Location, location, location

When I left Ireland to go travelling in 2006, Ireland’s property boom was at its giddy height. People were shitting themselves that if they didn’t buy now, they’d never own a house and end up living under a bridge or, worse yet, with their parents. They were racing each other to get on the property ladder, outbidding the next dupe for grab-bag cardboard box houses in satellite towns a poxy commute from Dublin. (You can see these developments now in Guardian features on Ireland’s ghost-towns – bus tours are imminent). I had no money, and no intention of trying to stretch what I had to buy a malodorous little hutch on the fringe of society, valued at its weight in gold.

So I filled my backpack, my girlfriend did the same, and we headed for South America. Of course, we couldn’t resist the lure of the ladder for long. In Bariloche, Argentina, we did the numbers. And we bought a tent (pictured). Here’s an edited version of our bitchy little missive home.

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After two months on the road, we were beginning to feel like escape artists. Our friends are back home, joining Ireland´s fastest-growing club, Club Property Ladder, and we are off here with nothing to our name but two backpacks so full they are screaming for mercy. But we got nervous.

So we did the mature thing. We invested in a home. Nothing flash, you understand; with the market being the way it is we first-time buyers can´t be choosy. We just reckoned that now is the time to get our foot on the ladder, so that in three years’ time we can trade up for an extra three square feet, three feet nearer Dublin´s city centre, and feel really smug, and maybe even rub it in the noses of people who were a few months later than us and can´t afford to make the jump just yet. Peasants.

Consulting with our financial advisers (AIB Internet Banking – we´re ultra-modern!), we realised that we actually could afford it. A home of our own, and mortgage-free! It would never happen in Dublin. But tents are much easier to come by here.

Location being everything (the three L´s people….) we decided that space wasn´t our main priority. Location was. It´s all about location, did we mention that? Basing your purchase on location is the golden rule, and if you haven´t yet got your foot on the ladder (fool!) you should have that at the front of your mind. Location, baby.

Our two rooms might not seem like much, especially when one is technically a porch area, but the whole thing is open-plan and the two rooms zip together to make one room, double-size. Versatile. The walls (mesh and blend) are supported by fibre-glass poles (SO high-tech) and the whole property can be rotated to take advantage of sun and wind.

The Bariloche area (highly desirable) was where we wanted to be for the time being, so we were willing to sacrifice space to get there. We also wanted to be near the lake, supermarkets, etc. All mod cons.

Well, maybe not all. We DO have air-conditioning of sorts (front and rear zips open at the same time). Heating is gas-fired (butane, single burner) and the kitchen/living area is within arms reach of the master bedroom. SO convenient for breakfast in bed.

We reckon we can sell it on in a month or two for a tidy profit, as long as the market holds (high season is coming in Argentina). By the time we had the poles put together, we calculated we had made 10 per cent.

We spent three days on our first stint, with the ´property´ located in Villa la Angostura, an hour north of Bariloche. (We had to start a bit further out of town, think of it as Greystones…)
We spent the days, which were sunny and bright, biking in the hills and along the Arrayanes Park.
Our new home, it seemed, was a fixer-upper. We went to bed wondering whether or not the weather would stay outside.

We had looked at properties with atriums, but had decided against it for a reason. We had also ruled out the idea of water-beds, so it was important that our property was weatherproof, as Kevin McCleod says on Grand Designs.

The roof held, and we headed out for day two of cycling, up the local ski-run, Cerro Bayo. That’s right, a ski-run just a bike ride away. Location, people. We’ve been over this.

The chair-lifts weren´t working, though, much to our chagrin (WHAT would the neighbours say?) but we hiked up to the top regardless.
Again the rain set in, but the des-res remained dry, if a little chilly.

The snag list grows longer and longer. That´s what you get for buying off the plans….

When we weren´t staying in our new property, we rented accomodation (such dead money) in a fantastic hostel in the middle of town, all done up like a log cabin and full of people all the time. It’s nice to visit. But we wouldn’t want to live there.