Areas to avoid?

stupidusername

Could potentially be moving to Waterford soon, and I've been checking out apartments and houses on daft.ie, and i've been down recently to get a feel of the place, and figure out where things are. Just wondering could any of ye waterfordians tell me what areas would be best to avoid getting accommodation in?

Just general ideas of the not so good areas. Thanks!

ziedth

Stay away from geoffs

seriously, from my experience:

ballybeg
larchville
cherrymount
templers hall (students)
any apartments in and around the quay.

Good luck.

merlante

ziedth wrote: »

Stay away from geoffs

seriously, from my experience:

ballybeg
larchville
cherrymount
templers hall (students)
any apartments in and around the quay.

Good luck.

What's wrong with the apartments around by the Quay?

magick

actually id like to know why "stay away from geoffs" i have been in there many a time and had a good laugh with friends. I dont go in there now cos im living in the USA but just wondering....
thx

ec18

Shams wrote: »

actually id like to know why "stay away from geoffs" i have been in there many a time and had a good laugh with friends. I dont go in there now cos im living in the USA but just wondering....
thx

thats just his personal bias against geoffs tis a grand spot

Jondow

Moved down two years ago from the 'wesht'. good value to be found renting outside waterford ... dunmore,tramore, etc. nice part of the country all the same

artielange

Shams wrote: »

actually id like to know why "stay away from geoffs" i have been in there many a time and had a good laugh with friends. I dont go in there now cos im living in the USA but just wondering....
thx

artielange

ec18 wrote: »

thats just his personal bias against geoffs tis a grand spot

You missed this part of his post <

seanybiker

ziedth wrote: »

Stay away from geoffs

seriously, from my experience:

ballybeg
larchville
cherrymount
templers hall (students)
any apartments in and around the quay.

Good luck.

All them places are grand apart from geoffs. Anywhere you go is grand. Where are you thinking of?

Red Hand

I'd avoid Ballybeg and Lismore Park, myself-there are much nicer areas to live in.

nkay1985

seanybiker wrote: »

All them places are grand apart from geoffs. Anywhere you go is grand. Where are you thinking of?

In fairness, they're not Seanie, not if you don't konw the places like, althought I was surprised to see Cherrymount in there.

Jeremiah 16:1 wrote: »

I'd avoid Ballybeg and Lismore Park, myself-there are much nicer areas to live in.

Lismore Park? Is that some kind of joke or something? You could get unlucky with students but that's pretty rare now with a lot less student houses than there used to be.

@OP: Why don't you tell us a few of the areas you were thinking about and we'll tell you the good and bad points. Because we could all spend loads of time listing places to avoid but you might not even have been conisdering them.

manus30

i think the dunmore road area is the nicest part of waterford by far. rental prices have come down a lot in the area in recent times..

merlante

Live in or near the city centre and you'll have services within walking distance and something to do...

dayshah

Along the Dunmore Road is the 'posh part' of Waterford.

You can rent a 3 bed in Collins Avenue for €700 a month.

Do you want a central location?

ziedth

It's personal experience in my part lads,

Mate of mine was surrounded by scumbags down in cherrymount so I dunno maybe it's grand

ballybeg and larchville I'm sure don't need an explanation.

Houses in templers hall look fine but I'm sure being surrounded by students might put someone off

apartments in and around the quay I have lived in for 2 years and IMO it's a nightmare espically over there where aldi is and around. Again, just personal opinion.

If you drive op best stick with dunmore road and I thought lismore park was fine when I lived there.

And yes, one of these usually means a joke k?

tc2010

Its a renters market. id move up near Ardkeen or the Dunmore road while the rents are cheap

Templars hall is full of scumbags these days. burnt out cars and walls destroyed in graffiti. Broken glass all over the streets, and thats without the students

Ledger

imo you should probably avoid anywhere near the john st/parnell st/manor st area or you will never get any sleep before 4 o clock. this is the centre of all the clubs.



