Moving out of Dublin

khaldrogo

We are pretty much decided on moving out of Dublin to give the kids a better life and try and let my wife give up work at least until they are in secondary.
We are both born and raised in D14/16 area. We were unfortunate to be buying during the boom and as a result were priced out to Lucan. We had visions of staying 5 years or so, selling at a large profit and moving back around where we grew up!!!! Obviously that never happened nor is it ever likely to, but to be honest we don't really want to anymore. With all the gangland stuff and drugs and feral kids doing what they like we just want out of Dublin altogether.
So, has anyone done this? Are you happy? Do you regret it? What areas do you recommend? We would want to stay within an hrs drive to Dublin for family etc. We have looked around Gorey, Carnew, Court town, East Carlow etc. but we don't know the areas and what to expect. Budget wise we are hoping to keep it under 200k so that my wife doesn't have to work otherwise there's no real point in moving.
I saw a nice property in the Riverchapel estate but heard from a friend that lives in the general area that its where all the Dubs moved to and we don't want that.

Any advise or stories?

dar_cool

We done this as wanted my wife to raise our kids so moved to Westmeath. I still work in Dublin but work shift. We moved to a house on its own with good bit of land and love it but like you said are still within an hour to friends/family. Everyone is different and people thought we were mad moving out here but each to their own. Best of luck either way

LirW

I live in the specified area and it has its ups and downs.
Upsides are plentiful:
People are very friendly
Property very affordable but stay clear of Riverchapel and Courtown, they definitely have their problems.
School places guaranteed.
Stunning scenery and a lot to discover. Good amenities in the bigger towns if you don't mind the drive.

Downsides are obvious, the commute to Dublin is long and draining and can't be done long-term. Good jobs are sparse, if you don't mind working in a factory there's always work for minimum wage. Eir has a monopoly on crappy broadband.
Seriously, if you think of commuting up to Dublin look somewhere else. My partner does is once or twice a week and it is a total headwreck.

I'd look inland from Gorey a bit, 200k can bring you quite far and there's certainly property on the market that is there for a long time and can be probably snapped up under the asking.

Claw Hammer

You would get a good house and Athlone for €200,000. Mainline rail and motorway to Dublin. Plenty of primary schools, secondary schools and third level college. Children should be able to walk or cycle to school.

khaldrogo

Claw Hammer wrote:

You would get a good house and Athlone for €200,000. Mainline rail and motorway to Dublin. Plenty of primary schools, secondary schools and third level college. Children should be able to walk or cycle to school.

I lived in athlone for college many years ago. Would certainly not want to live in the area I lived in. Not sure what parts of it would be considered good.

If you try to stick to under 200k the commute is going to be massive.

wirelessdude01

Why would you choose to buy in an area that you know nothing about? At the very least rent beforehand.

khaldrogo

wirelessdude01 wrote:

Why would you choose to buy in an area that you know nothing about? At the very least rent beforehand.

Where did I say we would buy a home before getting to know an area? I'm just looking for other peoples opinions on areas to chack out and their own personal experience

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

If you try to stick to under 200k the community is going to be massive.

We've seen plenty of properties on their own land for under 200k

khaldrogo

khaldrogo wrote: »

We've seen plenty of properties on their own land for under 200k

I meant commute!

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

I meant commute!

Well I don't mine up to an hour. I was doing an hr commute in Dublin at one point, also the idea would be to find a job closer at some point

utmbuilder

Gorey etc is very extreme. Places like Navan are 12 minutes to Blanchardstown now with the motor way.

khaldrogo

utmbuilder wrote:

Gorey etc is very extreme. Places like Navan are 12 minutes to Blanchardstown now with the motor way.

They are also mini Dublin's. I know at least 20 dubs that moved out to Meath, trim, navan etc. Its not for us.

utmbuilder

khaldrogo wrote: »

They are also mini Dublin's. I know at least 20 dubs that moved out to Meath, trim, navan etc. Its not for us.

mini Dublin's, i dont get you? you dont like Dublin people?

