Is this the biggest property slide ever?
Actually, we’ve been here before! Some of Dublin’s great buildings were built in the late 18th Century. And then the country went bust...
Tom Prendeville, 10 Sep 2010
Economics professor Kevin O’Rourke of Trinity College recently warned that Irish house prices could fall by as much as 70% from their Celtic Tiger peak. This would leave us with the dubious distinction of having experienced the largest property slide ever recorded in the Western world.
Or would it? If you thought our current property collapse was catastrophic, it’s in the half-penny place compared to the extraordinary boom and bust of Dublin’s see-sawing property market 200 years ago. For example, in the 1780s, a mansion in fashionable Merrion Square fetched 8,000 British pounds – the equivalent of €2.4m in today’s money.
But then it all went wrong. In 1800, the boom ended and the economy collapsed. In the glum years that followed, the same Merrion Square mansions plummeted in value to £2,500 (€750,000); by the time of the Famine 50 years later they were changing hands for £500 each (€150,000). Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose...
So what happened? The Georgian era was one of the most colourful periods in Irish history. It was then that Dublin first emerged as a bustling, modern metropolis. Designer shops lined the city’s fashionable new streets, and Venetian, French and Dutch artisans fetched up on our shores, hoping to make their fortune.
During the halcyon years between 1782 and 1800, Dublin became the biggest building site in the world, as a new and gracious city covering four square miles was built on what was once open farmland. Amazingly, the entire boom was largely funded by inheritances from widows, who, at the time, were prohibited from engaging in property ventures.
It was during this time that the world’s largest port, the Grand Canal Dock, was completed. It opened for business in 1796, as a thousand dignitaries from London, Paris and Berlin came to marvel at the spectacle.
The mammoth Grand and Royal Canals were also constructed, at a cost of £2.3m (€690m). Other projects included the re-location of Dublin city centre down-river from Christchurch.
Page 1/4 <Previous 1 2 3 4 Next>
©Hot Press 2011. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy