By Len Galvin
For International Living

Read the original article published by International Living here.

An Irish vintage show is like a village fete, but with lots of restored cars and farm machinery from 50 to 100 years ago on display, too.

We got there early so our 2-year-old, Patrick, could bounce around the giant inflatable castles without getting trampled on by the older kids. But all he wanted to do was sit on a 1960s Massey Ferguson tractor and pretend he was driving around the field.

The Irish countryside is a good place to raise a family. Patrick knows that the best place to find blackberries isn’t in a plastic container in the store, but in the hedgerows along the lanes where we live. (And this time of year, he has the purple mouth and hands to prove it.) He’s known…and spoiled…by every neighbor within a square mile. When he’s older, he’ll go to the (free) village school which has a top-notch curriculum and a high teacher-to-student ratio.

Within a couple of miles of the village, there are dozens of thatched cottages, some built a hundred years ago. Two castles nearby overlook the River Suir—one from the 1600s, the other much older, both with cannonball damage.

When I lost the key to my car door, I didn’t bother getting a new one—I never lock it anyway. And I rarely lock the house.

The soul of Ireland is still pretty much what it always was. But if you’ve visited in the past 10 years, you may not have found the Ireland you were expecting, particularly when it comes to costs.

The land of saints and scholars became the land of credit and commerce during the past decade. Ireland—Dublin in particular—regularly appeared in the top spot of the “most expensive” lists.

Big price drops this year mean that Irish hotels are now the cheapest in Western Europe…and there’s very little in it between Ireland and the cheapest in the whole of Europe (the Czech Republic).

But the most significant evidence of lowering prices in Ireland came from a note Ronan McMahon sent me about the first Irish real estate listing to get his attention in four years:

“This property includes 14 houses, a 10,000-square-foot country mansion, 47 acres, exclusive fishing rights, a gatehouse and outbuildings….all for 1 million euro ($1.5 million).

“The 14 houses alone were valued at 7 million euro two years ago.

“This is prime bloodstock country. Two years ago one of the ‘horsey set’ would have snapped up the 47 acres for 1 million euro just to raise horses.

“The country mansion has intrinsic value. The outbuildings have future value: You would be able to get permission to build where there has been a structure in the past. Without these buildings this might be impossible. Permissions are in place and the foundations have been laid for an extension to the main house. The plan was to convert it to a hotel. For a fishing enthusiast the fishing rights are priceless!

“This would be perfect as a location for a facility to use for retreats, rehab…helping people who have been eating too much or eating too little. Maybe a corporate HQ, training courses or old folks home. Endless possibilities.

“There will be opportunities in Ireland for the brave and cash-rich. Expect the floodgates to start opening from October.”

P.S. These days, Ronan has his eye on “distress deals,” prime real estate trading at a huge discount because of the cash flow problems of major developers. If you get his Real Estate Trend Alert service, you’re already benefiting from Ronan’s research in this area. To get your own RETA subscription, go here.

By Ronan McMahon

Ireland is in deep trouble. The banking system has failed and is in a limbo of government guarantees while politicians argue about where to put 100 billion euro or so in real estate loans. Borrowings increase every day just to pay teachers, police and nurses. Unemployment in absolute terms is higher than at any point in history while the unemployment rate is fast approaching the 17% and 18% last seen in the late ‘80s.

One of the biggest property booms every seen has spectacularly unraveled with disastrous consequences for the country. Since 2002 Ireland had become an economy that depended on the Irish selling houses to each other. Then, just as the domestic bubble was popping, global credit and financial crises came along. This is a perfect storm of domestic and international problems.

It’s pretty much impossible to value real estate right now in Ireland as there is no market. There have been very few fire sales. Developers and banks are waiting for the “bad bank” to be established so it can deal with the problems. A fire sale by any bank or developer would reveal the horrific state of developers’ and banks’ balance sheets. The government, banks and developers want the taxpayers to overpay (through the bad bank) for these bad loans. They want to kick the problem another decade down the line.

Against this backdrop it would take one hell of a deal to get me interested. I recently found one in an Irish newspaper.

Read the full article here.