IRELAND AM star Muireann O’Connell has said the Irish housing market is “hopeless” compared to Australia.
The Limerick host recently became a first-time home owner with her fiance after years of gruelling house hunting.
The search for her forever home wasn’t easy and Muireann has even recalled people crying at viewings.
After blood, sweat and tears, the popular presenter finally went sale agreed and became a home owner earlier this month.
But, even after securing her first-ever property, the 41-year-old has told how “hopeless” the buying process feels.
Speaking on Louise Cooney’s podcast, Open Book, Muireann said: “It just feels more than dysfunctional, it feels very hopeless for an awful lot of people.”
She admitted: “But it’s just that the process is the wild, wild west.”
The TV star explained how her close pals who live in Australia can’t comprehend the struggle of buying a home.
Muireann explained: “They’re like, ‘The house just goes up, this is the price of the house, someone bids and there you go, you get yourself a house.
“It’s done in like 10 days.”
The breakfast show host highlighted how a lack of “supply” is the main problem with the Irish housing market.
But, noted that length of the buying process is also a tough factor.
The Virgin Media star even reminisced on her own experience with viewing homes.
She said: “One woman was pregnant and she also had a child with her. The house was already 140,000 over the asking price and she just wept, it was crazy.”
Beside the struggle of buying a home, Muireann has also had a tough time with renovating her new pad.
Whilst the new home is being renovated Muireann and her partner will remain in their Dublin city home which they have lived in since 2017.
HOUSE THAT?
Taking to Instagram, the star expressed her immense struggle with packing up all her belongings for the new property.
The Limerick lady said: “Probably the most viscerally horrible thing to ever happen to me was getting the coil. Awful, I hated it, it should be given under general anastethic.
“But, would I chose to have that procedure done everyday rather than clearing out my house and packing up, yes.”
The Irish host highlighted how she had been living in her current home since 2017, but had found items that belonged to her in 2003.
She cried: “I didn’t even live in Dublin in 2003, how did you get in to this house? Why are you here? Do you spark joy in my life? No!”
Muireann shook her head ashamedly and added: “Look I know I am an over consumer, it is a reckoning and I’m having a bit of an existential crisis about that right now.”
