The last decade should make us think again

Ten years on, Catherine McAuliffe reflects on the property crash of 2007, and on its roots in the 1990s.

Being known as a New Homes ‘Dinosaur’ allowed me to talk about the ‘good old days’, pre the property crash, but the analogy was appropriate — not because of the year I was born — but because this sector of the business became extinct.

In 1996 I bought my first home in Cork for IR£45,000. A new three-bed semi in Carrigaline, I thought I would never own anything of such value, ever again. Two years later, I sold it for IR£84,000.