Ledger

Not The Real Scarecrow

As a fair few have said already, go Dunmore rd. area, not that its any way better than some of the places mentioned but most parts are quieter and cheaper than the rest of the town. You could end up paying 600 on a one bed appartment in the town but you'd get a house for that on the dunmore road in certain parts.
Wouldn't bother too much with daft.ie, from personal experience you're better avoiding estste agents and looking in the local papers for places to rent. While there are a few private lettings on the site the majority are done through letting agencies that will rip you off compared to dealing with the landlord.
If you have a car then you have loads of options for letting around waterford, even places like tramore , passage or the other side of the bridge. Depends on what your situation is as well, if your young and single the town would probably be a better option compared to further out in the 'burbs.

tc2010

I think daft.ie is grand. its only Book a Room you want to avoid. :pac:

thats also from personal experience

tom thum

live outside the city if you can. cos the whole lot of it is a kip.! thats my tuppence worth. and obviously more crime ina built up area.

merlante

Meatwad wrote: »

As a fair few have said already, go Dunmore rd. area, not that its any way better than some of the places mentioned but most parts are quieter and cheaper than the rest of the town. You could end up paying 600 on a one bed appartment in the town but you'd get a house for that on the dunmore road in certain parts.
Wouldn't bother too much with daft.ie, from personal experience you're better avoiding estste agents and looking in the local papers for places to rent. While there are a few private lettings on the site the majority are done through letting agencies that will rip you off compared to dealing with the landlord.
If you have a car then you have loads of options for letting around waterford, even places like tramore , passage or the other side of the bridge. Depends on what your situation is as well, if your young and single the town would probably be a better option compared to further out in the 'burbs.

600 on a one bed apartment? Daft gives 400-500. You can get a nice place sharing for 300-350. Daft has always been very reliable for me.

If you're wedded to the car, have a decent job, not-single/want to settle down, then the Dunmore rd. is the place where people tend to end up.

Personally, I think the quality of life is far better in the city centre if you want to do anything other than sit in and watch TV all night. Depends on where you're coming from. I like to have plenty within walking distance, but that's me.

A mate of mine lives in O'Connell court off O'Connell st., and those apartments seems fine. You will be living with other people in close proximity though, which seems to come as a surprise and a shock to a lot of Waterford people. Otherwise, go and have a look at places. Make the effort. The best places can be one-offs and not part of apartment blocks.

If you are going to live in the city centre, avoid anywhere near the junction of John's st. and the Manor/Cork rd. That's where the drunken hordes of the south east issue from en masse late at night. Most other parts are fine. There are no really 'bad' areas in the city centre, since most of the bad elements live out in the western suburbs. There are however plenty of 'lonely' areas.

You'll hear a lot of people run down the O'Connell st. area, which is where a lot of apartments have sprung up and a lot of immigrants, students and various other groups live. I wouldn't write it off though, because the increased levels of footfall that this has brought has made the area less lonely than previously and more and more shops, etc. are opening up in the area. Take each apartment there on its merits, some are a lot better than others. Don't listen to talk about anti-social behaviour and ghettoes, etc., I live nearby and I've never seen any trouble in the area.

dayshah

A good city centre place would be around Thomas Hill and the stony steps and Barker St.

Barker St. is just behind the Garda barracks (not much trouble so), near to Ballybricken and pubs (but not a major artery to the pubs, so you can sleep ok), and the general benefits of the city centre. They only bad thing is you have to walk up a hill from a supermarket (Dunnes in city square). There are some smaller shops around Ballybricken for milk etc.

Not sure how I'd like it if I had a car though.

merlante

dayshah wrote: »

A good city centre place would be around Thomas Hill and the stony steps and Barker St.

Barker St. is just behind the Garda barracks (not much trouble so), near to Ballybricken and pubs (but not a major artery to the pubs, so you can sleep ok), and the general benefits of the city centre. They only bad thing is you have to walk up a hill from a supermarket (Dunnes in city square). There are some smaller shops around Ballybricken for milk etc.

Not sure how I'd like it if I had a car though.

Mostly, car parking is not as much of an issue in the centre as you might think, since the main traffic is during the day when people are at work. Usually after working hours there is plenty of parking and it is usually possible to get parking in close proximity, if not outside, your house. Obviously, you'd have to go and check out any particular area to check.

The area you mention sounds grand all right. You have ALDI down the road as well. Very hilly though as you say.

There's apartments on Mary st. I think that have private parking.

pwd

I lived in an apartment behind city square for 2 years, and it was very good.

stupidusername

Thanks for all your replies!!

We're planning on getting an apartment (2 bed), definitely in the city centre, as we don't have a car.

I've figured out how much i'd be willing to pay, i've an idea of what to accept so thats fine. I would find it hard to follow the papers before i get down there, and would rather view some pictures of apartments before going down, as it's a 2+1/2 hour journey, so daft is my best bet really. What's the problem with bookaroom? Lots of agents can be bad, but depends on what goes wrong.

Well generally the areas that i've been interested in are:
Anne St, O Connell St (James Gate), Mary St, Penrose Lane, James St, Keizer St, Rice Park. So anything to say about these? Definitely do want to stay away from after-pub noise. What about Maritana Gate near the park??

