Grande Central, Sandyford - pros and cons

outlooks

For anyone looking for the pros and cons of living in the Grande Central complex here's my experience after leaving for 2 years in the complex.

Pros:
- Great location. Walking distance to the Luas, Aldi, Dunnes, pharmacy, gym, shops, beacon hospital, etc
- Generally quite and safe;
- Apartment insulation. Never had to use the heating system.
- One parking space available.

Cons:
- too expensive for what you get
- Although the apartments look modern the poor quality of the materials can be noticed from the first moment you move into the apartment
- Noise isolation is poor and if you are a quite tenant don't expect the same from your neighbours all the time. This includes people constantly slamming doors, washing machines working in the night, late night parties, people talking on the hall at late hours, opening and closing balcony windows during the night
- Barbecues on the balcony. Although not allowed some neighbours do it which brings some smoke and smell into your apartment
- Expect your neighbour to pile up rubbish in their balcony making it the ideal world for flies
- When using the lifts expect really smelly lifts as some people carry their rubbish leaking all the way
- Expect your car to have lots of marks on the doors from other people opening their car doors
- Common areas are cleaned from time to time and re fact that some people feel good with dirty doesn't help

About the complex. Some apartments are privately owned, others are managed by different Agencies. Had three different agents during a period of 2 years, being the latest Capreit which I found good.

If you always lived in apartments maybe you won't mind the cons, but for the money you pay the return is low. My view is that one would be better living in a house a bit farer and cheaper and get a car to get to town or to the dart/Luas station.

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Do you mind me asking what kinda rent is charged for these nowadays?

I remember looking at them last year and they were 550+ for a small single room in a sharing apartment, thought it was way over priced

Mr Simpson

Moved to Dublin County South

outlooks

Davie89 wrote: »

Do you mind me asking what kinda rent is charged for these nowadays?

I remember looking at them last year and they were 550+ for a small single room in a sharing apartment, thought it was way over priced

Hi.

1.250 - 1 bed
1.500 - 2 bed
1.800 - 3 bed

outlooks

outlooks wrote: »

Hi.

1.250 - 1 bed
1.500 - 2 bed
1.800 - 3 bed

Updating for 2016

1 bed - 1.450€
2 bed - 1.900€
3 bed - no info but expect 2.000 plus

Rents will continue to increase as an investment fund bought the entire complex and profit needs to be made, plus the rental market is still out of control.

If you have the option choose Grande Central apartments as the fixtures and fittings, materials used are a lot better than South Central, possibly because SC was finished when the house crisis hit Ireland.

During the winter a lot of apartments would have mold around windows and balcony doors and some moss on the balconies too. This would be more common in the SC apartments. Apartments in the SC also require more use of heating than GC.

Since IRES bought the complex, property management is just fantastic. Very prompt fixing any issues, replacing appliances, mattresses, etc. ok not great when increasing rents, and the appliances and mattresses will never be as good as the original ones, but still better than the majority.

Block Management is with O'Dwyer, not great but they try to help. Some of the staff is just not skilled for the job. Nevertheless they have been doing a good job in making the complex more secure after a couple of incidents during 2015.

Location wise and for those commuting using the Luas, SC and GC apartments are probably the ones better located. At least when compared to similar apartments nearby. To name a few, from the Beacon and St. Raphaela's apartments it'sstill a bit of a walk to the Luas. Central Park is another Luas zone, so the ticket costs a bit more when commuting to town, plus there are no amenities in the area and the Grange is really far off.