,I really do. This clown already told us her story. Is she being paid to write this again?
Journalist my arse!
Maybe Alison,you should form a support group with your colleague Carol Hunt.Ask that Brendan O’Connor chap for advice,he’s never short of an opinion! The scamp!

[Calina]

@hairy cake

@Calina

Haven’t we heard her story already?

I thought so too and here it is viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23011&start=0&hilit=alison

Is it such a slow news day that they have to recycle this kind of pap? Aren’t there real stories that she could investigate using those years of training?

There are thousands, apparently, and from people who are in half the debt she is in.

What gets me is this: it’s an insult to the average Sunday Independent reader that the SIndo passes this off as journalism in any shape or form. What on earth does Aengus Fanning think of the people who pay his salary?

[jdf]

It isn’t very Sex and the City. In fact any likely lad would be running scared. Love me love my negative equity.

Surely the response should be to lift your game, get syndicated or whatever these journo types do and roll in the cash rather than this apparent wallowing in self pity.

[Calina]

I’m not sure I could take any Sunday Independent journalist reinventing themselves as Carrie and going for world domination.

[Alusuisse]

But I worked hard to get here and put myself through** tedious years of college **so I could afford my own place, so I will persevere.

Oh Alison,you unwittingly i fear,put your delicate finger on the button here.

So many of our so-called high-achievers were never motivated by the sense of achievement at all…to them it was tedium…marking time…anything except applying oneself to acheive a goal with a end in sight.

Knowledge Based Economy my arse.

[yelims]

my god that’s sickening read

these people gambled and lost and now want help

[Tubarao]

This article does a great favour to those who oppose a NAMA-for-the-people bailout.

She admits that she was grossly cavalier about going €570,000 into debt against all advice, at a time when the public was acknowledging a full-on housing market crash.

I can’t see many people rushing to pay extra tax for her benefit.

(Fair play to her for admitting it in a national paper though)

[iguana]

@jdf

It isn’t very Sex and the City.

Well actually, I believe the plot of Sex and the City 2 centres on Carrie and her husband’s financial problems. So Ms O’Riardon is very much living the Sexy dream.

[The_Welcome_Guest]

@jdf

It isn’t very Sex and the City. In fact any likely lad would be running scared. Love me love my negative equity.
Surely the response should be to lift your game, get syndicated or whatever these journo types do and roll in the cash rather than this apparent wallowing in self pity.

I would give the dizzy tart 144k ************ no more no less for this gaff . . .

Keep it Clean folks some of these comments are off the wall and of the sexual predatory type. Rather sad really - OW

[jxbr]

Recycled whinging from someone who is clearly educationally subnormal and feels they deserve to be rescued from their own stupidity.

It was, however, weeks before the collapse in the middle of 2008, when prices tumbled. I ignored repeated warnings both from my parents and the Central Bank and instead ploughed in head first and handed over the money.

Says it all.

When I was buying, parking spaces in my development cost an extra €45,000. You can imagine my fury when my neighbour informed me recently how the seller had thrown their car park space in for free at the same time as I had purchased in order to make the sale.

Way to negotiate love. I would love to imagine your fury. [Mod edited]

The cold wind of reality is never far from me and it constantly blows abruptly into my life. I have considered moving back home and renting out the apartment as the once affordable mortgage is not so affordable anymore with pay cuts and it has become a struggle to pay the bills and large mortgage.

How much has your salary dropped?

The two-bed showroom unit apartment on the fifth floor wasn’t exactly affordable, considering I was buying alone, but with its sleek Scandinavian furniture and skyline views I was prepared to stretch my cash limits and fork out the €525,000 sum required.

Rent out the second bedroom? Find some sleek Scandanavians - they’d feel right at home or do they furnish their apartments with second-hand furniture from old Irish cottages?

I remember vividly looking on with envy at a friend at a bar buying rounds for everyone, boasting how he could afford it because of his generous variable rate in the current conditions. I was advised at the time by a number of knowledgeable people to go with a fixed rate of interest; the benefit at the time was the security of knowing exactly how much my mortgage would cost each month. And so with each successive interest rate cut announced by the European Central Bank since last October, my friend at the bar on the tracker mortgage has gleefully calculated how much extra disposable income he will have as a result, while I am locked into an expensive fixed-rate deal and all I can do is just grin and bear it.

Why did you fix when rates were dropping and were going to remain low for years? Did you listen to anyone? I won’t be going drinking with you. I’d say you are great fun.

The cost of breaking the fixed rate is €6,673 and my position is both depressing and far from unique. I will have 480 repayment instalments over the next 40 years; it really is an imprisonment of sorts.

You got a 40 year fixed mortgage? They saw you coming.

I have to look no further than beside my building to see just how much the market has collapsed. I could not afford the two-bed apartments at The Waterfront on Hanover Quay, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin 2, for €580,000 when I initially looked to buy. According to Mark Dunne of Hooke & MacDonald, they are now selling for an astonishing €450,000.

Wait a few more months and you will be even more astonished love.

[xman]

Yes, looks like a classic NAMA for de Peeple case.

How much extra tax and or reduced services do you want to cop for Alison’s “Sex In The City” shoebox?

Someone who was “highly edumicated”, but who chose to buy despite being advised against it.

Regretfully Alison, I am not moved to contribute to your worthy cause. Good luck with your 40 year mortgage. I mean that sincerely because I don’t believe anyone else should be coerced into paying for it.

If you think there is some magic money tree somewhere that can shit money for your mortgage then you’re definitely writing for the right paper.