Anyone living in Heathfield, Finglas with comments on the area ?

Carpentry

The house that I was looking at it's really well build and equipped and seemed like a good deal. We both have cars and I guess there in no point to walk anywhere as there is nothing around. If you need to go to shop Blanch Centre is close enough and there is Charlestown with Lidl and Aldi nearby, also Tesco Clearwater.
I am bit concerned about noise coming from M50, you don't want to sit in your back garden in the summer and listen to a cars passing by all the time.

Dimsimio

I live in Heathfield. Some of the points mentioned are a bit dated. We bought here in 2008 and I have to say we have a fantastic community. Not like most new estates were people don't don't get to know each other. Every August we hold a fun day for our kids and hire 6 bouncy castles an entertainer,Dj, and a BBQ for the adults. We keep our estate clean and look out for one another. Yes the road is a problem and yes the unfinished houses are a problem. At the moment there are 3 builders investing 3.5 million into Heathfield . In the plans are a nursing home and four commercial units, NO apartments. And I have the m50 behind me and I never ever heard the m50... I can see it in the distance but I can't hear it. All of the problems mentions can be fixed and are being fixed. A good community is so important. So many lovely families here 😊

hex84

Hi, I heard that Fingal County Council have planing permission for building social houses to be provided to traveller group.
Wondering when that will happen? That's absolutely mad!
New estate have already many antisocial behaviour from them..

Dimsimio

Thank God this was sorted... Yes we did all believed this was going yo be the case. And the builder told Fingal he would withdraw his 3.5million investment if they proceeded with such plans. The builder and several elected residents had two meetings with Fingal and counsellors. The conclusion was that yes there will be social housing built on the site but it will hand a separate enterance and a different name and will most defiantly not be accomdating people all from "the one family". Fine Fail and Fine Gael TDs stood behind us...

hex84

An investigation is under way following a robbery in Finglas in Dublin last night during which a family were tied up and threatened with guns.

Two men armed with a shotgun and a knife broke into the house on Heathfield Way at around 10.30pm.


Two men and two women in their 40s along with three children were in the house at the time.

The men left the scene in a dark coloured car with a small amount of cash.

Two of the men who were in the house at the time were treated at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown for minor injuries.

It doesn't look good
I was thinking to buy a house in Heathfield but thinks like that realy put me off.

Gumbo

hex84 wrote: »

An investigation is under way following a robbery in Finglas in Dublin last night during which a family were tied up and threatened with guns.

Two men armed with a shotgun and a knife broke into the house on Heathfield Way at around 10.30pm.


Two men and two women in their 40s along with three children were in the house at the time.

The men left the scene in a dark coloured car with a small amount of cash.

Two of the men who were in the house at the time were treated at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown for minor injuries.

It doesn't look good
I was thinking to buy a house in Heathfield but thinks like that realy put me off.

It was seemly a case of mistaken identity. They could have easily followed somebody to their home in Georgian Village, Castleknock.

Buy where you feel comfortable, not because of isolated incidents.

Dimsimio

These type of raids can happen in the poshest parts of Ireland. It's usually people with money who are targeted and robbed in a such manner. These people own a restaurant and a shop. Anyway I think you should scratch Heathfield off your list because your having doubts. Best off looking else where

Muahahaha

Wasn't this the area of Cappagh that had traveller riots last year? And now a kidnapping on top, not a safe place to live IMO. They might be isolated incidents but it doesn't do anyone any confidence when its going on on your doorstep.

riclad

IS ,nt there crime in every working class estate in ireland,
you can,t judge an area by 1 incident.
i know people who are very happy to live in finglas .
look for a private estate ,or an old council estate where 98 per cent of the houses are owned by the person living there .
An estate where the average age is 30 plus,
most antisocial behavior, petty crime, is done by teens under 18,

A BAD estate will have teens hanging round on street corners,
trees vandalised ,lots of litter,graffiti all over the place.
There,s obvious signs you can see .