Would love to get a small house, maybe even with a small garden, but as has already been said this'd be hard as most city centre accommodation is in apartments. What about Morgan St?

seanybiker

O connell street is grand if your a paddy dubh.
Maritana gate is fooking lovely.
morgans treet is grand aswell actually.



Bookaroom has a place on summer hill. that be a nice place aswell, I'd imagine.
the like of hillview, norwood, ashley court should be grand aswel. Its only a few minutes walk to city centre and has regular buses also.

echosound

You'd get a small house with a small backyard in Morgan St alright, I lived there a few years back and it was "mostly" grand, except for when my car (onstreet parking only round there) was badly vandalised, reckon it was some drunken fools tooling about after a night at the Forum (a venue just around the corner from Morgan St).

There are some two-up two-downs there, and some "cottage" style one story houses, mostly 2-3 bed, but expect to have smallish sittingrooms/kitchens in comparison to say, a newish semi-d type house in the burbs, as the houses in town are older and that's just the way they were built. So think apartment sized living area but you are in your own house with a garden, no sharing entrance halls and poor sound insulation etc.
You might get lucky and find a house that's been extended at the back in a central enough location, but you will sacrifice garden space as naturally the bigger kitchen etc will have been extended out into it.

Don't totally write off getting a house with a garden near the areas you're thinking of though - if you look around that end of town there's a lot of smaller houses with gardens for rent at comparable prices to apartments, if you push out of the town a little towards the direction of gracedieu/up towards morrison's road and surrounds etc if you're not sold on the idea of an apartment (and my personal preference is that I hate apartments/flats, having lived in them for a few years).

For e.g. from Morgan St up is mostly terraced houses rather than apartment blocks. You're still within very easy walking distance of everything in the centre from there, and the hypermarket (supervalu market) is slap bang on your doorstep too. Or as others have mentioned, barker st/the glen etc have terraced houses for rent.

pwd

The apartment I mentioned was on keizer st. It was very nice and was quiet. One of those ones with the steps up to them outside. I'd recommend it.

manus30

op, dont go rushing in to renting in the city center. I know some posters say there is more to do in the city center, but there is actually more to do out the dunmore road area.
plenty of pubs, tesco, next homebase, loads of restaurants, loads of stuff going on. much more to do and see than the city center, cheaper rental and you get a lot more for your rental money.
the area is also very quiet with hardly any anti social behaviour. pubs have a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
plenty of buses going anywhere you want and regularly too. wins hands down imo...

kensutz

ziedth wrote: »

Stay away from geoffs

seriously, from my experience:

ballybeg
larchville
cherrymount
templers hall (students)
any apartments in and around the quay.

Good luck.

That's a load of bollocks tbh.

tc2010

stupidusername wrote: »

What's the problem with bookaroom? Lots of agents can be bad, but depends on what goes wrong.

i woke up one morning and there was a person from bookaroom in my bedroom. i flipped out and said what the fook are you doing in my house? they said it was a random check and didnt realise i was at home

i told them to get the fook out. i then went down to bookaroom and went nuts in there

couple of weeks later i was asked to move out."landlord wanted me out" apparently

now im not a bad tenant in anyway, shape or form. house was clean and rent was always paid. all this crap because this idiot lets themselves into my house when i was asleep

they also tried to take money from my deposit to change the locks when i moved out.

anyway. i got the full amount back after lots of bullsh"t

trust me when i tell you do not go anywhere near bookaroom. itll probably end up in the small claims court just to get back what your entitled to

tc2010

sure what other letting agency has there own bebo group :pac:

http://secure.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=7577815695

merlante

manus30 wrote: »

op, dont go rushing in to renting in the city center. I know some posters say there is more to do in the city center, but there is actually more to do out the dunmore road area.
plenty of pubs, tesco, next homebase, loads of restaurants, loads of stuff going on. much more to do and see than the city center, cheaper rental and you get a lot more for your rental money.
the area is also very quiet with hardly any anti social behaviour. pubs have a more relaxed and friendly atmosphere.
plenty of buses going anywhere you want and regularly too. wins hands down imo...

I know there are advantages to living out of town, but 'more to do' on the Dunmore rd., come on? You can't possibly compare what is on the Dunmore rd. to the city centre. Imo, it's pointless to live out the Dunmore rd. if you don't have a car, even though there are buses.

The rent is cheaper on the outskirts but not substantially so iirc. There's maybe 30 euro a month in the difference I reckon if you're comparing like with like. But daft will give a good indication anyway.

