Advice for renting in Donnybrook-Leeson Street area?

Piliger

Donnybrook-Leeson street area ? and within walking distance.

I am a first time apartment renter planning to rent in March - April.

Is this area always a very expensive area ? I wonder if anyone can offer any experienced advice on my search .. what to look for or avoid ? any good spots ? bad spots ?

Much appreciated.

ProudDUB

Leeson St/Donnybrook would be considered fairly expensive parts of the city to live in. You are very close to town, especially the posher parts of it (St Stephens Green, Grafton St, Merrion Sq etc etc) and that is reflected in the rental prices. Leeson St and Harcourt St are a mecca for night clubbers. So if you are not a fan of partying yourself or late night noise, or puddles of vomit on your door step in the morning, do your homework to make sure that you are not renting above a nightclub. If you find somewhere that you like/can afford, check out what it is like at night before you decide. And by night, I mean midnight to 4am, not 9pm.

The area is well served by buses and the LUAS, so if you have to be there for work/study you can still get there relatively easily even if you can not afford to live there. Donnybrook is fairly big. It stretches from the Grand Canal that marks the end of "town" all the way to Stillorgan. It contains UCD, the RTE complex at Montrose and it borders THE most expensive part of the city to live in, Ballsbridge. It is a lovely part of the city to live in, but you certainly need to have deep pockets to live there, not just in terms of rent, but also eating, shopping, drinking in near by restaurants, shops, pubs etc.

Piliger

Tks for that advice ...

My son needs to be near Leeson Street and then next year Trinity College. Would you recommend anywhere within walking distance that would be a better choice ?

borderlinemeath

Ranelagh would be fairly close to both, great place to live, great variety of pubs/restaurants/take aways and a good buzz to it. It's about a 15min walk to Leeson St from the main village area and it's right on the Luas line for easy access to Stephens Green so 5 mins from Trinity. At most it would be a 30 min walk to Trinity.

There's more variety to accomodation in Ranelagh, there's student digs to expensive apartments whereas there's little or no cheaper accomodation in the Donnybrook area. Rathmines would be cheaper again but a further 10 mins from Leeson St.

Piliger

Ranelagh sounds like an option - thanks a lot. But doesn't the Luas mean higher rents there ?

ProudDUB

Nope. The Leeson St area & many parts of Donnybrook are so close to town, getting the LUAS into town really isn't necessary in the first place. Hence it being more expensive overall. Leeson St is a 2 minute walk to St Stephens Green/Grafton St which is the last stop on the Green Line. If your son is a student and money is a consideration, I agree with borderlinemeath that Ranelagh/Rathmines would be his best bet over all.

RR is close enough to town, but prices would tend to be lower than Donnybrook, as as it is a part of Dublin that historically has always been very popular with students. He would also be more likely to have friends/class mates living there so it would be easier and cheaper area for him to socialize and live in overall. There aren't many students who could afford to live in the Leeson St/Donnybrook area. Despite my comments about night clubs and vomit on your doorstep, it would still be considered a "posh" part of Dublin to live in.

borderlinemeath

Rents in Ranelagh have always been steady, but certainly a bit cheaper than the Donnybrook/Leeson St area. I would consider Donnybrook to be more settled families and professionals with very few students due to the prohibitive price of rents.

I lived in Ranelagh for years, then moved into the city centre (Dublin2), while you're right in the centre of things, the other things to consider are noise pollution, traffic during the day and people socialising all evening to late night, higher crime rates (underground car park was constantly being broken into and a few times the post boxes in the lobby were burgled) and finally the lack of outside space really got to me at times, even with a balcony it was hard to get a bit of peace! At least in the likes of Ranelagh there's Ranelagh Park or Belgrave Square between Ranelagh and Rathmines (and in Donnybrook, there's Herbert Park) to sit out in and relax if you wanted to. It's only when you don't have the option that you miss it.:o

Piliger

Thanks guys for all for that advice. I'll check Ranelagh out now. I know Ranelagh well but not as a resident. I am looking forward to living closer to the city myself too.