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Dublin City Council proposing to relax minimum apartment standards

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    #92
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    Idbatterim wrote: »
    a lot of people living down the the docklands, who work in that area or the city centre, do not drive or need to...

    This is not necessarily true, unless the people in question do not ever need to leave the Dublin area and go somewhere that hasn't got great public transport, like most of the rest of the country.

    Now, arguably, you can hire cars and that's handy if you are transient here. If you're from the country and regularly tootle up and down to see the folks, a car is somewhat more essential.

    I'm reading this thread with some interest. I've lived in a 35sqm studio in Brussels. It was better than absolutely any apartment I have seen in Dublin. But I would not want to live in it now. My life has moved on.

    My problem is that even the paltry standards we had in place we couldn't police properly. I'm of the opinion we need to build more apartments and I don't see why they have to be small and poky. I happen to spend sometime apartment hunting in Brussels in the last year. Where we pay 1600 for 55-60sqm 2 bedroomed apartments, you will pay around 1000 for a 90-100 sqm 2 bedroomed apartment. Brussels has a lot of supply at the moment.

    Personal view is not that we need to relax minimum standards. But we could start enforcing a use it within 18 months or lose it approach to planning permission and place a massive tax on sites where planning permission for residential lapses. It might be interesting to have a look at who actually controls sites with planning permission at the moment. I distinctly remember a bank manager telling me in 2000 that there was a major issue with very few people controlling a very large amount of land. If it's changed in the meantime I'd be surprised.


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    #93
    Icepick
    Registered Users Posts: 2,454 ✭✭✭Icepick


    gaius c wrote: »
    That's like saying "google it for yourself". You made the contention that Dublin rents are "not expensive compared to similar cities" so the onus is on you to back it up.

    I'm interested in what you consider "similar cities".
    I was talking about their price not rent actually.


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    #94
    Mrs OBumble
    Registered Users Posts: 25,844 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    Calina wrote: »
    Now, arguably, you can hire cars and that's handy if you are transient here. If you're from the country and regularly tootle up and down to see the folks, a car is somewhat more essential.

    If you're going home every weekend, then yes.

    But at one stage I was hiring a car for the weekend every two-three weeks, and it still worked out cheaper than parking and insurance would have. Not to mention costs-of-capital, maintenance and NCT. And it was a lot less stressful too, not having to worry about parking.

    That said, I am in favour of apartments having some form of external storage - for bicycles, cars, sports gear, whatever else people need.


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    #95
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,283 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    Mrs OBumble wrote: »
    That said, I am in favour of apartments having some form of external storage - for bicycles, cars, sports gear, whatever else people need.

    +1 to this.
    A major overlooked feature of apartment/condo dwelling in Ireland- has been a complete and utter lack of cognisance that tenants have hardware and or other contents that are most appropriately not stored in a residential dwelling. If you have young kids- they probably have bikes, scooters, protective gear, wellies, perhaps gardening bits and bobs, maybe car consumables etc etc- are you supposed to pile these up in your hall way? It really doesn't make sense.

    If Irish people are going to become more used to apartment dwelling- there has to be an appropriate cognisance of this at planning stage- and better planning has to go into making these type dwellings suitable for longer term family living.


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    #96
    Calina
    Registered Users Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    The_Conductor wrote: »
    +1 to this.
    A major overlooked feature of apartment/condo dwelling in Ireland- has been a complete and utter lack of cognisance that tenants have hardware and or other contents that are most appropriately not stored in a residential dwelling. If you have young kids- they probably have bikes, scooters, protective gear, wellies, perhaps gardening bits and bobs, maybe car consumables etc etc- are you supposed to pile these up in your hall way? It really doesn't make sense.

    If Irish people are going to become more used to apartment dwelling- there has to be an appropriate cognisance of this at planning stage- and better planning has to go into making these type dwellings suitable for longer term family living.

    I had an estate agent describe a single wardrobe in a double bedroom as "ample and extensive storage" once. The issue isn't just the sports gear and stuff; there wasn't room for my work and notwork wardrobe in an apartment which was theoretically designed for 2 people. Where Mr Calina was going to put his stuff was open to debate because there wasn't exactly room to put a freestanding Ikea wardrobe in there either.

    Apartments are designed as commodities for exchange in this country as far as I can see, not as places people might, god forbid, want to live in.


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