Is this a new fad or is there a whole bunch of people out there who dont like Dublin people? lol

So funny. Wexford is invaded with Dub's with caravans 3 months of the year.

My suggestion would be around the village of Kilanerin, North of Gorey.
Lovely village, about 40 mins from the M50.
Great scenery and for a village lots of amenities.
Only drawback, is can be quite expensive. 200k will get you something like this in the village.
If you go a bit more rural this can be got for 225k.

khaldrogo

utmbuilder wrote:

mini Dublin's, i dont get you? you dont like Dublin people?

It depends on the people. Certain types of dubs would not be for me and I'm not moving to an area populated by them.

utmbuilder wrote:

So funny. Wexford is invaded with Dub's with caravans 3 months of the year.

It is but we would generally try to avoid buying in areas like these

An hours commute from Gorey is extremely optimistic. The commute is the big flaw in your plan if it wasn't a lot more people would be doing it

The second issue that the money does not translate back to Dublin so if you do not like it or your wife does not like it it's very hard to get back to the Dublin property market.

What about when your children go to college.

Think of it from the point of view of family life, your wife will be in a new area and not working outside the family home, a husband gone 12 hours a day and exhausted from the commute, family, and friends over an hour away so no popping over for a quick coffee.

This is from a route planner: 1 h 21 min (105.1 km) via M11 is the distance from Gorey to Dublin and that would be on a good day.

LirW

No way you're doing Gorey-Dublin in under an hour. You do that on a quiet day of the weekend. If you've never witnessed the traffic during the week it's more like 1,5 hours each way depending from where. Believe me, I live down there and I drive that stretch a lot. Traffic during the week between Newtown Mountkennedy and Bray is absolutely awful every day without exception. Bray is a bottleneck in and out of Dublin, especially out can be the most soulcrushing thing in peaktimes, on many days traffic is somewhat heavy down to Wicklow town. There is ofc the option of commuting by public transport but you're pretty much the same as by car.
If you buy down there and commute 5 days a week you'll get fed up really fast.

Also Gorey is a mini-Dublin, it's full of Dubs and Dub attitude, Riverchapel and Courtown are holiday destinations of Dubs, packed to the rim in the summer and empty in Winter.
If you want to spare that, look in Southwest Wicklow or in the Tullow area. Which of course isn't as handy on commuter routes as Gorey.

awec

This is a bizarre thread. The OP wants to live within an hour of Dublin, but this place must not have too many Dubs living there.

Wants a house for 200k, cheap by any standards in the greater Dublin region, but cannot have certain type of people living around it.

Good luck in your search, it’ll take a while.

appledrop

awec wrote: »

This is a bizarre thread. The OP wants to live within an hour of Dublin, but this place must not have too many Dubs living there.

Wants a house for 200k, cheap by any standards in the greater Dublin region, but cannot have certain type of people living around it.

Good luck in your search, it’ll take a while.

I have to agree. Your post doesn't make much sense. If you really want to leave Dublin + want a more rural life then you won't get that within a hours commute. Most people living in what's classed as wider Dublin hinterland do so because they can't afford to buy in Dublin so settle for as near as they can. Of course they end up then like mini Dublin.

I also hate to break it to you but drugs are everywhere in Ireland + not just in Dublin.

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

An hours commute from Gorey is extremely optimistic. The commute is the big flaw in your plan if it wasn't a lot more people would be doing it

A workmate travels from Riverchapel daily. An hr most days. No schools 50mins.

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

This is from a route planner: 1 h 21 min (105.1 km) via M11 is the distance from Gorey to Dublin and that would be on a good day.

The time will be different depending on where in Dublin you are going!!!! Cherrywood would be quicker than malahide. I've mapped my commute using the option on MyHome of travel times during peak hours. And kept my search within the hour time frame.

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

The second issue that the money does not translate back to Dublin so if you do not like it or your wife does not like it it's very hard to get back to the Dublin property market.

