RTE – How we blew the Boom – Jesus Celtic Tiger was mental , furniture sales man taking home €1K per week after tax

8 comments

1. Man twas some time, working on minimum wage during college while my colleagues, also on minimum wage, were buying houses. Bouncers sagely admonishing me for paying rent saying that I could pay a mortgage with that instead. Ads on tv telling me I didn’t need to lie on loan applications because they didn’t care, and AIB offering mortgages to unemployed students.

2. When I moved to Dublin in 2007, I went into open a bank account in BOI, they offered me a mortgage and a list of houses there and then! Crazy times!

3. That’s true about Harvey Norman. Salesperson were making a fortune on commission. Lots of sweeteners back then also. That would not happen now.

4. Decking was the greatest scam “it’s pretreated, you’ll never need to do anything with it….lifetime warranty”

   Followed by Ballymaloe Relish…..slap it on a ham and cheese sandwich and charge 2 quid more.

5. As a sparks I remember mid 2007 the phone would ring less every day. People either started holding onto the money or just had less to spend. Many of the jobs prior were people looking for extensions wired up, or new downlighting in their kitchen etc. They’d throw the cash at ya, but now when a job would come in they’d be counting the cents.

   It got to the point there was days where there was no work and eventually I had to leave the business and started working with other trades part time who needed an extra hand to finish a job.

   Many friends of mine had mortgages they should not have had. They did party but now they had it worse. I was lucky that I could still comfortably pay my rent and food, but they were all balls of stress. A few didn’t make it out :(.

6. I still remember going to the Galway races and the number of people who arrived by helicopter from Dublin, and then flew back at the end of the day. And the massive Fianna Fáil tent.

7. Lol my dad worked in construction during the boom and has some mad stories. This was life in excess to the maximum.

8. A mate of mine sold kitchens………in a housing boom.

   He was making so much money you wouldn’t believe.