Buying a house in Ratoath, good move?

Easyliving

Hi,

We are looking at buying a house in Ratoath. In either steeplechase, Somerville or old mill. Is anyone familiar with Ratoath, is it a nice area? Are the estates above nice and what would your order of preference be? Is there any better estates?

We are looking at Ratoath as we'd like a big house, somewhere close to dublin and a nice safe area. The reason we aren't looking closer is for our budget everything is really too small for us. We currently work in Dublin and are both from North Dublin. Are the transport links to dublin good? We have a bid on a house at the moment but are unsure as we are not familiar with the area and renting short term there wouldn't be an option for us.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

MayoSalmon

Easyliving wrote: »

Hi,

We are looking at buying a house in Ratoath. In either steeplechase, Somerville or old mill. Is anyone familiar with Ratoath, is it a nice area? Are the estates above nice and what would your order of preference be? Is there any better estates?

We are looking at Ratoath as we'd like a big house, somewhere close to dublin and a nice safe area. The reason we aren't looking closer is for our budget everything is really too small for us. We currently work in Dublin and are both from North Dublin. Are the transport links to dublin good? We have a bid on a house at the moment but are unsure as we are not familiar with the area and renting short term there wouldn't be an option for us.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Where are you currently living? Where are you working? If its into the city center your commute will be fairly long.

Easyliving

We are abroad at the moment but planning to move back and at least one of us will be working in the city centre, probably me however I'm orginally from swords so used to a 1hr bus journey.

GavMan

No Experience living in Ratoath but all the estates you list are really lovely. I used to do a bit of work in the area.

Again, I don't live there but in terms of safety I would guess it's pretty alright. Certainly no worse than anywhere else and probably a lot less crime than Swords, for perspective.

There isn't a whole lot going on in the town. Enough shops for day to day but you'd probably be heading to Ashbourne (about 3 miles away) for a large Dunnes/Tesco.

In terms of the commute, Leave early enough and the drive should be fine in but the drive home will take a while if you're in peak traffic. If you want to use the train, you will need to drive to Dunboyne (about 15mins) and park there and get the train into Docklands (You can get to Connolly but you need to change and Broombridge). It takes 30-35 mins according to Irish Rail and services leave at 06:53, 07:13, 07:43, 08:13 and 08:38. Return in the even is at 16:55 and every 30mins there after.

I commute from Kildare to City Centre and to be honest, Irish Rail has been fine 95% of the time. Tax saver ticket via your employer should give you a small saving on the costs.

Other options are Bus Eireann. There is a journey planner on their site that you can use and possible some private operators.

tara83

There are a few threads in Meath section from people who previously asked the same question. It really depends on what you are looking for from the move. It's not the best served area for public transport but it does have a bus service. There are pubs restaurants etc but not to the level you would find in Swords. There seems to be a good community spirit with many active clubs

lukesmom

My husband is from ratoath and from what I know it's s lovely area and all the estates you mention are really nice.