As for anti-social behaviour, the city centre is better than many of the estates on the outskirts because the age profile is older in the residential areas, so no roaming bands of kids. The Dunmore rd. would be one of the better areas on the outskirts however. Just the same, I know two guys living in Ardkeen village, one gets no hassle at all, another guy close by, because of where his house is positioned, is on to the cops every night of the week because scumbags from a neighbouring estate are vandalising his house and car on the way to get to where they're going. So you can be unlucky. In the city centre you'll get a few heads wandering around and it can get lonely at night, but I don't see that much trouble.

old gregg

Back 20 years ago when I was first married we bought a little do-er-upper in Andrew st. off Ballybricken and absolutely loved the area. Moved out to the 'burbs once the kids arrived but still sometimes wish I was in Ballybricken.

echosound

merlante wrote: »

As for anti-social behaviour, the city centre is better than many of the estates on the outskirts because the age profile is older in the residential areas, so no roaming bands of kids.....


..... In the city centre you'll get a few heads wandering around and it can get lonely at night, but I don't see that much trouble.

I dunno TBH, I've lived in a few city centre locations and I've never had the hassle where I live now (out the Dunmore Road; where I am in our estate, you could nearly be out in the middle of the country, it's that quiet and peaceful) that I did whilst in various places in town - house broken into and robbed, car vandalised on a number of occasions in different locations, drunks trying to kick your door in at 1am or just shambling past roaring their heads off and disturbing you, wheelie bins robbed or upturned or stuffed full of other people's rubbish, piss and/or vomit streaked down your door, cans/rubbish left on your windowsill etc.

All the joys of living in any citycentre, really. Haven't had any of this living in an estate TBH. Although I suppose some of this would be mitigated if you choose to live in an apartment block, and don't have any direct street frontage IYKWIM, then it's just down to whether or not your neighbours in the block are decent. Of course if you choose to go further out of the town (but not into the burbs proper, just out a little bit into some of the more central residential areas previously mentioned) this will also lessen any hassle you might have as there'd be less footfall from random assholes or drunks.

ziedth

I will +1 everything said about book a room.

Avoid at all costs OP. BTW tc2010 that is all kinds of ilegal, there is no such thing as a random house check.

Cabaal

I wouldn't touch book a room or castle estates with a very very very long barge pole

tc2010 wrote: »

i woke up one morning and there was a person from bookaroom in my bedroom. i flipped out and said what the fook are you doing in my house? they said it was a random check and didnt realise i was at home

What they did was illegal, if they wanted access to the house you should have been informed before hand

Very dodgy

ziedth

Ya 24 hours in advance iirc,

I think you are much better finding a owner occupied house to rent on daft. It hasn't done me wrong.

stupidusername

ziedth wrote: »

Ya 24 hours in advance iirc,

I think you are much better finding a owner occupied house to rent on daft. It hasn't done me wrong.

Thanks, but definitely don't want to share with a stranger if it can be helped.

So anyone know anything about Maritana Gate beside the park? There was some attack there recently so is that typical?? Or what about Anne St.?

Not The Real Scarecrow

A friend of mine lived there for a few years, he loved it there.
On the attcak by the park, its not a usual thing. It made headlines around the country because of the severity of the crime, so I wouldn't worry about it being a usual occurance down around that area.
That area is, as far as I know, relatively quiet. The appartments are nice and you're about a 5 min walk away from the centre of the city. Couple of nice take aways around there too,lol.

THall04

stupidusername wrote: »

Thanks, but definitely don't want to share with a stranger if it can be helped.

So anyone know anything about Maritana Gate beside the park? There was some attack there recently so is that typical?? Or what about Anne St.?

Anne St?? Tall apartment blocks overlooking other tall apartment blocks and an ugly multi-story carpark......no thanks.....unless you need to be near the train and bus stations or the tax office.

Maritana Gate....upmarket apartment complex....overlooking a lovely city centre park.....pub next door ,quite area ,less than 5 minute walk from city centre......I'd go for this one.

The recent attack in the park was pre-planned , not a random act , could have happened in a quite area anywhere.

daisyholeR

+1 Stay away from bookaroom!
Not very prompt in fixing any issues with flat/house and will do their best to hang on to your money for as long as possible or not give it back full stop. I had a few bad experiences with them when I lived in Railway Square, very unprofessional IMO.

tc2010

Ive heard from several landlords that they have had major hassle with BookaRoom aswell. its not just tenants.

A lot of houses on daft are from individuals rather then agents. in fact the last 3 houses ive been in have been individuals through daft.

bookaroom always tended to pop up in a conversation of why they rented out by themselves rather than through an agent.

i had one landlord who absolutely hated them with a passion. it was actually comical how much hatred he had for them.

merlante

stupidusername wrote: »

Thanks, but definitely don't want to share with a stranger if it can be helped.

