Couple Just View Houses For The Craic Now

HAVING come to terms with the fact that their first step on the property ladder is still at least 60 years away, Dublin couple Sean and Breige Manlon currently pass their weekends going to view show-houses and properties just for the sheer hell of it.

Although the Manlon family have spent the last three years earnestly viewing houses in a bid to get out of the Dublin rental trap, the young couple have long since given up the hope that one day one of these houses will actually be theirs, despite having decent jobs and a fair amount of savings between them.

After suffering one outbid property after the other as sale prices soared uncontrollably, the Manlon’s now visit show-houses in much the same way as most people browse through Ikea or Harvey Norman, pointing out things that they would like one day, in some ideal version of the world where the supply of houses matched the demands and buying property wasn’t some sort of vicious cock fight.

“I think it all changed a few years ago when we were viewing a house and we could actually see someone offering a deposit there and then, without stepping foot through the door,” sighed Sean Manlon, wandering around a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Swords that would suit his family down to the ground, but what’s the point in hoping.

“So now we just view houses out of habit, and chit chat to ourselves about what we might do if we owned a house like it. What colour would we paint the kitchen, what our kids would look like playing out the back, things like that. We don’t even bother putting in bids anymore. Once you get outbid by some mysterious ‘new bidder’ who seems to do nothing except jack the price up, you just accept that you’re fucked and leave it at that”.

The Manlon’s have also joined a help group called show house-aholics anonymous, where like-minded people gather to discuss lovely houses they visited and the estate agents who fucked them over.