Think older,mature area,estate,
99 per cent of houses ,not owned by council,
if you want to be conservative about it.
i don,t know heathfield ,so i cant give advice on that estate.
but i know about 6 people who have lived in finglas since 1980.

Melisandre

My partner and I bought a house in Heathfield last year and have been living here for 7.5 months. I would definitely agree with previous comments that Finglas West is a complete culture shock if you are not from an area like this. Here's a list of pro's/cons just based on my personal experience:

*Very affordable for young first time buyers/families who want to get on the ladder but don't want to settle for an apartment
*Brand new and spacious with front and back gardens in some
*Very short drive to Blanchardstown S.C
*Really energy efficient so far for us our heat+elec averages at 120 every second month
*Lots of friendly people living in the estate itself and a good sense of community spirit- when the robbery happened two ladies done a collection for the family in question


*The area I think is the biggest con-not so much Heathfield itself but Finglas West in general as you have to venture through it to get to the village or any shops there are a lot of gangs of youths hanging around the shops, plenty of people on horses trotting around and it is not very aesthetically pleasing at all
*The minority groups are a little bit down the road but recently there have been large feuds spilling out onto Cappagh Road resulting in police etc. they generally fight amongst themselves however and as it is quite a bit down the road u don't actually experience this unless you have to drive through it
*I can confirm that the plans to move some minority groups have gone ahead as there are two families living on our road alone- I definitely would have liked to be made aware of this before buying
*Some of the kids in the estate definitely lack basic manners they will openly glare into your windows while you sit watching TV, they ask several personal questions anytime they see you and will proceed to continuously knock on your door asking if you have kids even though you have repeatedly told them no and will come into the garden on their bikes/scooters brushing off cars which is quite frustrating
*I wouldn't exactly describe the houses as high quality there have been several problems in terms of plumbing and sealing around sinks baths etc. the show house did seem to be of much higher quality than ours.

All in all if you like Finglas then you will probably love it here but I do find the area to be a major culture shock and if I were to be buying again I would go for something in a nicer part of D.15 rather than here but I am grateful that it is a brand new house and the mortgage is low but I definitely wouldn't settle here and even more so would not like to raise a family here.

jmike72

Reviving this thread to ask how are things in Heatfield?

I've passed by some weeks ago on Cappagh road just to have an idea about Heatfield and even that it looked nice, the houses just before Heatfield and the travelers site after it next to the M50 bridge didn't look too nice.

What's the experience so far from who lives there, as the last post here is almost 2y old? How are the buses to town?

You're surrounded by travellers and the walls are already spraypainted outside, I wouldn't live there.

Giuzeppe

We are living here last year and nothing bad happens so far. Very quiet estate. Nice large and warm houses.
Couple of buses at the gate.
Some shops are missing but they are at planning.

focabh

Hi,

My partner and I are buying a house there and it will be ready late October.

We would like to hear from people who live there how are the things at the moment.

Is the area nice, safe?

Are the houses ok?

I've heard some bad stories but they are all very old, so is there anything bad happening there nowadays?

Are the rats, flooding and safety issues resolved?

Also how does the management company work? Do they charge? Are they good?

Thank you!

RadioLocum

Hi all,

I created an account more so to warn others than anything else.

If thinking of buying here and your not from Finglas please be very cautious and try to go up to the area for a week or two to get a feel for it.

I work right across the road in Cappagh hospital and decided in 2018 to buy in Heathfield, being from Cabra I kind of thought how bad can it be.

The houses are really nice in my opinion, beautifully finished and very economical, mine has solar which is really great and I find saves me quite a lot.

The main issue is the area unfortunately,

my bicycle has been stolen from my back garden 4 times even when locked and with a expensive U-Lock.

My girlfriend who is a foreign national has been verbally abused on a number of occasions and was quite shaken and upset.

5 minutes away is where “Mr Flashy” and his gang are based, I am pretty sure I heard live rounds being let off before, it’s distinct and different to just normal fireworks which I’m used to.

There’s a big problem with drugs especially outside I would go as far as saying epidemic but that’s just anecdotal.

