Speaking on a rare day when Maggie has a break from a busy filming schedule for the national broadcast show, The question is understandable – even if Maggie laughs about it: “I never had the confidence to do it – auditioning for a TV role never occurred to me. I had much more modest dreams!”
However, the origin story of the popular property show is the other way round: the idea came from the Instagram account of graphic designer/illustrator Cheap Irish Houses. Maggie and her co-host, civil engineer and Property & Home columnist Kieran McCarthy, have been familiar faces since the series first aired five years ago.
The Wexford native’s passion for the often overlooked houses on the market raises another question among acquaintances. “A lot of viewers think I’m an estate agent. People come to my parents and say, ‘She must be making a fortune!’ But I don’t sell the properties,” she says.
Maggie and Kieran in series 5.
On September 5, the season of Financial assistance is also offered, such as grant programs for the renovation of vacant buildings and dilapidated properties, to help buyers find their “forever” home.
From country houses to terraced houses, Maggie and Kieran’s odyssey takes them across Ireland in search of affordable “hidden gems” for budget-conscious buyers. Buyers like Cork-based care assistant Claire Hassett, who has €150,000 to spend on her dream home. Claire is currently renting in Cork and appears in the first episode.
Josephine and Claire Hassett with Maggie Molloy and Kieran McCarthy in Doneraile, Co Cork.
The 28-year-old works in a care home in Lota, Cork, and dreams of buying a property in Tipperary, where her parents live. “She is very close to her family and friends and misses them when she rents in Cork. She would like a two-bedroom house between Cork and Tipperary – ideally with some sort of garden,” says Maggie.
Tipperary is also where Maggie bought and renovated her own property in her twenties. “There’s never really a good time to buy in Ireland,” she says. “I was 27 or 28 when I wanted to buy and I saw old cottages being sold for €30,000 or €40,000 – but no one had money to buy them or a secure job. People were struggling to pay off their car loans.”
“One of the things that has changed a lot since then is the availability of grants. But when they were originally introduced, you couldn’t claim them if you lived in rural Ireland – that’s what I hear from people on the base. In real life, people aren’t at the stage yet where they’re getting the money and at the other end, house prices have gone up.
“You have to do the work before you get the money back. So it felt like the grants were for the people who had the money to do the work. I didn’t have the money and I did the work myself. They’ve changed that now.”
Maggie, who also shoots spin-off series which airs in January, says of the difficulties buyers – especially first-time buyers – face in the Irish market: “I think on the Irish show, everyone is always vulnerable in some way – no matter how optimistic people are, they are still fighting for their place. Here (in Ireland) it is brutally tough and it shouldn’t be like that. It’s a scandal that nothing is still being sorted out.”
“You can see it in people’s faces – they’re worried and it’s almost worse when they fall in love with a house.”
At the same time, the presenter is excited to see potential buyers making what she calls “bold decisions” in this series: “I say bold, but I mean the kind of house I like. They wanted to go to fields and look at properties that had never been modernised. These episodes are fantastic – they’re the reason I do this.”
Kieran McCarthy and Maggie Molloy.
“I try to get people to open their eyes to these buildings and still honour the age and culture of the buildings. Those were the ‘wellington days’ when we were up to our knees in bogs and fields. To bring one of these houses into the modern age and have it serve a family in a modern way – that’s what gets Kieran’s gears turning!”
- “Cheap Irish Homes” airs from 5 September at 7pm on RTÉ One
