Ah you’re not that dim. Remember the housing crisis?
Stick the tech Bros and rich foreign students in the co-living premises instead of having them occupy homes more suited to families
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A bit of honest advice sought for a friend.
My pal has a bit of land on the outskirts of a city where he grew up. Let’s say Galway, for the sake of argument.
He/she has enough money put aside to build or to buy.
So, no site costs other than preparation. It’s near enough to where he/she wants to live.
There’s a decent enough house come up for sale for circa 500k fairly close by, or there’s a couple of places either in the city or Salthill he/she would quite like.
He/she has an English wife who he/she needs to keep happy which may be a factor.
Would he/she be better to build or buy?
If buying, should he/she buy now, or wait, and if so til when?
The house isn’t needed immediately so time not so much an issue.
Mortgage not needed.
Asking for a friend.
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If your friend isnt in the country, Who’d over-see the build? - These things always run into problems — but if there’s no rush with the build then your friend can end up with the perfect house for his wife … @Gman the best man here I suppose.
A builder has been suggested who is very reliable and they have a friend with good knowledge who would keep a watch on things.
They haven’t applied for planning yet as they’ve submitted two plans which the preplanning officer doesn’t like.
They are getting a pain in the hole with it.
Their land has a fine view of the lake from part of it. The preplanning officer doesn’t want them to build there as “the drive would be too long”
Apparently.
If it were me, and I was putting 500k into either a build or buy, you would build something that suited you and would be better value than buying a one off house for 500k. Planning would be the only issue, if planning isnt an issue, then I’d build. Every time. Yes it can be hassle, but its building a house the way you want it and to suit your needs. You would essentially be sinking part of the 500k of the buy into the land there and their profit margin, whereas with the new build, all the money will be spent on the house itself and you will know that is built to the most up to date regs with the best of quality. Regulations have changed hugely in just 10 years alone, I think there has been 4 revisions to building regs in the past 10 years. Lots of people can do their build and not be on site, just make sure your design team is good and does what they are meant to do.
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I could get him/her to pm you a preliminary plan fwiw.
It’s dragging on and on.
The engineer says that they will get planning, but not where they want it quite.
Your friend could always send over a young lad to do a bit of labouring on the site for the builder, to keep an eye on things and what not 
That friends young lad you wouldn’t put minding hens tbh. He’s a lovely young fella but the fairies have him.
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Ps I’d add that my pal really wants if building to throw the plans at the builder and hear nothing til it’s ready to move in
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It’s great to see Jeeves coming up in the world.
He’s well looked after.
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as long as they get planning on the site itself, the particular location shouldnt be a massive issue. And to have someone just leave a builder off and not interfere is a builders dream, as long as they dont come pissing and moaning when it is all done. The architect/engineer or whoever is in control of the monitoring will just need to ensure they keep the client up to date and that design issues are agreed. The amount of times I see a job going well until the wife turns up a month before handover and wants to change everything.
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That wouldn’t happen he doesn’t think, not changing.
The location is an issue as the “site” is a fair few acres of farmland, or what passes for it in that area.
Would 500k still build a good size house to good spec?
I’ll inform mate to do so. Get one on speed dial.
500k will get you a serious house and spec in current climate, in a non Dublin region. Take it that a fair proportion of the money will go on design team fees, council contributions, connections etc, but even allowing for all that, say it takes €50k to get it to that stage, €450 on pure building would easily get you a high end 3,000 square foot house, which is more than big enough for anyone. The only caveat on that is abnormal costs, so if it needs a big long laneway to be done to get in, or having to engage those Irish water cunts, things like that.
Build. Even if he buys, as sure as night follows day she will want something changed or extended to the bought house within 3 years so he’ll be doing some building either way and the second way is more expensive
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Dermot Bannon is your man here Flatty. Give him carte blanche and tell him the budget is 100k. You should just get out for under 500k then
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