The places we would want to live in Dublin we would not be able to buy in without major financial strain. We want out of Dublin and the Dublin way of life. Can't see us coming back tbh. Before we went anywhere we would research the area and go down a few times over night etc. This won't be done on a whim

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

What about when your children go to college.

What do the other 2million people do outside of Dublin?

khaldrogo

mariaalice wrote:

Think of it from the point of view of family life, your wife will be in a new area and not working outside the family home, a husband gone 12 hours a day and exhausted from the commute, family, and friends over an hour away so no popping over for a quick coffee.

Her only sister lives in another country. Her best friend is an hr away. Her parents are 40 mins away. It would take her 20 longer to see her parents if we moved. Nobody has ever popped over to us for a quick coffee. I leave the house now at about 7.30 and am home between 6.30 and 7.00 as it is. My 7km commute in the evening can take 40 mins sometimes.

Captain Flaps

OP thinks he's better than other dubs but has no problem working with us :rolleyes:

OP, I work with a lad who commutes from Gorey every day, he works from home 7 till 9 and then hops in the car and is here for 10.30, 11 sometimes. He's the far side of Gorey but regardless you're not going to do it in an hour. I also don't know where you work in Dublin but factor in that you'll still be dealing with Dublin traffic when you get to a certain point. I've driven in from Naas, Trim, Monaghan and a few other places many times in the past and those commuter roads are a nightmare in the mornings no matter where you'r coming from.

Side note, I've just bought in the D14/16 area and I'm certainly not expecting gangland problems or Feral kids.

jobless

If you do a normal 9-5 you wont be getting from Dublin to Gorey in an hour..... m50 is a car park from before bray til after greystones between 4.30 and 6.30 every day....
I would definately try renting before making any big decisions.....

El Tarangu

khaldrogo wrote: »

What do the other 2million people do outside of Dublin?

Well, at the moment, pay about €600 per month, per child, if their kids are studying in Dublin.

wexie

khaldrogo wrote: »

Her only sister lives in another country. Her best friend is an hr away. Her parents are 40 mins away. It would take her 20 longer to see her parents if we moved. Nobody has ever popped over to us for a quick coffee. I leave the house now at about 7.30 and am home between 6.30 and 7.00 as it is. My 7km commute in the evening can take 40 mins sometimes.

I had this discussion with a colleague when I moved out to Gorey (or just beyond), he was telling me I was mad to move out that far cause the commute (to South Dublin) would kill me.

Conversation went as follows :

Where do you live?
Lucan
And how far is that from work?
Hmmm about 25/30 km?
And how long does it take you?
Hmmm....about an hour, depending on the M50?

Would have to agree with other people on a few things though.

South Dublin (Cherrywood area) in 50 minutes (depending on time of day and where around Gorey) isn't unreasonable at all. But that same area to city center can easily add another 50 minutes.

Would second courtown and riverchapel, doesn't sound like they'd be places you'd enjoy. Aside from that you'll probably find that the closer to the coast you get the more expensive property will be.

We're about 10 miles outside Gorey and I think it's quite a nice little town, has everything you could want with regards shopping etc. several schools

Ms2011

OP my family moved last August from Dublin to a rural village in Carlow.
We bought our detached house with an acre of land for cash well under 200k.
My husband works shift in Ballymount, it takes him exactly an hour to get to & from work, he doesn't love it but he's happy with the payoff of living where we live.
There are definitely pro & cons but we love it here & wouldn't go back to Dublin if someone gave us a house.

arctictree

My advice would be to get a job first in the rural area. Then move. Then you have very little commute.

khaldrogo

awec wrote:

This is a bizarre thread. The OP wants to live within an hour of Dublin, but this place must not have too many Dubs living there.

Wants a house for 200k, cheap by any standards in the greater Dublin region, but cannot have certain type of people living around it.


Good luck in your search, it’ll take a while.

Thanks for the helpful input, no sure how the thread could have progressed without it.

I expect better from a mod.

