best place just outside dublin for 1st time buyers

vibe666

ok, here's the deal, my g/f and i are just about ready to start looking for somewhere to buy, and for obvious reasons dublin is out of the question. we want a house, not a pokey 1 bed apartment!

we've been looking at stuff between 150 to 200k, but the 200 is our absolute maximum, and we'd prefer it to be 20k under that max ideally.

we both work in dub, so it needs to be commutable. we don't have a car yet, but it would be essential if we moved outside of the city, and i'm not over keen on spending 2 hours commuting each way every day.

the g/f's family live in kells, so we've been looking around maybe navan or similar. there's some nice 2 and 3 bed places in some nice areas round there within our budget, but does anyone have any other suggestions for areas that are easily commutable to dublin?

thanks.

Andrew Duffy

"Navan" and "easily commutable" do not go together, despite the three railway lines Navan was on at one stage. You could try Kilcock, which has a semblance of a train service and a fair few Bus Éireann services. Or, if you are running two cars, you could sell one or both of them and buy a house in Dublin.

Maeve

Navan .. you'd be stuck with the Blanch traffic getting in to work each morning. Fancy a 6.00 six each morning.

Sleipnir

you'll be stuck with traffic no matter which road you come in on so don't let that become an issue. You'll just have to deal with that until you move further up the ladder and can move closer to Dublin.

I hear rush/lusk/skerries/balbriggan are pretty good places to buy at the moment.
I don't know how much they are though.
Mullingar if you need to go further west I suppose.

Victor

Some friends bought in Athy recently - 4-bed for €175k, but prices have gone up. Train service isn't great, but they don't need to be in the city every day.

Make sure you balance house price and travel cost with time and local services.

Maeve

Sleipnir, yes, if you are in a car then you will be stuck in traffic .. unless you get up very very early. Whats the point in limiting yourself!! Think .. accessibility!!

Navan is NOT a smart place to buy ... smarter would be on a train line .. a decent trainline that is.

There are places like Celbridge in Kildare .. only a stones throw from Maynooth station.

So, if you want to drive your car into the ground .. go for Navan.

If you want to have the option of driving some days or training it others then go for somewhere like Maynooth, Kilkock, Mullingar etc.

The_Conductor

In defence of Kilkock- it is still on a Dublin Bus bus route- and once you hit Lucan you have a QBC the rest of the way in. However house prices are not cheap there- even if there has been a lot of development lately.

If you are driving to Dublin, regardless of where you live you have to contend with the traffic. I live in Lucan- if I leave the house at 7.00AM it takes me 40 minutes to hit Stephens Green, if I leave at 7.30AM it takes me 1 hour and 40 minutes. Gridlock in Dublin city and county is a fact of life, regardless of where you live- if you insist on driving to work you will have to take this into account.

Re: Navan- you can hit Blanchardstown on the N3 in about 25 minutes (after the bottleneck in Dunshaughlin)- thereafter you crawl.

There is no way of escaping Dublin traffic.

Maeve

>> Re: Navan- you can hit Blanchardstown on the N3 in about 25 minutes

With no traffic in off peak time yes maybe .. but 9/10 times theres a farmer driving a tractor or some plain slow driver on the road. You need to be doing 60 on that road to get from Navan to the Blanch roundabout when no traffic. So, its not that easy in the morning.

Again, back to my point earlier .. buy on a train line and ditch the car.

xzodia

there are new houses going up in drogheda from 165k to less than 200k called Aston Village

they range from 2 bedroom to 3 with extended kitchen and its easily commutable

buying 1 of the 2 bedrooms with my girlfriend at the moment

peter dalys are one of the selling agents

check out www.manorpark.ie

The_Conductor

The extended kitchen bit caught my eye!
Pity the website is under construction.
Might pop up for a look over the weekend.

Shane

xzodia

show houses are open from 2.30 - 5pm this weekend first time they will be open

Maeve

Be careful which side of Drogheda you go for.
The train station is on the southside .. and if your house is on the Northside you could be stuck in traffic while driving to the station.

Just my 2c. I was thinking of buying there myself and did a fair bit of research .. was lucky to get a better deal closer to home.

xzodia

aston village is on the northside but anytime ive been out there had no trouble with traffic. and there is also a proposed just beside where the houses are getting built.

vibe666

don't have a car to sell at the moment. the idea was moving out of dublin to settle down, with the intention of buying somewhere and getting a car to get to and from work.

anyway, does anyone apart from smccarrick actually commute from the navan area? what do you think?

The_Conductor

I commute from Lucan, not Navan, but do occasionally have to go out that direction in early morning.
Along with what I said earlier- I cannot emphasise enough how much of a bottle neck Dunshaughlin is. Have not gotten caught behind tractor Maeve mentioned- and shudder at the thought......

Concensus seems to be- try not to put yourself in a position where you have to rely on driving to work- try to find somewhere on Dublin Bus route or Rail route.

Driving anywhere in the Dublin region is the pits