Buying an apartment in Waterville.

Akiv89

Hi!Does anyone know is Waterville a good place to live.Thinking of getting an apartment there.The local amenities look fine but not sure about the safety.
Thanks:)

Arciphel

There's a good few people that post in this forum regularly who live in the area, I am sure they will be along now shortly to give you some good advice.

I do know one person living there, and they think it is fine...

Akiv89

Hey,people from Waterville!Plz tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of living in the area!Badly need it)Thank you:)

markas

Akiv89 wrote: »

Hey,people from Waterville!Plz tell me about the advantages and disadvantages of living in the area!Badly need it)Thank you:)

This is very subjective, of course
Advantages:

Still quite clean apartments (comparing with average standard in Blachardstown)

Good communication (both public transportation and roads - N3, although traffic varies)
Despite of proximity to N3 no problem with road noise (exept from the locations directly along the Sn. road)

Walking distance to Blanch village/ Blanch SC (but who walks there..)

Nice and still clean green area with fenced facilities for kids

Proximity of aquatic centre


Neutral / Unknown:

all may depend on particular location

high percentage of rent apartments. quite international crowd. anonymity.




Negative:
For some too high density may be an issue
problems with parking spaces, vandalism not uncommon
high maintanace costs
full bins not being removed for long periods of time around holidays
mind who is behind the wall/floor, as the sound proofing can be insufficient
lack of schools (and other facilities)
The neigbourhood is not too atrractive, but who needs to go there..


Overall the location is the biggest asset, but the apartments are overpriced, imo.

Edit: Safety: not rated... although garda station is just across, they are not too often there.. a car can be burnt without intervention, laud partying in the apartments is also quite tolerated. In case of emergency.. luckily, one can walk to the nearby hospital

Akiv89

Thanks a lot for the advice!

athtrasna

It totally depends on where you buy in Waterville. I would never want to live in Waterville Terrace (density WAY too high), Annagh Court (very heavily rented) or Skelligs Court (not as well maintained as other clusters, horrible double yellow lines painted all over the place).

I would however recommend Aran Court, Garnish Square or Dursey Row. Not too sure about the newer clusters, though I know the ones closer to the hospital have issues with hospital visitors and staff blocking parking spaces.

I live on one of the three clusters I have recommended and am a director of our management company. I know the directors in the other two and can tell you that the negatives mentioned below are not normal issues for those clusters because the directors (all owners, all working for free to ensure the development is a pleasant place to live and own) are very involved.

Management fees vary from cluster to cluster, as does management agent though SPM still have a lot of the clusters. The older clusters have been/are being repainted and I disagree that the place is not attractive. Our bins are collected every Monday even bank holidays so no problems with that.

The new build apartments are much better value than what we paid years ago but they have changed some of the layouts for the worst. The ground floor 2 beds have an arch between the kitchen and living room which creates no barrier for smells. The older units have a kitchen door.

markas wrote: »

Negative:
For some too high density may be an issue
problems with parking spaces, vandalism not uncommon
high maintanace costs
full bins not being removed for long periods of time around holidays
mind who is behind the wall/floor, as the sound proofing can be insufficient
lack of schools (and other facilities)
The neigbourhood is not too atrractive, but who needs to go there..


Overall the location is the biggest asset, but the apartments are overpriced, imo.

Edit: Safety: not rated... although garda station is just across, they are not too often there.. a car can be burnt without intervention, laud partying in the apartments is also quite tolerated. In case of emergency.. luckily, one can walk to the nearby hospital

markas

athtrasna wrote: »

It totally depends on where you buy in Waterville. I would never want to live in Waterville Terrace (density WAY too high), Annagh Court (very heavily rented) or Skelligs Court (not as well maintained as other clusters, horrible double yellow lines painted all over the place).

Agree, there are people who obviously are happily living there!
I lived there with intention to buy for myself, but gave up. My experience does not cover the new clusters - Achill's and the other... I would look at these. At least they seem to be more private.. If not the fact that the construction looked like abandoned - has anything change there since say, two years ago?

amtc

Yeah I'd agree with Athrasna...

I live in Garnish Square and have done for eight years. Well maintained. Quiet. Think Skelligs uses a different management company and it always looks a bit scruffy.
Where I am we're all owner occupiers and keep keys for each other, without living in pockets. Nice age mix...

Number_5

I own a 3 bed duplex in the 1st phase of Waterville terrace. I bought in early 2006 so have obviously lost a bucket load but apart from that......

I lived there with my wife and young child for 3 years but have since moved abroad to work in the caribbean. I now lease the apartment out to a family.

Overall I have a lot of time for the place. I really enjoyed living there and miss it a small bit. The duplexes in the terrace are great:
Very safe - a single front door for the apartment and balcony is beyond reach. Very little chance of a break in.
The apartments are spacious and the balcony is massive.
Although the apartments a relatively densely populated you overlook a very large park which is a fantastic amenity.
Great location for transport and general amenities.
Good rental yield - due to location I have had no problem leasing the place out.

On the negative side:
The terrace is not a great place to let your kids run around outside. Cars tend to drive in quite quickly so fairly dangerous. When/if we move back to Ireland we will probably look to buy a house is a neighborhood for this reason.

amtc

Just to add what I love about Garnish is the fact I have the illusion of a back garden, whilst someone else looks after it.

Bins collected Mondays as commented. Can set watch by the ice cream van at 15.12!

Apartment above my duplex but I can't hear anything. can't hear baby next door crying! Interesting to hear about the arch - I have a door and it is a bit dark in the kitchen...but I like the privacy.

Not sure if you're male or female but I love the amount of wardrobe space...had a house in Ongar before and hated it.

Zipped round to the Spar this morning for papers, breakfast - great.

Accidentally let my front door open going to work one day....not a problem. There is a community guard who comes up a few times a week, and the postman also reports any activity to them. I've never seen a car burnt out! One party in eight years caused a problem, but it was sorted.

I think the problem re traffic on the older apartment side may be when people used the hospital as a cut through to the village but hospital road now closed.

Kur4mA

I rent in Erris Square and have been there for over 3 years now. Honestly, it's a really nice area and extremely quiet. With regards the previous mention of hospital staff and visitors taking spaces I have very rarely seen it happen and I am very close to the road. With the car clamping starting a couple of months ago all of these people parking along the road has pretty much stopped.

+ Very quiet area (I've rented in other areas around Dublin 15 and Waterville is the quietest so far)
+ Really good neighbours
+ Large garden area behind apartment (although shared)
+ Area is VERY clean and maintained on a daily basis including all garden areas
+ Large park within 2 minutes walking distance which is really well maintained also
+ Blanchardstown Village, Shopping Centre, and Hospital within walking distance
+ Close to all of Dublin 15's major bus routes pretty much

- Walls are a bit thin in the apartments which can be an issue if you have noisy neighborus
- Clampers are a bit of a pain if you have frequent visitors at all as they have to find a visitor parking space or drive to the end of the estate to the Overflow car park

athtrasna

kyub wrote: »

- Clampers are a bit of a pain if you have frequent visitors at all as they have to find a visitor parking space or drive to the end of the estate to the Overflow car park

Just to say that parking isn't allocated in all of Waterville. We don't have allocated spaces, it's first come first served. We do however have clamping for those who decide they'd rather park on the path outside the apartments or at gable ends then walk 100m to the nearest space.

Kur4mA

athtrasna wrote: »

Just to say that parking isn't allocated in all of Waterville. We don't have allocated spaces, it's first come first served. We do however have clamping for those who decide they'd rather park on the path outside the apartments or at gable ends then walk 100m to the nearest space.

Yeah, it's first come first served for us too but the clampers can clamp anyone parking in a non-allocated parking space and also anyone who does not display their token/badge showing that they are a resident.

athtrasna

kyub wrote: »

Yeah, it's first come first served for us too but the clampers can clamp anyone parking in a non-allocated parking space and also anyone who does not display their token/badge showing that they are a resident.

Ah, I see. We don't have residents badges or permits - yet. May come in down the line though, it has been discussed at the last two AGMs.

casey80

How high are the maintenance fee for apartments at Waterville at the moment?

athtrasna

casey80 wrote: »

How high are the maintenance fee for apartments at Waterville at the moment?

It varies from cluster to cluster and depending on apartment size. Some clusters have fountains which are an additional expense to maintain, some have playgrounds which boots the insurance cost, some have lifts which again are expensive to maintain.

Each cluster has it's own management company and budget and therefore fees.

chucknorris

With management fee's to consider, I'd encourage people looking to buy in D15 to consider looking around as many estates built in the late 90's are on sale at very good prices and no additional management cost's.

anniehoo

kyub wrote: »

I rent in Erris Square and have been there for over 3 years now. Honestly, it's a really nice area and extremely quiet. With regards the previous mention of hospital staff and visitors taking spaces I have very rarely seen it happen and I am very close to the road. With the car clamping starting a couple of months ago all of these people parking along the road has pretty much stopped.