An hour out of Dublin down the N4/N6 and I'm in Athlone, Mullingar, Roscommon etc.....not exactly the greater Dublin area.

ElKavo

We did something similar in 2005, I thought, sure I can do the 1 - 1:30 commute twice a day. I was lucky enough in that I start at 10 and finish at 6 so I tended to miss a lot of traffic like this. I did that for almost 7 years. It really started to grate on me in the last 2 yeas or so, All it takes is a crash, bad weather, roadworks etc to see your "reasonable" commute time easily double!! Fridays although I finish at 4:30 would see me with a typical 3 hr journey home. I typically left the house at 6:10 am to go to the gym. I would be very lucky if I got home at 7:30, typically 8. If I got to tuck the kids in it was a good day.

We moved closer to Dublin in the end, we have rented for nearly 5 years now, our rent is nearly triple what our mortgage is (we still have that house as its in neg eq). I still have a realistic hour commute now where we live now and even that sucks. Our plan now is to leave Dublin properly behind I.E. live and work in a different part of the country.

Dublin is a write off IMO, it used to be a case that you could have a family and a home on 1 income, it is becoming more and more near impossible on a single income and even for homes with a second income. Once you get into a double income house you have to factor in child care costs, you cant have these show up on your bank statement though or you will have more difficulty in getting that 300+ K mortgage.

My advise would be to think really hard about what you are signing up for. The thought of a 1.5 hr commute might be bearable but the reality is typically far from it.

If they have put a lot of thought into it and are realistic it might work a lot of people want a more rural less Dublin lifestyle for their children, however, they would need to go a lot further than an hour from Dublin to get out to the orbit of Dublin and its attendant lifestyle.

The cost of the commute is another issue, I would hazard a guess that it would cost at least 80-100 euro in petrol a week or more as the op won't be going to Gorey because it's a mini Dublin.

The first thing to do is sell their house bank their money and rent in the area they want for a while then if it does not work they can always go back.

Toyotafanboi

I commuted from the north side of Gorey to Lucan for 18 months or so and it's an acquired taste. If you start work in Lucan between 8 and 9am you'd want to be in the car no later than 6.30am. 75-90 minutes travel time on a good day in the winter, a messy rainy day will ads 15 minutes more and an accident will take you over 2 hours no problem and you can be sure of an accident of some sort most weeks. Similar on the way home. In the summer (May-August) it's a doddle, low traffic, bright mornings, you'll do it in 50-55 minutes nice and handy and it makes it very easy to forget what a slog it is during the rest of the year.

I moved jobs and only go as far as Cherrywood now and that's an hour in the winter, maybe 1 hour 15 minutes on an exceptionally bad day and around 40 minutes this time of year. It's much much more doable. The traffic is still hellish in the winter once you get to Newtownmountkennedy but at least you don't have to take the M50.

mloc123

khaldrogo wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful input, no sure how the thread could have progressed without it.

I expect better from a mod.

An hour out of Dublin down the N4/N6 and I'm in Athlone, Mullingar, Roscommon etc.....not exactly the greater Dublin area.

An hour from Dublin (city) during normal commuting times will get you to Maynooth... not Athlone or Mullingar

Claw Hammer

khaldrogo wrote: »

I lived in athlone for college many years ago. Would certainly not want to live in the area I lived in. Not sure what parts of it would be considered good.

The area opposite of the college is very bad. There are good areas along the LONGFORD Road and the road parallel to it.

appledrop

I don't think your being realistic at all about travel times. I had to go to Athlone from Dublin back in May when schools were still on + it took me neatly 2 hours on outwar d journey + similar on way home. That's the reality when in the traffic. No point looking up aa route planner with no account of traffic.

Claw Hammer

appledrop wrote: »

I don't think your being realistic at all about travel times. I had to go to Athlone from Dublin back in May when schools were still on + it took me neatly 2 hours on outwar d journey + similar on way home. That's the reality when in the traffic. No point looking up aa route planner with no account of traffic.

