The property boom thingy.

You always said that rent money is dead money.
You could not sleep at night, so strong was your urge to own property.
You career progressed, and you changed jobs as you saw fit.
You wages kept going up up up and they would for ever.
The banks threw money at you.
98% mortgage over 83 years? No problem. Here are your 400 big ones for a small 2 bedroom apartment in a booming new suburb of Dublin within 25 minutes drive of the city centre*, within easy access to public transports**, with a vibrant shopping community*** and near schools and sports grounds****
You finally bought your dream two bedroom apartment off the plans in 2007 (pity it was just weeks before the EU law that found Irish developers in breach of human rights for the size of their "living" units on sale)
The friendly banker even gave you (lent you) an extra 40k to buy a 2004 convertible Merc that will look so good in your tiny car parking space (pity the width of it was designed for Micras...)
All you had to do was to get your parents to put their semi-detached down as a guarantee (at a mere 3 km from the city centre, it must have been worth a few millions then).

Now you live in one of the four blocks that got built before the crash.
The black hoarding seals off the 2 acres of foundations that will not see houses built on them for a few decades (everything is cyclic).

The place is under constant CCTV surveillance.
In an effort to justify the exorbitant yearly management fees that were forced on you at the time of the sale.

There isn't really any need for CCTVs to watch over the waste ground that was to be the next development.
There are enough newly unemployed executives spending their days staring out of the tiny window of their tiny dining rooms cum kitchens.
Little tears of despair rolling down their unshaven cheeks.
But are these foot steps in the corridor (easy to hear through the 2.7 mm walls)?
Is this the debt recovering agency?
Have they come for the Merc?
Or the brightly light 2 bed apartment in an executive development with superior kitchen fittings?
Or the deeds to Mum and Dad's house?

* When breaking all traffic lights on a Monday at 3.45am
** Getting to the public transports is easy, getting ON them is near impossible at rush hour
*** Spar - Off Licence - ExtraVision
**** Completion planned for 2023 (subject to allocation of teaching staff by the Department of Education. Portacabin classrooms will be on a first come first serve basis)