So anyone know anything about Maritana Gate beside the park? There was some attack there recently so is that typical?? Or what about Anne St.?

I looked at a room there a while ago, and while the building looks the part and is right next to the park and a few eateries, the apartment I looked at was very small. I've heard the same from others as well. At the time it was also overly expensive.

Still, for the right price, it could be a very good option.

Shame about that attack. As people have said, it was pre-planned and not a reflection of the normal state of affairs in the area. I'd have no problem walking through the park at night tbh.

Big J

Cabaal wrote: »

I wouldn't touch book a room or castle estates with a very very very long barge pole

I'm about to move and tomorrow will be looking at a house advertised on Daft with Book a Room and also with another agent. I've heard bad things about Book a Room before this thread so approached the other agent even though their price was higher (if they won't match the Book a Room advertised rent I'll go elsewhere - it's a tenants market at the moment).

Castle Estates - I'm currently with them. Given the franchise has had 3 owners in the last 5 years there is bound to be some variability. I've no issues with the present management - but we'll see come checkout day.

Eroticplants

HEYA, so I'm moving down to Waterford soon for college and am moving into Manor Village.
I know it's a student village and the apartments aren't meant to be the best BUT is it an ok area? Like... ya?
Reading all this has kinda gotten me all jittery! :P :P
Not really but would be nice to have my wits about me...
Oh... wits... WIT... I'm so witty...
IT JUST NEVER ENDS...
Ok sorry... :P

clansman

tc2010 wrote: »

I think daft.ie is grand. its only Book a Room you want to avoid. :pac:

thats also from personal experience

daisyholeR wrote: »

+1 Stay away from bookaroom!
Not very prompt in fixing any issues with flat/house and will do their best to hang on to your money for as long as possible or not give it back full stop. I had a few bad experiences with them when I lived in Railway Square, very unprofessional IMO.

second that. Stay well away!!

We stayed in a house with bookaroom for only 4 weeks. We were waiting for another house to become available(from a different agent). We only got half our deposit back because they have to "clean" the house after us!
You might think well maybe you did wreck the house...
Well on the day we moved into the house we found a live bird in one of the rooms. Needless to say that the bird was there for a good few day as there was bird sh!t every where!! kitchen, living room..etc.. So bookaroom said sorry and that they will get professional cleaners to sort out things for free. I guessing now that we paid for the cleaners with the deposit...

they are some joke of a company...

ziedth

Eroticplants wrote: »

HEYA, so I'm moving down to Waterford soon for college and am moving into Manor Village.
I know it's a student village and the apartments aren't meant to be the best BUT is it an ok area? Like... ya?
Reading all this has kinda gotten me all jittery! :P :P
Not really but would be nice to have my wits about me...
Oh... wits... WIT... I'm so witty...
IT JUST NEVER ENDS...
Ok sorry... :P

In my experience it's grand, just keep sharp like you would in any city centre. Don't walk home alone after a night out and so on.

Keea

There's a lovely little estate called 'College Court' which has about 40 houses - some owner ocupied and some rented. It's walking distance to city centre, tesco poleberry, nightlife etc (off ballytruckle road) but tucked away nicely from road so you don't have any passers-by. In fact, alot of people dont even know its there, its such a private location. Houses are semi-detached with gardens. I just did a quick google search and came across this one to let. It's probably a bit bigger than you are looking for but I know there is 3 bed semi's to let from time to time here also.

http://www.rent.ie/houses-to-let/College-Court-Waterford-City-Co-Waterford/849875/

deisedevil

Eroticplants wrote: »

HEYA, so I'm moving down to Waterford soon for college and am moving into Manor Village.
I know it's a student village and the apartments aren't meant to be the best BUT is it an ok area? Like... ya?
Reading all this has kinda gotten me all jittery! :P :P
Not really but would be nice to have my wits about me...
Oh... wits... WIT... I'm so witty...
IT JUST NEVER ENDS...
Ok sorry... :P

Ya, you'll be fine. Take it easy with the coffee though will ya?

ToxicPaddy

deisedevil wrote: »

Ya, you'll be fine. Take it easy with the coffee though will ya?

and sugar, coke and ahh all the other stuff..

back on topic:

If you're looking for a small house have a look over in Poleberry, lots of small houses there, ex council
and have been renovated, some to a good standard, most have back gardens and 10 mins walk to the
city centre, Tesco around the corner and away from the crowds and noise..