The Great Cork Apartment Hunt - Episode 1 - What's so hard?

So, what's so hard about getting an apartment in Cork anyway? That's a valid question, and one that you'll hear particularly often from people outside of Ireland. As someone who's been living in Ireland for more than five years now, I don't really think about the reasons anymore, not least because they are omnipresent in most Irish newspapers and other media. It only moved to the forefront of my thoughts again after a conversation with an old friend of mine from back in my boarding school days, and since Google Analytics always tells me that most of the visitors on this blog come from either the US or Russia, I thought that a bit of context certainly can't hurt here.
Basically, the entire mess started with the collapse of the Irish economy back in 2008. The abundance of cheap credit available during the Celtic Tiger years had caused a massive building boom in Ireland, as literally everyone and their grandma tried to emulate Donald Trump and dabble in real estate. All kinds of pie-in-the-sky themes were suddenly going ahead, from high-rise buildings to large housing estates in some of the most remote parts of the country. Almost everyone was involved in the property market somehow, either as an investor, as a builder or contractor, or as an employee in a bank or investment fund. In fact, it appears that the only companies not involved in wrecking the economy were much vilified IT outfits like Apple. Rents were sky-high, but as the economy was flooded with money, people were willing to pay those rents.

Whether it is high value developments like Starfleet Headquarters, oh, sorry, I mean Lancaster Gate...

...or this rather unusual development at Camden Court, a lot of these complexes were built in the years leading up to the crash, often in much more nonsensical locations than this.

Then, in 2008, a series of banks that had fuelled this boom began to collapse, amongst them companies that have since become household names, like Lehman Brothers, Anglo Irish Bank, or the German Hypo Real Estate. Yep, German money played an integral part in overheating the Irish economy. But back to the topic at hand. Not only did many Irish loose their money, and in many cases their homes, but empty or unfinished apartment blocks dotted the landscape and cities throughout Ireland. Many were empty shells, and even those that had been finished before the crash were often so far out of the way, that it was effectively impossible to rent them. The situation wasn't much better in the cities, with large apartment blocks staying mostly empty, because they were either overpriced, somewhere out in the middle of nowhere, or both. The term Ghost Estate became commonplace. Even high profile developments, like the Elysian in Cork, were not immune from this development. Not that being priced right and being in the right location was any hope for the apartment being available, since many properties were taken over by Ireland's bad bank, NAMA.

Even high-value developments such as the Elysian in Cork did not escape the crash, and ended up standing empty for years while legal proceedings rumbled on.

Still, by the end of 2012, the economy began bottoming out. Jobless numbers began to drop, and especially the big multinationals began hiring substantial amounts of new staff. Apartment prices remained low, given the huge amount of empty flats and houses. Significant difficulties remained in the market however. Numerous families were in mortgage arrears and at risk of losing their houses, and finished complexes were often embroiled in lengthy legal battles between previous owners, NAMA, potential purchasers, tenants, or all four at once. Consequently, few companies were willing to invest in the Irish residential property market. And why bother anyway? There was more than enough empty housing stock around. 
However, over the last few years, the economy, especially in the large urban centres of Ireland, has slowly but surely begun to outstrip the supply of housing. Down here in Cork, it isn't uncommon for workers in even well-paid entry-level IT jobs to share a flat with two or more colleagues. The situation is made worse by a drastic lack of student accommodation, meaning that university students clog up housing stock on the free market. At the same time, construction is still lagging behind, due partially to the fact that legal uncertainties are still not completely resolved, and the current tax regime rewards landowners sitting on large plots of undeveloped land.

A lot of the housing stock available on the market is similar to these buildings along Proby's Quay in Cork - Old, small, and often in questionable states of repair.

Then, there's the societal stigma against both rental accommodation, and apartment blocks. No, really. For some reason, there's a prevailing attitude in Irish society that you're not a full citizen unless you own your own home, even if that's a cheap 1960s vintage claptrap with a tea-towel sized back yard with some anaemic blades of grass desperately struggling to survive amongst the concrete. Therefore, rental properties just don't get the same attention as those that are destined for sale. Or at least they didn't until large numbers of IT professionals from outside of Ireland began entering the market in large numbers. 
That brings us to the current predicament. We've got numerous companies hiring like mad, especially IT companies, often bringing in talent from abroad. At the same time, many cities are at or nearing capacity with regards to housing. Rents are skyrocketing, and even professionals are being priced out of their apartments. However, not enough new apartments are being built, and those that are available go very fast. If an apartment is available for more than two to three weeks in the current market conditions, chances are it's either hideously overpriced, dodgy, or both. In addition, there's numerous dubious players in the market as well, and I for my part certainly won't react to offers posted by someone only with their first name, without any company or registration. And don't even get me started on those offers without any photos. Quite simply, if it's not good enough to show on a photo, you shouldn't even think about renting it out to someone.
And that's the short version of the situation and background I'm faced with on my hunt for a new pad. Four weeks in, the results have been slim, and yep, I'll blog about that in my next post. The one good thing is that there are new interesting apartments popping up every day, so while there is only a limited number of apartments available, the selection is bigger than you'd think given the problems above. Anyway, the chase is on!