Athlone: To buy or not To buy

geraco

I want to stay renting in Dublin, I actually like to rent, but I am also aware that I probably should invest in property , somewhere... After a exhaustive look at the market I have decided to settle on Athlone, Willow park in Athlone to be exact, and to buy a large 5 bed or 6 bed and rent it out to students. Problem is, and this is making me very wary, is that in the willow park area - 20 houses of similar size are for sale - whats with the huge exodus ?? is there something in the pipeline that i should know about? A possible new large, market flooding, on-campus student residence perhaps??

anyway , if anyone has an opinion on my idea to purchase in athlone, or if anyone knows anything that maybe i should know before making the only step into the property market that i can afford please let me know.

thanks in advance

g

SkepticOne

geraco wrote:

but I am also aware that I probably should invest in property , somewhere...

Why do you think this?

Hagar

Willow Park floods if a dog pisses in Mullingar.
Check the history in the Westmeath Independent.

Great place to buy and rip off the students, works best if you're in the know in AIT.

I wouldn't touch it with my money.

geraco

why? financial security.. maybe. make some money - have my money invested in something other than my local bar?.. lots of reasons. I mean i have happily stayed away from the lure of owning property because I was more interested in using my money to enjoy myself.. guess i am getting old and want some security

geraco

Hagar wrote:

Willow Park floods if a dog pisses in Mullingar.
Check the history in the Westmeath Independent.

Great place to buy and rip off the students, works best if you're in the know in AIT.

I wouldn't touch it with my money.

actually i had noticed something about it when googling willow park i also saw something about fires:rolleyes: which means it's still pretty much the same as i remember it when i was a student there.,

I could do it without ripping off the students. as long as i made my mortgage payments, enough to cover the house insurance ( they cover floods. right...) yada yada.

thing is; will i get the students - the ait.ie site says something about being in the advanced stages of sorting out on-campus residential living quarters- but if i recall back in 1999 they were saying the same thing - and i can't find anything on the planing board to confirm a build has been approved...

Hagar

Nah, they still just refer the students to their cronies.

Sponge Bob

geraco wrote:

fter a exhaustive look at the market I have decided to settle on Athlone, Willow park in Athlone to be exact, and to buy a large 5 bed or 6 bed and rent it out to students. Problem is, and this is making me very wary, is that in the willow park area - 20 houses of similar size are for sale - whats with the huge exodus ??

Willow Park is cheap (lots of big sub €200k even sub €150k semis ) for a few good reasons.

Students have decent flats nowadays not these kips
Decrepitude , I trust you drove around
Local Authority purchasing ongoing there
Flooding down the back end

You did not do "exhaustive checks" at all bar prices on websites I'll wager.

Avoid !

ronbyrne2005

Why not wait , prices are falling across the country and you will pick up property cheaper in a few years. What rental yield would you get buying at current prices?? If the rent is'nt covering the mortgage and all your expenses as a landlord then you will be putting cash into it every month with no guarantee of capital appreciation.

geraco

geraco wrote:

why? financial security.. maybe. make some money - have my money invested in something other than my local bar?

oh my God!! If you want financial security then stay away from property!!!!
If your thinking of investing such a large amount of money in something then it really pays to research it!
I recommend a browse through the following sites:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52588027&postcount=76

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054967253

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055033806

http://thepropertypin.com/forum/index.php?sid=c17ea0b0fdef471adc6421cc78ca75ab
http://thepropertypin.com/

These are really worth a look:

http://daftwatch.atspace.com/

http://irishhousepricesfalling.blogspot.com/

and more

http://forum.globalhousepricecrash.com/index.php?showforum=16

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=41822

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=31710

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=52588027&postcount=76


Quote:
Did you know that just over 40% of the mortgages for new property drawn down last year were for Residential Investment Lettings? That indicates a huge level of speculation in the market since the rental yield has been falling to under 3%. (Yields started to pick up in the latter half of 2006 in Dublin). Yet despite strong immigration and population growth, the Central statistics office found 275,000 empty properties accross the country in April 2006. This indicates a huge level of speculation based on the expectation of capital gains in the market, and indeed house price inflation has nominally been about 14 percent per annum in nominal terms. In Europe we also have the highest level of employment in construction as a percentage of the workforce and its estimated 100,000 of those working in the sector will need to seek alternative employment over the next 10 years.


Here are the references for the above facts. They are facts and cant be disputed - only how they are interpreted.

http://www.ibf.ie/pdfs/ibf_pwc_mortgage_q3.pdf
http://www.davydirect.ie/other/pubarticles/econcr20060329.pdf
http://www.davydirect.ie/other/pubarticles/residentialyields20061027.pdf
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=303&si=1722425&issue_id=14880
http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessnews/publish/article_10006332.shtml

SkepticOne

geraco wrote:

why? financial security.. maybe. make some money - have my money invested in something other than my local bar?.. lots of reasons. I mean i have happily stayed away from the lure of owning property because I was more interested in using my money to enjoy myself.. guess i am getting old and want some security

From a financial security point of view the normal advice would be:

a) Don't go for leveraged investments: for example, don't borrow to invest.
b) Diversify: don't put all your money in one asset class.

