Best places in Bray to buy a house

tonye

Hi, I am currently looking to buy a house in the Bray area. I was wondering if I could get some advice on the best areas in Bray to buy. Our main priority is that it is safe area for children and that there is plenty of green areas for them to play in safely. Please be as specific as possible when mentioning areas and estates.

Dr Strange

Depends on what your budget for the house is and what type of house you are looking for?

tonye

The type of house doesn't really matter. The first thing I want to do it find out the best areas/estates before looking at specific houses.

Dr Strange

Right so, best of luck!

iwillhtfu

Southern Cross ha plenty of nice estates with green areas easy access to the motor way a fair walk to the town but you have lidl on the boghall road.

Herbert road has a couple of nice estates and is off the beaten track.

The Killarney road has a number of nice estates along it and all within walking distance of the town and schools.

The Boghall road has some good and some not so good estates depends on perspective.

If I were looking at buying myself I'd be looking at the southern cross or Killarney/Herbert Rd.

I don't know many of the estates across the river in little bray it had a reputation down around fassaroe when I was growing up but that may well have changed and peoples park down there is a great open area. I lived in the Maltings for a while. Nice estate and quiet. A lot of rented houses and the midgets in summer were a pita.

Plenty of nice one off houses tucked away but probably a bit pricey.

It might be easier if you suggest a few areas you're looking at and people can give you their likes and dislikes as there will be a lot of arguing of opinions as there usually is on these kind of threads. Is you preference for access to local amenities or public transport. For instance the Dart is a long walk from southern cross.

Greystones (not charlesland) would be another one to look at. There are some really nice estates out there and personally I think it has more to offer than Bray.

Before the charlesland clan jump on me. If given the option I'd look at some of the old greystones area. There are plenty positives to charlesland gym/shops/public/transport/proximity to town&beach. Personally I think it was ruined by being over develped and some of the houses have been thrown together. I personally worked on a number of these houses (not building) and the quality was poor as with a lot of celtic tiger housing estates my own included.

Annasopra

What areas are you looking at?

tonye

A few of the areas we are currently looking at are the Deepdales, Wheatfield, Woodbrook lawn and Woodbrook glen.

iwillhtfu

tonye wrote: »

A few of the areas we are currently looking at are the Deepdales, Wheatfield, Woodbrook lawn and Woodbrook glen.

1: Deepdales
2: Wheatfield
3: Woodbrook Lawn
4: Woodbrook Glen

How I'd see it although it would depend on the house and location/neighbours.

The last 3 are older housing estates so probably have a number of long term residents. Might be good to chat to neighbours about the area. Deepdales does look nice though.

Millers wood on the herbert road is another nice estate I'd be looking at myself.

tonye

Is there a reason why houses in Clover hill are significantly cheaper that other houses near Herbert Road?

iwillhtfu

Older estatwe. I think they had a few undesirables but nothing terrible afaik. Herbert park would be similar but larger.

Ashton wood I think it is behind cloverhill is nice to might be a bit close to motor way noise though I'm not sure.

zoobizoo

iwillhtfu wrote: »

Ashton wood I think it is behind cloverhill is nice to might be a bit close to motor way noise though I'm not sure.

No problems with noise from the motorway but you're a bit out from the town

Alun

zoobizoo wrote: »

No problems with noise from the motorway but you're a bit out from the town

I'm much closer to the M11/N11 than either of those estates and I don't have a problem with noise. Because of the way sound travels, i.e. better in cold and damp air, it's only really noticeable in the winter, and then I'm inside anyway so can't hear it

Calibos

Bray is the 9th largest urban area in the country after Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Dundalk, Swords and Drogheda. With a population of 31,000 it is the same size population wise and geographically as Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey, inland to Cabinteely to Deansgrange, back to Dun Laoghaire with Sallynoggin in the middle.

So basically, asking for recommendations for Bray is akin to asking to recommend an area in South East County Dublin. If you can narrow down your requirements on type of house, how far is too far from amenities, price range etc, it would help a lot.

iwillhtfu

It's not really a sprawling metropolis to be fair.

There's 4 distinct areas.

Calibos

iwillhtfu wrote: »

It's not really a sprawling metropolis to be fair.

There's 4 distinct areas.

You are right, Bray doesn't instinctively feel that big and that can only be a good thing for the feeling of community and belonging to the town. When asked where we are from, we'll all answer Bray and not the Seafront quarter or Dargle or Boghall etc. Those in the SOCODU areas I mentioned will however answer with the names of the old little villages, but in reality now indistinct Dublin Suburbs. They don't answer I'm from South East County Dublin.

The fact remains though that If someone were looking for a house in Sandycove near the sea and Dart, you probably wouldn't recommend a housing estate in Cabinteely, which is what you would effectively be doing if someone asked about houses within 5 minutes walk of the Bray Dart and seafront and you recommended Deepdales or Saranwood. That said, its probably an easier less hassle drive from Deepdales to the Seafront than from Cabinteely to Sandycove.

I see this a lot. Most people in Bray probably don't realise just how big we are never mind outsiders. At the risk of veering off into my usual tangent, its this sense of being a smaller town geographically and populationwise that residents and outsiders both hold that as well as positive benefits also unfortunately has the side effect of making it seem that we have bigger crime problems than we actually have. I think that people 'feel' the town is a slightly bigger brother of Greystones but with a much higher crime rate. In fact we are over twice the size geographically and have over twice the population. Our crime rates are actually lower than comparative geographical and Population areas of SoCoDU and NoCoDu. That said there is no doubt Greystones has less crime than Bray. ie. It has 30% of Brays reported crime but its population is 50% of Brays.

Big Cheese

I would advise to stay away from Boghall road if you can. I work along this road and have seen some fairly rough stuff. But then again, that could be in a lot of areas.