Cheap Irish houses

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119560951#Comment_119560951

Thats a good idea. I would guess though that none of the people who went on the show bought any of Maggies offerings so there is probably noone to revisit!

Posy

If it's €200k now for a dilapidated shack in the back of beyond, that's just madness. The houses Maggie finds are just terrible!

Yes, Ciaran is gas- "I noticed there is a bit of subsidence there (for eg)." "Yes, you'd want an expert to look at that alright." Isn't that your role?! 🤦‍♀️

Posy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119559827#Comment_119559827

Exactly my thoughts re: house 3.

That girl has 50 - 60k in savings and is mortgage approved for about €180. And she shows her a house for €295. 😂

It reminded me of one house last series over a post office, 'the rent will pay your mortgage!' Em yeah, a rural post office definitely won't shut up shop alright. >_>

And even if she was guaranteed that small craft shop in a rural location is a real money spinner and they won't go into arrears/liquidation/terminate the lease just after she moves in, the bank can still only lend 3.5 times her salary, so she would have to pull the extra €60k out of thin air in a 'Room to Improve' kind of way.

elperello

The show featured on tonight's edition of Nationwide.

Some interesting behind the scenes information.

https://www.rte.ie/player/series/nationwide/SI0000001172?epguid=IH000412856

Kalimah

That Ciaran guy knows nothing. Calls himself a builder. The bank won’t lend for houses that are uninhabitable either by the way. Unless you have the money upfront forget it.

Gile_na_gile

That Nationwide segments goes some way to explaining why there are these shortcomings for many viewers in relation to suitability, budget, and engineering assessment. I suppose it has been covered before in this thread too about the origins of the TV show.

Regardless of that, I think the show contributes to a growing appreciation of the actual aesthetics of traditional Irish houses. So many people have little to no regard for what is beautiful in Irish house, and while beauty is subjective, there is some degree of coherence regardless of culture such as we see in music.

The rural cottages and farmhouses she favours are simple in design, unimposing on the landscape, elegantly proportioned, and furnished similarly with solid wood finishings, traditional sideboards, and fireplaces. In contrast, modern houses are a kitsch mess of styles, usually imposing without redeeming characteristics. They are often parked on top of a hill or above a road with an enormous drive entrance, no footpath, and have little continuity from our pre-1960 buildings. Even the 1970s bungalows were much more sympathetic to their cottage predecessors in how they are sited and shaped. The more exposure people have to small details like wood finishings, window proportions such as vertical timber windows, pitched roofs with flush gables, etc. etc. the more influence they will play on design decisions for both new builds and retrofits.

For more about this, from someone who is not full of notions like me, I'd recommend this Teagasc talk from Edward Byrne who specialises in lime plaster for older vernacular buildings. At the end there, like with Maggie, he talks of his love of traditional buildings and of how they form such an important part of our culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCGir4hiSA4

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561198#Comment_119561198

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119562173#Comment_119562173

Ciaran appears to be a qualified engineer with quite an impressive CV.

https://alumni.ucc.ie/s/1901/bp19/interior.aspx?sid=1901&gid=2&pgid=649&cid=1769&ecid=1769&crid=0&calpgid=503&calcid=1399

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574475#Comment_119574475

Well he comes across as completely clueless on the show. I wish he would give an honest assessment of a house. He seems to ignore obvious issues with houses and makes it sound like problems could be fixed cheaply when they wont be fixed cheaply - its very misleading. Most of the houses need alot of work done to them to make them comfortable and by the time even basic work is done on them they are far from cheap houses.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574367#Comment_119574367

I too love old houses and think they should be preserved - you cant beat the character of an old home. However you have to be reaslistic and realise that alot of the houses shown are not currently in a fit stage to live in. The houses need work done to make them liveable - thats where the show goes wrong for me. Most of the houses need another at least another €50-€100K spent on them to make them comfortable which makes them far from cheap houses. Maggie and Kieran need to get real and be honest to be credible - ignoring the damp, no heating, no water, no sewerage system, rotten windows and doors, holes in the floors, rotten fascia, let alone the lack of kitchen and bathroom makes them both appear very foolish.

I would love to see the show back next year with a new format where Kieran gives a list of what needs to be done to a particular house and the cost involved.

Gile_na_gile

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574613#Comment_119574613

Would be great if they could fit that in, now that they are three seasons in. Perhaps also might see a trend in that the ones who actually buy and renovate to a high standard are artists, engineers, and generally creatives (in the sense of actually making things, not being influencers!). That seemed to be the case with the old council cottage shown done on a small budget, but those council and land commission buildings were well built and are newer than many of the featured buildings on the show. Certainly on the GHR show 100-150k seems about the minimum, say, for bringing an 18th/19th C town building back into use.

Posy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119574613#Comment_119574613

I totally agree. The old houses and their character are great and it's wonderful to try and preserve them and make them live-able again. But if the house is bordering €200k and the cost to make it habitable (heating system, insulation, new wiring, new plumbing, new windows etc) is at least another €100k that's really far from cheap, unless you or your family are in the trade.

Plus mysterious subsidence or cracks, mould, damp etc isn't going to make the potential buyer confident unless the house has been fully surveyed and Kieran could give them a realistic figure as to what they would cost to fix.

GAAcailin

Its the third season and nothing really has changed or improved, except for some white cartoon type graphics and a visit to a house that has been done up. No mention of the increased building costs which is surely a major consideration at the moment.

I always think the prospective buyers are really clueless and not the type that would take on such a project. I think some of them don't even get what it would be like to be living in the middle of nowhere and the sense of isolation that comes with that (for some people). The Owners of the houses she visits to 'compare what someone else has done' always seem so much more clued in, more along the lines of the people who appear on 'The Great house restoration' albeit on a much smaller scale.