I'm astounded that people think that investing borrowed money in a market that is internationally regarded as overvalued is a means of financial security.

geraco

the prices for a large property in athlone are relativly low.
The rental income will cover the mortagage to such an extent that we would get a 25 yr mortagage, and would thus start hitting the capital quicker.

what i am more worried about is that students in athlone, since my day there, do not wish to rent in willow park but would rather rent in the town. if thats true the whole idea is dead inthe water.

but i have contacted the SU in athlone and I hope they can advise. the current student accommodation list for the college still includes enough properties listed in willow park area to indicated that there is still a strong rental market to support them. although of course 20 houses for sale in the area may also indicate that current 'buy to let' owners are jumping ship. And if they are they obviously know something I don't.

which is why I started this thread - to find out why i should not buy there.

Calina

It is not up to the SU to advise you on the future decisions of students as to where they choose to live.

If you are an FTB, you will have to pay stamp duty as an investor. You will also lose any revenue related dispensations given to people who are buying their primary residences as FTB, in terms of stamp duty exemptions and mortgage interest for example.

In other words, while you may have reasons for wanting to do this, I would say that most people buying their first house should maximise their fiscal advantage by making sure that house is their PPR. Not an investment.

Pa ElGrande

geraco wrote:

anyway , if anyone has an opinion on my idea to purchase in athlone, or if anyone knows anything that maybe i should know before making the only step into the property market that i can afford please let me know.

thanks in advance

g

Sponge Bob commented on Willow Park back in September 2006
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054967253&page=44

Torq

Willow park is to be avoided at all costs, this can be seen by the property prices there now. There will usually be at least one article per week in the local papers about some form of antisocial behaviour there and a bad element has moved in. It's another o'malley park in the making. As another poster mentioned the students don't rent there anymore as there is plenty of better accomodation around the town.

T

Rudolph Claus

What would the people that seem to be knocking the OP`s overall idea of buying a house as a means of an investment suggest that he invest in instead then?

Pa ElGrande

Nuttzy wrote:

What would the people that seem to be knocking the OP`s overall idea of buying a house as a means of an investment suggest that he invest in instead then?

Somewhere in the small print from all institutions selling investment products are written words to the effect "past investment performance provides no guide to future performance". The original posters comment "but I am also aware that I probably should invest in property , somewhere...", comes accross like he/she is blindly following the herd employing a strategy that has worked for many people over the past 15 years and has not considered any other investment or wealth generation opportunities or even adequately understood the risks of entering an overhyped and overvalued property market, whose current cycle has peaked regarding output and capital appreciation accross most of the country.

For other investment strategies check out Mr. Brendan Burgess guide - http://www.askaboutmoney.com/guide/index.htm

There are quite a number of companies offering financial planning/advisory/stockbroking services (for a fee) in this country, most have websites so you can educate yourself what services they offer. You can find using google.ie easily enough.

To invest in property of Ireland, 2007, you are going to have to work a lot harder to find oppertunities that offer an adequate yield, than say someone who entered the market in 1997.

geraco

firstly, thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread, it's been an eyeopener.. the fact that so much of the property currently being off loaded in willow pk has in fact been up for sale for a considerable period proves (along with a lot more evidence) that the area is something of a property blackhole.

Significantly alot of people are warning me ( and i suppose other like minded others) from investing in property at this time - one poster stated that it appeared I was following the herd - i would like to clarify that - I am 30, my herd all bought their homes three to four years ago - I ain't following the herd, I can't even see the herd to follow, they are so far gone in the distance.


Significantly until recently i had no urge to actually own anywhere - i enjoy the freedom of renting - but while i earn good money, a lack of savings and a tendancy to impulse buy tech products plus the fact that my partner is in the middle of her studies means that I can't get anywhere near to raising the capital required to buy in the one place I wish to buy and live, Dublin city centre.(the one thing about renting is choice, the one thing about buying appears to be the lack of it)

and so I thought lets buy cheap and rent - it appears that thats were i went wrong - in the hope of finding something cheap in the irish market - i actually found something sh*t. that apparently was always inevitable.

ah well back to the drawing board.

Sponge Bob

geraco wrote:

Significantly until recently i had no urge to actually own anywhere - i enjoy the freedom of renting - but while i earn good money, a lack of savings and a tendancy to impulse buy tech products plus the fact that my partner is in the middle of her studies means that I can't get anywhere near to raising the capital required to buy in the one place I wish to buy and live, Dublin city centre.(the one thing about renting is choice, the one thing about buying appears to be the lack of it)

Buying a property is not the only way to save. My only advice to you is that if you cream off €800 a month into your saving scheme(s) on the first day of the month after payday then you wil adjust quickly to living on whats left.

Thats how I got started saving at 30 , many moons agos . I could not spend what was not there

Schemes to look at now are, AIB up to €300 a month savings scheme , post office savings are still OK, some funds exist once you have a lump of €10k or €5k to chuck into them but you need to research funds A LOT because many funds charge obscene 'management' charges which mean the post office is better. Be careful out there.

Property has been easy money in Ireland for the past 10 years but the easy money is made and now you will have to diversify your investments and know what you are investing in , sorry about that .

Life is too short to strap yourself to a 30 year mortgage on a shoebox in the arse end of Laois mate . When I, who had not a bean at 30, bought my first gaff it was a decent semi and that day will return for those who earn a decent income .

You cannot price the mid market out of the market permanently which is what the speculators have done in Ireland in the past 5 years.

malachy47

Regardless of how you care to invest, just one piece of advice for you.

STAY AWAY FROM WILLOW PARK!

I did a stint of taxi driving last year and that kip is worse than Beirut. You'll have bricks through your windows, a house wrecked by those who dwell in it and in the end an un-salable pile of rubble. Drugs rampant, no-one who owns lives there, so no-one cares.

I'd be surprised that the Bank would advance a mortgage for that ghetto.