+ Very quiet area (I've rented in other areas around Dublin 15 and Waterville is the quietest so far)
+ Really good neighbours
+ Large garden area behind apartment (although shared)
+ Area is VERY clean and maintained on a daily basis including all garden areas
+ Large park within 2 minutes walking distance which is really well maintained also
+ Blanchardstown Village, Shopping Centre, and Hospital within walking distance
+ Close to all of Dublin 15's major bus routes pretty much

- Walls are a bit thin in the apartments which can be an issue if you have noisy neighborus
- Clampers are a bit of a pain if you have frequent visitors at all as they have to find a visitor parking space or drive to the end of the estate to the Overflow car park

+1 to all of this, Erris in my opinion is the nicest estate in Waterville but im biased, followed by Achill. I live in Erris and have done for 5 years and honestly still really like it. The green area is lovely to look out on and you dont feel too hemmed in even for an apartment block. Great neighbours, lovely park around the corner, so close to Blanch SC, village and the Spar is really handy.

casey80 wrote: »

How high are the maintenance fee for apartments at Waterville at the moment?

I'm paying ~€950/year for a 2 bed shared door apartment which is very high but i have to say the block and its grounds are meticulously maintained. We get regular contact from SPM the Mgt Co. and have had very little issues to go to them about over the years.

Parking is fine for me and always have one directly outside my apt and am right next to the overflow so its never an issue for visitors.

I would buy a duplex over an apartment in Erris again if i could as they're fairly spacious, but overall i dont regret buying in Waterville at all. Good area, location,management co.,neighbours and it's quiet. I cant complain

fptosca

anniehoo wrote: »

I'm paying ~€950/year for a 2 bed shared door apartment which is very high but i have to say the block and its grounds are meticulously maintained. We get regular contact from SPM the Mgt Co. and have had very little issues to go to them about over the years.

€950/year? I think that's great value.... or we are being scam by out management company. We pay €1600/year also in Waterville. The building and areas are well maintained and cleaned... and they are responsive when contacted.
I always thought it was a lot to pay though but I didn't have anything to compare with.

casey80

fptosca wrote: »

€950/year? I think that's great value....

is it really? I know people who pay 600-700 euros for detached houses, never mention apartments.
950 euros is extremely expensive as far as I'm concerned

fptosca

The fee includes rubbish collection, building insurance. cleaning and maintenance of building, gardens and carpark. Basically that's it. Would you know what's included in the fee for detached houses?

athtrasna

casey80 wrote: »

is it really? I know people who pay 600-700 euros for detached houses, never mention apartments.
950 euros is extremely expensive as far as I'm concerned

Fees for houses would generally be less than apartments. A house owner owns their house so they pay to insure their house, the bricks and mortar of an apartment block are insured by the management company. Similarly the management company would be responsible for maintaining the common areas in a shared entrance unit as the poster who gave the €950 lives in. That's regular cleaning of common areas, lighting of same and fire alarm maintenance.

To the poster that said their fees in Waterville were €1600 - do you live in a phase with lifts? Maintenance costs for lifts are horrendous and may explain that huge variation in fees.

I live in neither of those clusters, I think a 2 bed in ours is around the €850 range but not certain.

fptosca

yes we've got a lift on our building. I'll check the accounts to verify how much do we pay for its maintenance.

anniehoo

fptosca wrote: »

€950/year? I think that's great value.... or we are being scam by out management company. We pay €1600/year also in Waterville. The building and areas are well maintained and cleaned... and they are responsive when contacted.
I always thought it was a lot to pay though but I didn't have anything to compare with.

:eek: Wow that's extortionate. I thought the apartments paid the highest amount of management fees out of all of the property types. Yes lifts will add a serious premium but not almost double of what im paying. That's crazy money OP.

fptosca

according to the accounts Lift Maintenance was €5,260 for the year. Other big charges were €7,800 for Cleaning/Caretaker/Materials, €8,832 Management Fee and €9,355 Insurance Block/Engineering, €4,625 Gardening / Landscaping, €6,900 Sinking Fund.

I know comparing different buildings is not accurate but, to get an idea, is anybody paying significantly less for anything of the above?

athtrasna

fptosca wrote: »

according to the accounts Lift Maintenance was €5,260 for the year. Other big charges were €7,800 for Cleaning/Caretaker/Materials, €8,832 Management Fee and €9,355 Insurance Block/Engineering, €4,625 Gardening / Landscaping, €6,900 Sinking Fund.

I know comparing different buildings is not accurate but, to get an idea, is anybody paying significantly less for anything of the above?

