Belarmaine Stepaside

erin8210

Hi,

I am thinking about moving into a house in Belarmaine Heath, Stepaside & am just wondering how people living there find the area now?

How is it for access to facilities - shops etc, I see the Market shops have closed down?

Also how is it for public transport - Bus & Luas (where or how far it the walk to the nearest Luas)? How handy is it for getting to the city by public transport?

How do you find the houses in the estate?
Warm & well built?

Its such a big estate its so hard to know but i liked it when i saw it & it seems fairly populated so thats a good dign - any info would be MUCH appreciated!!

Thanks!

J-blk

I live there though in an apartment, not a house. I really like the area, very quiet comparatively but I think you'd need to drive to be happy enough here. It's not far from Dundrum, etc but public transport is not that great - it's a 15-20 minute walk to the nearest Luas stop (Glencairn) and the service is not as frequent as St. Stephen's Green to Sandyford is (the original section of the green line). There is a bus that comes right into the estate and goes to Pearse street, the 47, but it's also not that frequent, especially on weekends (though not too bad at weekday peak hours).

As for the build quality, it's better than a lot of other places I've been in but not great either - though as tenant, I'm happy enough. As a buyer, I'd probably be more bothered by things like random cracks in the walls, etc. The place I'm in is pretty nice and warm though and the heating is GFCH so much better than the crap electric storage heaters that a lot of places have.

Dunno where you heard the Market shop closed down, it's open and seems to be doing ok. It's pretty nice and has all the essentials, though can be a bit on the expensive side. There's also a pharmacy and a dry cleaner's open as well as a GP in the same little shopping section of the estate.

Are you looking to rent or buy though? I've been here over two years now and it's definitely a nice place, but if you don't drive it'll be an issue I think. I wouldn't buy here though, prices are still well beyond mental for what you get.

erin8210

Thanks a mill,
Theres some really good advice there.
Its always a worry buying in a very large estate like Belarmaine but it seems populated enough so thats a good sign i suppose.

We are thinking of buying.

We have a car so that should be ok, 1 of us works in Dun Laoghaire & the other Cornelscourt so i suppose we would drive / cycle / bus it on the 47 & then change to 46a. How far is the walk to Stepaside? 20 / 25 mins id estimate? The area seems to be progressing & developing constantly - would that be fair to say?

Looks like a nice area and public transport is accessible (just not too frequent i suppose).

How is the weather there? Might sound like a silly question but someone that lived there told me the wind and rain is worse as it whips round the mountain ?

Thanks a mill for the advice

the groutch

if you can afford it, I reckon you should try get something down on the Ballyogan Road (Leopardstown Valley, The Gallops, etc), you'll both be able to get a 63 to work and you'd have the Luas right beside you too. You might find you don't even need the car anymore

Mr. Loverman

erin8210 wrote: »

We are thinking of buying.

Sorry if this is obvious, but make sure you have stress tested the following:

Can you afford your mortgage on one salary?
Can you afford an extra 5% interest hike?
Are you ok being in negative equity if you buy now?

J-blk

erin8210 wrote: »

How far is the walk to Stepaside? 20 / 25 mins id estimate? The area seems to be progressing & developing constantly - would that be fair to say?

Belarmine Heath specifically is almost the furthest point of the estate from the Stepaside Village end so yeah, 25 minutes is the more realistic estimate. There is a shortcut through the estate so it's not as long as it may initially look to someone new to the area.

As for the area developing, it's hard to tell - the GP, pharmacy and dry cleaner's only opened recently and some of the other empty shops have "reserved" signs on them, though I'm a bit of a cynic as to whether anything else is going in there. It's a lot better than the neighboring Aiken's Village estate anyway, which has not had a single shop opened as promised.

Stepaside Village itself hasn't changed too much in the last couple of years. Keep in mind that there is a glut of NAMA properties in Sandyford, which is closer to "civilization". If and when NAMA decides to release these into the market, I would imagine a lot of people would gravitate towards them (both for residential and commercial property) rather than going as far out as Stepaside.

erin8210 wrote: »

How is the weather there? Might sound like a silly question but someone that lived there told me the wind and rain is worse as it whips round the mountain ?

Yep, it does get extremely windy out here. My apartment has a skylight and when in the hallway, you can hear the wind howling frequently enough. That said, you don't get a lot of wind noise in the bedrooms/living room so that's good.

As I said in my last post though, it is a nice area and even though a bit remote, I like the peace and quiet. As a buyer though, make sure you scrutinize the place you are considering to the extreme. I still don't think the places here are worth the asking price but I won't go into a "don't buy now rant" - it's a personal decision, but the asking prices I've seen around here are still in cuckoo land.

astrofool

You could also look down towards Tullyvale/The Ramparts in Cherrywood, on the N11 and close to the Luas.

newuser 2687

Hi, would you be able to advise on how long it takes to commute from Parkview or the glencairn luas to stephens green during the week. Do you have to change luas in sandyford or can you get the one luas all the way in?