A lot of this commuting is about exactly where your starting point is. A person might be able to complete the distance of 100 km to the M 50 in under an hour but could easily spend another hour negotiating their way to their ultimate destination. It can easily take an hour or more to get from Google land to the Liffey Valley shopping centre.

Those that are doing it and replying should really add the cost of the commute to their replies, for example, the 200k round trip daily from Gorey to Dublin how much would that cost a week.

awec

khaldrogo wrote: »

Thanks for the helpful input, no sure how the thread could have progressed without it.

I expect better from a mod.

An hour out of Dublin down the N4/N6 and I'm in Athlone, Mullingar, Roscommon etc.....not exactly the greater Dublin area.

Oh, well if you’re basing your journey times on how long it takes on a Sunday afternoon the the entire eastern half of Ireland is open to you.

theyoungchap

khaldrogo wrote: »

I saw a nice property in the Riverchapel estate but heard from a friend that lives in the general area that its where all the Dubs moved to and we don't want that.
Any advise or stories?

Whatever you do in your life, do not buy in Riverchapel.........the place has been ruined by HSE housing and not a particularly nice element from Dublin.

Being honest, I would definitely rent a house somewhere you are thinking of buying, commute it for maybe 9 months (school year), see how you feel after it. I know plenty of people who bought houses on a place being "an hour from Dublin" and now face 2-hour commutes. Have you flexi time in work and where do you work OP? (Area, not specifically).

Depending on where you are located, you could consider using the train but the train from Gorey moves at the pace of a glacier afaik.

But why not try it anyway. I would do it, try it, even rent out your house in Lucan which would cover your rent in Gorey/Carlow/wherever, do it for the school year, then if you are happy to do it for 30+ years, or get a job locally, sell up in Lucan.

Good luck!

appledrop

You also need to consider schools for your children. People think it's only schools in Dublin that have a lack of places but it can actually be worse in counties near Dublin as some schools still small but can't cater for influx of people moving there.

mortimer33

khaldrogo wrote: »

We are pretty much decided on moving out of Dublin to give the kids a better life and try and let my wife give up work at least until they are in secondary.

Dublin is a vibrant city and offers kids wonderful opportunities. From my point of view I don't think the quality of life is better in small town Ireland.

If the main concern about quality of life is being able to look after your own kids then would it be possible for your wife to work part-time and stay in Dublin? Kids will be in school for half the day anyway...

Ms2011

mariaalice wrote: »

Those that are doing it and replying should really add the cost of the commute to their replies, for example, the 200k round trip daily from Gorey to Dublin how much would that cost a week.

Carlow & back 5 days a week = €50

Claw Hammer

Ms2011 wrote: »

Carlow & back 5 days a week = €50

Is that €50 just for the fuel? There will be the depreciation of the vehicle, tyres and the servicing to take into account as well.

Ms2011

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Is that €50 just for the fuel? There will be the depreciation of the vehicle, tyres and the servicing to take into account as well.

The car is 10 years old so the majority of it's depreciation would be done now regardless.
It's serviced once a year for the NCT which would happen no matter where we lived.

ThunbergsAreGo

wirelessdude01 wrote: »

Why would you choose to buy in an area that you know nothing about? At the very least rent beforehand.

Thats actually very good advice, especially with the commute

wirelessdude01

An hour from Athlone will get you to Maynooth, then you begin to hit traffic. A brief listen to AA traffic and you will realise that crashes from here on in are a frequent occurrence.

khaldrogo

Captain Flaps wrote:

Side note, I've just bought in the D14/16 area and I'm certainly not expecting gangland problems or Feral kids.

I never said that area had those problems????

However, having lived in that area for 25 yrs I can tell you it certainly has its issues. If we wanted to stay in Dublin and wanted to take on massive debt that area is where we want to live.

khaldrogo

wexie wrote:

We're about 10 miles outside Gorey and I think it's quite a nice little town, has everything you could want with regards shopping etc. several schools

Thanks for that. What is the area called if you don't mind?