How important is a "well settled" area?

Konata

Partner and I are looking to buy in Dublin at the moment. We both grew up in more rural areas - detached houses, not in towns, houses nearby but not estates by any means. We've been renting in Dublin for years but have never paid much attention to "areas" - our only requirement in that regard being accessible to where we needed to go for college/work (and as such we have been in Drumcondra for the last 4-5 years, Dundrum before that and campus accommodation before that).

The areas that we are most drawn to for buying and that are within our budget are Clongriffin and Kilbarrack. What majorly puts me off Kilbarrack is that the houses are so much older, and all I see are the repairs needing doing when I look at them. The houses in Clongriffin, being newer, seem to have less of those problems. However, every time we mention to people (from Dublin) these choices, they always seem to lean more towards Kilbarrack, saying its a 'well settled' area or an 'established' area. Now, what exactly does this mean? And how important is it in the long run? I've been around both areas and Clongriffin is certainly a bit quieter and maybe lacking in amenities but we have a car so driving to Clarehall for shopping or elsewhere for eating out or whatever isn't really a big deal... basically, being from the country I don't really get this whole 'well settled' thing but it seems to be mentioned a lot by Dublin people - any insights?

4ensic15

Areas in Dublin have a character and reputation. Long established areas tend to maintain the same character and reputation. A well settled area is one which has acquired a good stable reputation maybe after initial difficulties.
The three most important factors in house purchase are location. The one thing you can't do with a house is physically move it. You can repair and improve any house and overcome problems arising from the age of the house.
Settled areas tend to have lower crime rates, better organised residents associations, more community facilities and plenty of long standing residents.
Being from the country and living in a flatland area you may think that where you live is irrelevant and you are only a car journey away from anywhere you want to go. That may be true in the country but not in Dublin suburbs.

Sleepy

Clongriffin was almost entirely built during the Celtic Tiger which means a lot of them are rental properties. This will reduce the community feel of the area: many of your neighbours won't see themselves staying long-term so it'll be harder to make friends, build social support networks, encourage residents associations to maintain common areas etc. Kids will have to get used to their friendships having expiry dates rather than the life-long friendships they're more likely to make in a neighbourhood with a high owner-occupier level. Another impact of areas with high levels of renters is that you're going to have neighbours who are being housed by the council or in receipt of rental allowance etc. While the vast majority of social housing tenants are perfectly nice people, a small number of problematic ones can turn a peaceful neighbourhood into a virtual war zone.

Finally, as a boom-time build, I'd personally be concerned about the quality of construction. There were Pyrite issues in that part of Dublin and while the houses in older neighbourhoods like Kilbarrack may be in need of modernisation and re-decoration, they've stood for 50/60 years so there's unlikely to be any subsidence or major structural issues etc. The houses may need work to bring them to modern standards but the "bones" of the structures are likely to have been better built.

plopflop

Spend some time in both areas, both during the day and at night. It will give you a feel for what they are like. Don't just drive around them either - get out of the car and walk.
Buying a house is a big commitment, you should do plenty of homework (no pun intended) on the area you will be living in for years.

SarahMollie

Well both Dundrum and Drumcondra are lovely settled areas, so my assumption is that you're only had experience of settled areas going by what you're described.

The issues with areas that have all been built at the one time, like some of the large Celtic Tiger developments, is that a lot of the same demographics will have bought the houses, and will then proceed through various stages of life at the same time, obviously enough

So what might be lots of young families now, will be lots of teenagers in 10-15 years time, doing all the things that teenagers do, like acting the general maggot, even if they're not bad kids really.

Established areas have a mix of demographics so for example where I grew up (Drumcondra) there were only ever a few kids my age and therefore we werent sufficient in numbers to be a major annoyance.

Buckfast W

Iv'e lived in Donaghmede all my life which is just down the road from both places. Clongriffin is a newer area and it's quiet almost to the point of being a ghost town. It does have a bus and train but not as good as Kilbarrack which offers the two dart lines to Howth and Malahide. The only thing Clongriffin has is the park and a few small shops. Parts of Kilbarrack might be considered a bit rough but it's mostly a good area and is close to the local schools and shops.I'd personally go for Kilbarrack if I had the option, plus Raheny is only down the road.

Konata

Thanks for all the replies so far - plenty of food for thought here.

I'm not so sure about my experiences in Drumcondra regarding this well settled thing. On paper for sure, I know it's very very different to Clongriffin but in the two areas of Drumcondra I've lived in, I've been surrounded by rental properties and very transient neighbours - plenty of students etc. Had absolute nightmares of neighbours for a couple of months in one property a few years ago but I guess that can happen anywhere. I think being around a lot of rental properties would definitely be a consideration - and certainly when we have a family in the next couple of years, it would be nicer to live around other families, or at least neighbours that don't change every few months so you can develop relationships etc. as someone mentioned above. Not a big concern right now but yes, will need to try and think how we might feel in the future.

An unfortunate consideration for us is that we won't have a huge amount of money left over to make repairs or 'do-up' parts of a house at current prices in the area, plus after furniture etc. But maybe if it's something that can be put off for a few years it wouldn't be such a big deal... the structural integrity of the house is a good point too, although re. the pyrite thing I believe that's all been resolved in CLongriffin (I'm still trying to research this though!).

Sleepy

You can do up a house room by room and job by job over 10 years if you need to. We're buying a 90 something year old house with the plan to do this at the moment. We should have enough left of our savings to upgrade the gas boiler and get the kitchen done "properly" and to give the rest a cheap facelift with paint and elbow grease within the first couple of months. The rest of the jobs we can see that "need" to be done will be done as and when we can afford them.

You can live with the house not being perfect and improve it over time. You can't really change the neighbourhood and I'd rather buy the worst house on the best road we can afford than have a beautiful home in a less desirable place.

EricPraline

Konata wrote: »

I'm not so sure about my experiences in Drumcondra regarding this well settled thing. On paper for sure, I know it's very very different to Clongriffin but in the two areas of Drumcondra I've lived in, I've been surrounded by rental properties and very transient neighbours - plenty of students etc.

This relates to an important point. Even within a particular suburb of Dublin, there can be significant variation. In the case of Drumcondra, the Glasnevin end is very settled and leafy, mix of families and elderly residents, mostly owner-occupiers. Move 1km closer to the north city centre and your experience can be very different. Rathmines is another area that has this kind of variation.

As others have said, spend a lot of time in the area that you are looking at, during the week, at weekends, day/night. Get a good sense of the area before you commit.