These houses are not cheap, they are priced according to supply and demand and there is not a lot of demand for houses in mainly isolated locations in poor condition.

Gile_na_gile

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119578729#Comment_119578729

This is true, because the great majority of restorations and new builds in rural areas are from the rural people already rooted in the locality. Even the last time we saw an influencer use these shows to boost their own platform on the GHR, the person was building within the frame of a house left to her by her family in Stradbally. The whole move to the country thing is a little bit derivative of the homes in the sun for monolingual brits, or English pensioners retiring to Wales to live among other English retirees. Irish society is much more rooted in family networks like Spain and Italy and people here return to their family networks after 10-20 years away. That said, if that Cottageology group on FB is anything to go by, urban people going rural in new areas seems to be getting popular.

elperello

Maggie is spreading her wings.

On screen next March Cheap European Homes.

https://www.irishcentral.com/culture/entertainment/cheap-european-homes-irish

GAAcailin

Cheap is the operative word here as the series must cost nearly nothing to produce. Only Maggie & Kieran’s wages really; wonder do the prospective buyers get anything at all other than a bit of crappy advice from Kieran

Pussyhands

Such a terrible programme. The name of the program is obviously the first thing wrong with it.

Maggie seems to think low price = cheap.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. You can pay 350k for a house and it could be great value. You could pay 50k for a cottage in belmullet and it would be awful value.

The reality is every market of the housing market is overpriced. There is nothing "cheap" out there anymore.

Second thing that annoys me is that last series Maggie said her budget was upped to broaden the net. The thing is that she just started looking at houses that were within the average price range for the area. So what exactly is she doing that the people looking couldn't do themselves? I remember last season she showed a shitbox to a couple that lived 10 minutes away. They could have found this themselves?

I see Maggie has upgraded to a vw beetle. Rte money must be good. I'd say she still has the Hilux too!

Lastly her pronunciation of "cohhidge" is very noticeable.

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119581992#Comment_119581992

Ciaran looks like someone who is a lecturer in college who can bullshit to people who don't know what they're talking about and he sounds like he knows a lot. He's useless.

I forgot to add another thing to my last post.

She goes to another house that did their own refurb and says "oh it only cost 30k" but it was done in 2015 so prices have boomed since then!

waxmelts2000

I enjoyed the first couple of seasons but this season is very poor, s, they are howing houses that are not what the brief was from the client

Posy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652848#Comment_119652848

Or else the person they visit did a lot of the work themselves which isn't really a true reflection of the cost, either.

All the ramshackle outhouses Maggie loves would give me the creeps too.

GAAcailin

Just makes no sense why they don’t disclose the BER of the properties; that would be part of the sales ad for any property.

any houses she shows them need serious work

ednwireland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119687319#Comment_119687319

Absolutely no point disclosing the ber they are all G or worse. A lot of those timber ceilings will have to be pulled out and replace with insulated Plasterboard (had to do this in my own old house)

Been trying to get a guy to lime mortar for a few years 5k to pick back and lime mortar a 1.5 storey gable wall. Unfortunately COVID has delayed that. Never mind retrofitting etc.

Love my house but it's a long project if you only have a small budget.

Oh getting trades that know what they are doing with old houses is very difficult.

Posy

In the last show she brought the couple with two kids to view a one bedroom house. I just can't. 🤦‍♀️

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119695855#Comment_119695855

I can understand that at first sight that might seem a bit strange but the possibility of re-configuring the rooms was explained in the show.

I thought that particular house was good value and had potential.

Deeec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696002#Comment_119696002

If I remember correctly the solution offered was to move the bathroom downstairs!!! Now we are in the year 2022 - having no bathroom upstairs isnt a good way to rectify the problem.

I do agree that the house had potential though but they would need to have the budget to extend to make the house work right for a family.

Posy

I couldn't have no bathroom upstairs, especially if you have a young child, like that family, it would be pretty inconvenient. Plus the cost of adding bedrooms and moving the bathroom can't be cheap!

I just thought surely there are houses she could show them that have more than one bedroom! I'd have been like 'you're having a laugh, Maggie.' 😂😂

recipio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119652810#Comment_119652810

It's a sellers market at the moment . What is defined as ' cheap' is probably a generational thing - I wouldn't call any house ' cheap ' unless it was under 50K. There is an air of desperation running through this programme. Get a house at all cost even if it is a dump at the side of the road. I can't believe people part so easily with big sums of money which will take twenty years to pay off. As the Budda says 'all things come to those who wait '

As for Maggie I certainly don't begrudge her new car or the Wexford accent although she might pay for some elocution lessons ? 😄

GAAcailin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119692390#Comment_119692390

Some of the houses are in ok nick; last weeks Cork episode with the German woman the third house was in ok’ish condition. She asked Kieran about the insulation and he replied that there had been money spent on it! - not answering the question directly iykwim !

the house this German woman liked most and she said she wanted to proceed with the purchase was located 40km from Clonakilty (where her 14 year old goes to school), being commuting distance from her sons school was on her must-have list. That point seemed to have been ‘forgotten’ about later in the process and she was going to go ahead with a house a 2 hour a day commute from school- daft…

elperello

I would have gone for the middle house myself.

The one with the second fixer upper at the back of the site.

I was a bit surprised at the value to be had in West Cork.

Posy

The house she was interested in is now sale agreed, I wonder did she go ahead with it? That'd surely be a first. 😂

thomas 123

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119561198#Comment_119561198

To your second part - No, you need to remove the ground around a few parts of the foundation to inspect it, maybe prop up walls/ceilings. Its a very specialist job.