Travellers live 60 seconds away and in fairness I never had any issues at all with them but some of my neighbours have had altercations.

We could live with all that but the straw that broke the camels back was my girlfriends car being stolen, she claimed the insurance but of course her annual premiums went up multiples.

I know all these things can happen in any area but Cabra wasn’t like this in any way.

To be honest I rushed into buying this house and after doing some renovation work roughly 30k, I have decided to sell and take a hit although hopefully not to much, the estate agent didn’t seem to confident considering the Covid-19 situation.

I was blinded by the price and convenience of crossing the road for work but it’s just not worth it for a young couple especially when the discussion of raising a family arises.

I’m happy to answer any questions on the area or working in Cappagh hospital if anyone has queries.

Thanks

Peter File

RadioLocum wrote: »

Hi all,

I created an account more so to warn others than anything else.

If thinking of buying here and your not from Finglas please be very cautious and try to go up to the area for a week or two to get a feel for it.

I work right across the road in Cappagh hospital and decided in 2018 to buy in Heathfield, being from Cabra I kind of thought how bad can it be.

The houses are really nice in my opinion, beautifully finished and very economical, mine has solar which is really great and I find saves me quite a lot.

The main issue is the area unfortunately,

my bicycle has been stolen from my back garden 4 times even when locked and with a expensive U-Lock.

My girlfriend who is a foreign national has been verbally abused on a number of occasions and was quite shaken and upset.

5 minutes away is where “Mr Flashy” and his gang are based, I am pretty sure I heard live rounds being let off before, it’s distinct and different to just normal fireworks which I’m used to.

There’s a big problem with drugs especially outside I would go as far as saying epidemic but that’s just anecdotal.

Travellers live 60 seconds away and in fairness I never had any issues at all with them but some of my neighbours have had altercations.

We could live with all that but the straw that broke the camels back was my girlfriends car being stolen, she claimed the insurance but of course her annual premiums went up multiples.

I know all these things can happen in any area but Cabra wasn’t like this in any way.

To be honest I rushed into buying this house and after doing some renovation work roughly 30k, I have decided to sell and take a hit although hopefully not to much, the estate agent didn’t seem to confident considering the Covid-19 situation.

I was blinded by the price and convenience of crossing the road for work but it’s just not worth it for a young couple especially when the discussion of raising a family arises.

I’m happy to answer any questions on the area or working in Cappagh hospital if anyone has queries.

Thanks
'''''''l

Very informative post, but you should edit it to take your name out of the post.

RadioLocum

Peter File wrote: »

Very informative post, but you should edit it to take your name out of the post.

Thanks Peter,

Didn’t think anyone who would have an issue with this post would be roaming boards but your correct better safe than sorry.

Muahahaha

RadioLocum wrote: »

To be honest I rushed into buying this house and after doing some renovation work roughly 30k, I have decided to sell and take a hit although hopefully not to much, the estate agent didn’t seem to confident considering the Covid-19 situation.

I was blinded by the price and convenience of crossing the road for work but it’s just not worth it for a young couple especially when the discussion of raising a family arises.

sorry to hear of your troubles and that you now have to sell to get out of there. I had a friend who like yourself bought in Healthfield and was impressed by the quality of the homes and like yourself rushed into the purchase as house prices were rising and she felt that she would get priced out of the Dublin market altogether. She regretted it after 2 weeks of living there and sold out about six months later. The anti social behaviour was just too much, her car broken into and she didnt feel safe living there.


That was a few years back so I can only imagine the area has gone further downhill with Flashys gang operating and all sorts of lowlifes hanging around. Its hard to see how that area is going to improve anytime soon.


I think it shows the importance of visiting an area several times before you buy there and especially visiting at night. Also asking the local Gardai about a street can give good information and finally googling the name of streets in the area and put 'court' after the search terms will throw up the local criminals (if any).



