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Feeling the Pain As Irish Property Values Plummet
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His specialty was luxury houses around the wealthy communities of Howth and Sutton. Irish investors were also aggressively sinking money into property in Britain, Spain and Eastern Europe -- places where prices have also fallen.
Finn said even people who knew nothing about real estate -- those who did not know "one end of a wheelbarrow from the other" -- were suddenly buying and flipping properties for healthy profits.
Finn hired a workforce of builders streaming into Ireland from Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and other Eastern European nations. He said many of them have returned home. In addition to his 34 employees, Finn's business was connected to about 100 subcontractors and suppliers, all affected by his company going bust.
The developer had loans with several banks, but one, ACCBank, part of a Netherlands-based banking group, called in its loans as the credit crunch took hold. He said he is angry: "They could have let me survive, but they didn't."
"They put a gun to my head," he said, forcing him down when no cash was coming in.
Aware that many people fault developers for recklessly overbuilding, Finn said he largely blames the banks for the current crisis: "It's human nature. If people are handing out money easily, people take it," he said.
Behind the counter at the Sutton post office, near the cheerful flower beds that mark the village center, Teresa Ryan said the Irish have seen bad times before. "We Irish don't panic," said Ryan, 52. "We're resigned that the good times are over."