Those amounts sound cheap in most cases, and it really doesn't sound like enough money is being put into the sinking fund at all which is worrying.The MUD act suggests that €200 per unit is put into the sinking fund per year. Particularly given that you have lists, I'd be worried about fees being increased massively to make up a shortfall.

fptosca

thanks athtrsana. So the amounts are reasonable then....
€6,900 for sinking fund is almoost €200 per apartment so that looks right as well. It has been used only for minor things since it was created. I believe it has added up to a decent amount by now.

anniehoo

Even with the lift maintenance taken into account i still dont see how you're paying €1600 month. I would be physically broke if i had to pay that on top of my mortgage. Surely all of the contracts are standard across all of Waterville, so im struggling to see where the huge difference is coming from.

amtc

I pay just over 900 euro for a house in waterville

athtrasna

anniehoo wrote: »

Even with the lift maintenance taken into account i still dont see how you're paying €1600 month. I would be physically broke if i had to pay that on top of my mortgage. Surely all of the contracts are standard across all of Waterville, so im struggling to see where the huge difference is coming from.

They're not. Because all the clusters aren't the same. The structures are different, particularly in Waterville Terrace. Lifts, fountains, playgrounds all bring additional costs to run, maintain and insure. The non-tower clusters have similar leases but from Dursey Row onwards, the leases were changed to allow fee calculations based on services rather than a general percentage of the budget. We got legal advice to see if we could change our leases to do that but unfortunately we can't as our phase was built before Dursey.

amtc

yep but so was mine - I live in Garnish Square that was built before Dursey. PM me if you want

athtrasna

I thought Garnish was the last on the old leases - lucky you if you're not. I know Aran Court have the old leases so thought it went to the top of the road!

anniehoo

athtrasna wrote: »

They're not. Because all the clusters aren't the same.

Ok fair enough, but id still love to see the breakdown of €1600 maintenance a month. Those properties were built in the boom no? 04ish+? How are people affording this? As i said i would be jokey broke paying that and i got a so called "affordable" property.

Stumped!

athtrasna

anniehoo wrote: »

Ok fair enough, but id still love to see the breakdown of €1600 maintenance a month. Those properties were built in the boom no? 04ish+? How are people affording this? As i said i would be jokey broke paying that and i got a so called "affordable" property.

Stumped!

it would be €1600 a year not a month. Am sure it was a typo by the poster.

kevc2

Hi,
I'm in Erris Square. PM me if you want and I'll tell you all about it.

anniehoo

athtrasna wrote: »

it would be €1600 a year not a month. Am sure it was a typo by the poster.

Doh! Yeah of course, they did actually say per year too. Head not with it this week Would still like to see the breakdown though.

Erelliac

Dear All,

I’m attempting to re-launch this discussion as I’m in the process of buying a 3-bed duplex in Garnish square. That’s obviously a big decision to make – so I thought to get your views on it.

I’ll summarize my Plus & Minuses – and you may want to add/amend from that (sorry as this may be redundant to a previous post):

Plus:

• Spacious apartment – an 118 sqm 3 bed duplex can fit my little family (1 kid & pregnant wife!) with plenty of storage,
• Good build overall – Structural survey came out OK. Heard good things from various parties,
• Clean area – You pay for it, but the area seems well maintained, at the exception of nearby woody area,
• Local amenities –SPAR, Shopping centre, Blanch’ village, Creche, NAC / National Sport Campus (with more facilities in construction) all within walking distance,
• Close to work – 5mn drive from work, walking distance for my wife,
• Close to N3/M50 – Should I get a job somewhere else, Waterville has easy access to the M50,
• Quiet area – I’ve been renting for few years in an adjoining block and I’ve always found it peaceful,
• Low percentage of tenancy – No being disrespectful to tenants (I’m still one!) this is an important factor for me, and Garnish sq has a tenancy rate of 20% (source: PRTB), well below Skelligs ct / Tory sq / Annagh ct blocks,

Minus:

• Repossessions – Threats of Repos on the Property Market and more particularly apts, however nobody knows the exact geographical spread. New apartments came on sale in Waterville but in less desirable blocks imo,
• Neighbouring Corduff – A report from the Blanchardstown Area Partnership (Social and Economic Profile of Dublin 15, Oct 2012) highlights the challenges facing the area, and the big gap/differences with Waterville. However, I’m crossing often Corduff and stopping as well on the local supermarket, and always met good decent people…
• Management fee – I understand it’s about €1,000 per annum – it’s a lot of money but it appeared to be well worth the money, and managed locally which is good…

Sorry as this is quite a long post. I’ll be very glad to hear different point of views. I’m quite convinced this is the right step, but I’m willing to be challenged!