Anyway I hope your next house is a lot more peaceful that what you suffered in Heathfield

Nijmegen

I'm sorry for your experience, RadioLocum. This thread might stand as a bit of a warning for Buyer Beware alright. I'm from D15 but a lot of a family connection to Finglas and know the area well enough. Even if you didn't know about the criminal elements in the area, the concentration of scrap yards and similar long established sites nearby on a drive around should raise a red flag.

When choosing an area to live in it's wise to do things like Google criminal court cases that usually include the address of the person concerned. Eg if you do a search for Criminal Conviction Address "Finglas" (the quotation marks tells Google a search result must include this term) you'll get a lot of street addresses you can map on.

The first page of results has stories about violent criminals, homes with bullet proof windows, gangland shootings etc etc.

Do the same search for, say, Ongar and the first result is about a one legged war veteran who assaulted airport staff after they assumed he was drunk, another about someone who damaged a Monet painting. Yes there are violent cases, but to be honest if you search for leafy Castleknock you'll hear cases of people killing and eating their house mate. But the point is that you can get a feel for the area and what it's like from the nature and frequency of the incidences you read about.

It's then good to do things like ask opinions of people you know as well as online, treating them on a sliding scale of how much weight you give to each. If you know any Guards they can offer you a perhaps more informed opinion based on being bold and looking at Pulse for you. Then there's the good old "go up on a saturday night".

Again sorry for your trouble.

Gael23

Was looking at Finglas as an option until I read this. First time buyer doing it on my own so I have 220k absolute max.

Looks like there is a reason Finglas is affordable

mariaalice

Gael23 wrote: »

Was looking at Finglas as an option until I read this. First time buyer doing it on my own so I have 220k absolute max.

Looks like there is a reason Finglas is affordable

Finglas is a massive area, and some of it is very nice but like everywhere else they tend to be the expensive bit of Finglas.

Gumbo

Gael23 wrote: »

Was looking at Finglas as an option until I read this. First time buyer doing it on my own so I have 220k absolute max.

Looks like there is a reason Finglas is affordable

You’ll be looking for a while.
Your hearing one persons opinion on an estate.

I can show you 10 residents up there that are happy.

Muahahaha

Gael23 wrote: »

Was looking at Finglas as an option until I read this. First time buyer doing it on my own so I have 220k absolute max.

Looks like there is a reason Finglas is affordable

As others said Finglas is a massive suburb and has its good and bad. This isnt a hard and fast rule but in general you will find lower house prices to the west of the N2. East of the N2 is generally very settled and house prices are higher.

Your budget of 220k would get you a 1 bed apartment in nearby Ashtown which has a direct train link to the city centre and the Phoenix Park just a 5 minute walk away. Id be looking around there if you're buying.

Gael23

Muahahaha wrote: »

As others said Finglas is a massive suburb and has its good and bad. This isnt a hard and fast rule but in general you will find lower house prices to the west of the N2. East of the N2 is generally very settled and house prices are higher.

Your budget of 220k would get you a 1 bed apartment in nearby Ashtown which has a direct train link to the city centre and the Phoenix Park just a 5 minute walk away. Id be looking around there if you're buying.

Ashtown would actually really suit me. I work near the convention centre so I could get the parkway train in

Muahahaha

Ashtown is a great little spot, its on the canal and near the Phoenix Park while only being around 18-20 minutes on the train to Connolly. It doesnt suffer from the same anti social problems found in west Finglas so would be a better option to buy in that regard.

Also be aware there is a new train station being built at the moment in Royal Canal Park/Ratoath Road which is between Ashtown and Broombridge on the train line. Theres lots of apartments in Royal Canal Park at decent enough prices. The new station is going to be called Pelletstown Construction began in February so it might be open by the end of the year if progress is good.

irishstevieg

Does and know the Developer/Buliders Phone number or Email for the Heathfield Estate in Finglas. Im sure there name is Coshon Two Limited. Having trouble getting this info online and i need it ASAP .

Mazzy Star

I went looking at a house in Finglas yesterday, Glebe View, does anyone have any information on this?

I took a drive down Cappagh Road afterwards and it started to look progressively more sketchy as I progressed.

Did not look too nice at all around Heathfield.