John Dowling, for whom property is personal

When Kilcullen auctioneer John Dowling is interested in something, he goes at it full tilt, writes Brian Byrne. He was interested in flying, so he took training as far as flying and landing a plane solo. "In another life I would have liked to be a pilot ..."

He likes hill walking — "there's no better way to clear the head" — and he has trekked to the base camp of Mount Everest. Knowing the dangers of walking even our local hills and mountains, he got involved with the Dublin Wicklow Mountain Rescue Team in 2008 — and climbed Mont Blanc in 2011 as part of a fundraiser for that organisation.

He likes cars, as models and pictures of race cars in his office suggest, and his personal transport today is the latest electric car from a German brand with a strong sporting heritage.

And the recent marking of 21 years of Dowling Property is a celebration of making a successful career in a business in John's own home town, which was a small village when he began it. 

John trekked to Everest Base Camp.

Perhaps it was inevitable that he would go into business for himself, as his parents John Joe and Noreen were business people in their own right and in their heritage. "I suppose I became interested in property when working in the family newsagents shop," he recalls, "and knew people coming in to pay rent on a couple of properties around town that my parents owned. What I was seeing in a small way was what is today called property management."

After leaving school, and following a few years in the Irish Defence Forces, John chased up that interest by taking an apprenticeship with Douglas Newman Good in Dublin. He studied for the various qualification exams and worked for a time with DNG when his apprenticeship was over. But the call to be working for himself was too strong, and in 2002 he set up Dowling Property in the same Main Street building where he had grown up.

Two things were going for him, one national the other local. "Though the Celtic Tiger wasn't yet in full roar, property prices were getting strong in a growing market. In Kilcullen itself, finally getting the village connected to the county sewerage system in 2001 meant that it could grow for the first time in decades. There were several developments ready to get going."

Over the last two decades, in spite of the ups and downs of the economy — especially the sudden death of the Celtic Tiger — Kilcullen did expand, and will probably have seen a doubling of its population over the period when the latest Census local population figures come out. Now a town, it became, and remains, a place where people want to come and live. "It's a great location, close to Dublin, beside the natural park of The Curragh and within easy distance of amenities like the Wicklow mountains ... as well as being built on the river." That popularity has resulted in Kilcullen being a relatively expensive place to buy a home. He doesn't see that changing, in part because the opportunities for further large developments are constrained.

Mary Foley and Amanda Kelly.

Meantime, looking back on his 21 years of Dowling Property, he attributes much of the success to his office team of Mary Foley and Amanda Kelly, and to the experience he gained in dealing with people while working as a teenager in his parents' shop. "Dealing with the public is hard, and you learn that whether serving in a shop, or a hairdressers, or a bar. What I learned then I would have used later whether I was selling cars or houses."

The underlying result of what John calls 'education by the public' was developing the personal touch that, even in the much more high-tech internet-focused property business of today, is still, to his mind, essential. And it is more than just the ability to get on with people — in managing a transaction that is recognised as one of the most stressful things in a person's life, a good estate agent is someone who can take a client through it safely and with empathy.

"People sell their homes, or buy homes, for lots of reasons. It's not always about money, sometimes there's a change in the family situation, it might be a job move or a separation, maybe a bereavement. Whatever, there's going to be stress, and it's an important part of my job to help people through it. People selling their most expensive possession need to talk to someone, they need someone to take their hand and lead them safely through the process. And it doesn't matter how pretty everything looks on the internet, people will not actually buy until they have physically walked through a house with a person who can answer their questions." 

An estate agent also has to manage clients' expectations on values. "Everybody selling their house thinks it is worth more than it actually is," John says with a wry smile. "In the end, it is the market which decides, and I have to agree a reasonable price to set. Then the client's neighbour will often tell them the price is too low, because the neighbours themselves have a higher expectation than realities."

But it's that kind of daily interaction with people that has John Dowling looking back with a quiet satisfaction on his career choice so far. Ask him if he still likes it, and after a tiny hesitation — maybe momentarily thinking of that other above the clouds option — the answer is a strong 'yes'. "I'm out and about every day, meeting new clients, arranging viewings, negotiating. No days are ever the same."

There are some things that need to be changed though, and he specifically cites the inordinate length of time it can take for a house sale to be completed in this jurisdiction compared to others. He blames 'legacy legal' issues for part of what is without doubt one of the biggest stress issues for his clients. "We need legislation to shorten it."

For dealing with the current housing shortage, he's not a fan of how social housing was 'handed over' to the private sector decades ago. "We need more social housing. And we need it to be provided through local authorities. Look at Kilcullen — the last Council housing estate built here was Avondale, in the early 1980s. When the country didn't have have an arse in its trousers, they built Nicholastown in 1945, then Logstown, Conroy Park, St Brigid's Avenue, and Avondale." Explicit in his commentary is that councils should revert to having their own direct building programmes, to bring back the necessary balance in housing provision that would meet local needs. "They should go back to building their own houses. They have the land, and they should never give that land to private developers."

But that is someone else's job. Someone else's shift in policy that he can't do anything about. So now, beginning the count to whatever will be the next big anniversary for Dowling Property, John Dowling goes on doing what he does best. For him, property is personal.

Getting away — hill walking in Wicklow.

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