Many thanks in advance,

athtrasna

In answer to a couple of your points

• The council are responsible for the wooded area, they took that in charge a number of years ago when the developments refused to take it on collectively from the builders
  
• Corduff is across the road. It's very rare that trouble crosses the road. The only thing to watch is that Waterville is on the border of two primary school areas, being the village and Corduff. There is a chance your children may end up going to school there if the village schools are over subscribed.
  
• Management fee. This includes refuse, buildings insurance and landscaping as well as a whole load of less noticeable things. €1,000 is very good value. I would advise that if you buy, stand for election as a director. This is the best way to protect your investment and to work to ensure fees stay low.
  
• Repossessions happen all over the place, it's hard to predict where. In Waterville it's more likely to be the clusters above Garnish and around the Spar as in the height of the boom, 3 bed apartments in those clusters were on sale for €515,000.

Erelliac

Many thanks for your advices Athtrasna,

My son is actually registered joining a Blanchardstown school later this year, so I guess we're fine on that front.

I'll certainly remember your feedback regarding the potential directorship of the management company.


Thanks again

amtc

I live in Garnish Square, feel free to pm me.

Huge owner occupier area

I 've been here nearly nine years, and very little turnover. Management fees aren't that bad - I had to claim off the block insurance for a leak and was settled fine.

Dead quiet, no noise from next door. My mate is a strutural engineer and he said best he's seen in years.

Never see Corduff.

sebphoto

Guys, somehow I can't find Erris Square on google maps. Could someone post gps coordinates please?

kevc2

https://maps.google.ie/maps?q=53.392101,-6.368735&num=1&t=h&z=17

gigatoaster

Hello

I am very interested by the discussion you had several years ago. Are there some people living there that could share their opinion about Waterville? What about Garnish Square: is it a good place to live in?

amtc

Well I'm still here - ten years now. I love it.

What I would say it's gone a bit down in the last year. My friend was visiting and was outside smoking and he came in to tell me that my neighbours were smoking hash. But I suppose you'd get that anywhere. What I'm seeing is the original owner occupiers moving on and renting out.

On the plus side, it's recently been repainted and powerwashed and I find it very safe - for example I accidentally left my front door wide open (and I mean open, not just unlocked) - I had gone upstairs but obviously the lure of my bed was too much (there was alcohol involved) and woke up the next morning - not a problem.

I'd recommend it rather than the other clusters. I work in an area where I have an overview of the area in stats and I'd rather live here.

Erelliac

Hi,

Quick reply on this. I actually bought in Garnish square last year and I'm extremely glad of it. I find the area very peaceful. My neighbours are really nice and quiet. I'm a First-Home-Buyer so this was a huge decision to take, and so far I feel like It's been the right one.

Thanks,

athtrasna

amtc wrote: »

Well I'm still here - ten years now. I love it.

What I would say it's gone a bit down in the last year. My friend was visiting and was outside smoking and he came in to tell me that my neighbours were smoking hash. But I suppose you'd get that anywhere. What I'm seeing is the original owner occupiers moving on and renting out.

On the plus side, it's recently been repainted and powerwashed and I find it very safe - for example I accidentally left my front door wide open (and I mean open, not just unlocked) - I had gone upstairs but obviously the lure of my bed was too much (there was alcohol involved) and woke up the next morning - not a problem.

I'd recommend it rather than the other clusters. I work in an area where I have an overview of the area in stats and I'd rather live here.

We're not all bad. I live in the next Cluster down and agree that this is the nice part. I wouldn't like to live in any of the clusters on the other roads

kevc2

I'm still in Erris Square, still a great place to live, been here 5-6 years. I believe Garnish Square is great also.

kevc2

Only problem is that it's difficult to get talking to people in Waterville, I was thinking about setting up a neighbourhood BBQ but I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not.

athtrasna

kevc2 wrote: »

I'm still in Erris Square, still a great place to live, been here 5-6 years. I believe Garnish Square is great also.

Are you an owner or a tenant? IIRC Erris had a big issue with thousands of euro worth of plants being damaged in the first year or two? I remember SPM telling us

gigatoaster

Hello

I'm a new tenant here and this WE, there was an alarm on...all night. It has started again. Is there anything we can do?

athtrasna

gigatoaster wrote: »

Hello

I'm a new tenant here and this WE, there was an alarm on...all night. It has started again. Is there anything we can do?

If you're a tenant contact your landlord and ask them to report it to the Management Agent.