Good & Bad Areas to buy a house in Dublin

Bex0

My husband and I are planning to buy a house in Dublin (or suburbs) next year. We are both not originally from Dublin, so we are not very aware which areas are considered to be good or bad.

We would like to rise a family, so the area being safe and children friendly is important too.

I've heard that we should avoid; Ballymun, Finglas, Tallaght, Ballyfermot, Crumlin. Are there any other areas to avoid?

What areas are considered generally nice? I know South Dublin is nice but can be not so affordable for middle class (which we are).

Outside Dublin, we like Celbridge, Leixlip and old Lucan. Are those nice and safe areas?

What about Clonsilla, Ongar, Clonee, Tyrrelstown, Clongriffin, Swords?

Any advice about areas/neighbourhoods around Dublin would be very much appreciated.

Budget for 2-3 bedroom house - €260,000-€290,000.

Carlingford Locked

I'm afraid with a small budget like that you may have to live with some awful people who may not be quite in your middle class. But no, you wouldn't get anything these days in the South Dublin you're talking about for that price I don't think. Just search by price on Daft and see what's available, then you can research the areas that show up.

Birneybau

Not a chance, anywhere. And you've heard wrong about a lot of places you've been told to avoid

Happy4all

Personally I would avoid clondalkin and finglas

Carlingford Locked

Happy4all wrote: »

Personally I would avoid clondalkin and finglas

Even East Finglas where Bono is from? What's wrong with that?

spurious

Bex0 wrote: »

I've heard that we should avoid; Ballymun, Finglas, Tallaght, Ballyfermot, Crumlin.

Sounds like 1982 or so.

OP, your budget is really small for Dublin. Have a look on myhome.ie and see what you can find (allowing that anything affordable will probably go for higher).

Day Lewin

You might still be lucky if you search Daft by maximium price 295K.
Try Sallynoggin, Kimmage, Inchicore. Northside, consider Balbriggan, Kilbarrack, Artane.
Small places in that price range can still be found...fingers crossed!

"Outside Dublin, we like Celbridge, Leixlip and old Lucan. Are those nice and safe areas?

What about Clonsilla, Ongar, Clonee, Tyrrelstown, Clongriffin, Swords?"

Yes, all those are ok - you will have to look long and hard, but you will find someplace for a starter home.

horse7

Would you consider buying in another area or is it for work or other reasons?

lawred2

Birneybau wrote: »

Not a chance, anywhere. And you've heard wrong about a lot of places you've been told to avoid

Really?

lawred2

lawred2 wrote: »

Really?

i live in dublin going on several years now and id sure as fcuk not buy in any of those areas so as far as im concerned she heard right

the idea of a 2-3 bed anywhere else on that money is dreamland obv

holliehobbie

I would not be looking at Kilbarrack. No properties in Inchicore are under €300,000 unless you buy an apartment.

Heres Johnny

Those areas you were warned against are a very mixed bag. They are all very big suburbs for a start. Good and bad areas within them. But when I was buying my Dublin house I didn't consider moving to any of them and I still wouldn't. Not a hope I'd raise kids in them.

Carlingford Locked

holliehobbie wrote: »

I would not be looking at Kilbarrack. No properties in Inchicore are under €300,000 unless you buy an apartment.

What's wrong with Kilbarrack? God, I'm glad I didn't have this snobby attitude when buying a house or I'd still be living with my parents ffs. If you're in the better parts of Finglas or Kilbarrack you might not be able to get a flat white on every corner but you're not going to get gunned down when you leave your house or have a horse grazing outside.

Happy4all

Also, Lucan is a bit rough and celbridge has more than it's fair share of druggies.

Would you consider maynooth?

Eric Cartman

Happy4all wrote: »

Also, Lucan is a bit rough and celbridge has more than it's fair share of druggies.

Would you consider maynooth?

depends on what side of lucan, the village side is grand, would avoid foxborough for the most part and anything closer to clondalkin than the penny hill pub.

messy tessy

Bex0 wrote: »

I know South Dublin is nice but can be not so affordable for middle class (which we are

Is 'middle class' a thing? Genuinely have never heard anyone describe themselves as middle class.

lawred2

[Deleted User] wrote: »

i live in dublin going on several years now and id sure as fcuk not buy in any of those areas so as far as im concerned she heard right

the idea of a 2-3 bed anywhere else on that money is dreamland obv

100%

devlinio

Nice places with reasonable property values ~ Baldoyle, Donaghmeade, Swords, Kinsealy, Clongriffin, Balgriffin.

You are right to avoid the place you have pointed out.

antodeco

Jesus, it seems that 50% of Dublin needs to be avoided according to this!

OP, all areas have good parts and bad parts (some good parts are bigger, some bad parts are bigger).

Wesser

It seems from your post that you know very little about Dublin or buying in Dublin and therefore I suggest that you move to Dublin, rent first, and get to learn.more.

Gavin "shels"

Wesser wrote: »

It seems from your post that you know very little about Dublin or buying in Dublin and therefore I suggest that you move to Dublin, rent first, and get to learn.more.

I'd be hazarding a guess it's a potential WUM. I know with Crumlin, probably the case everyone - add 50k onto the asking price you see...

horse7

Pm sent

witchgirl26

OP Tallaght, for example, is a massive area which has it's good parts and bad parts so I wouldn't avoid the whole place entirely.

Honestly though if you don't know Dublin at all, I'd recommend renting for a year before buying in an area to see do you like it there, does it work for getting to and from work, are there facilities like shops nearby that you're happy with etc.

Despite being from Dublin, that's what myself and my partner did for an area neither of us were massively familiar with and it gave us a really good idea of it before investing a large sum of money into it.

horse7

Why do you want to buy in Dublin?

cherryghost

Old areas of Tallaght and Clondalkin are well settled and safe. Majority of Crumlin these days are safe too. Whoever told you 'areas' to avoid must be in their 50s/60s and stories to tell from 30 years ago. With a small budget you really shouldnt be nitpicking or at least increase your budget by 100k tbh.

nthclare

messy tessy wrote: »

Is 'middle class' a thing? Genuinely have never heard anyone describe themselves as middle class.

Middle class, is no class...

jon1981

Carlingford Locked wrote: »

What's wrong with Kilbarrack? God, I'm glad I didn't have this snobby attitude when buying a house or I'd still be living with my parents ffs. If you're in the better parts of Finglas or Kilbarrack you might not be able to get a flat white on every corner but you're not going to get gunned down when you leave your house or have a horse grazing outside.

He/She hasn't a clue... alot of nice areas in Kilbarrack and I reckon the poster could only dream of owning a home in certain parts of Kilbarrack.

eamonnq

Happy4all wrote: »

Personally I would avoid clondalkin and finglas

Some lovely areas in Clondalkin, would not be avoiding it at all !!

ceekay74

OP, it'll be quite hard if not impossible to the a 3 bed house for that amount of money so your best bet is probably to target the areas that you have been told to avoid! As previously mentioned, there are parts of these areas that are really nice to live in, and because of the negative reps associated with the area, are possibly affordable for you.

wakka12

Places like tallaght you mentioned are quite large and would be among Irelands largest urban areas if counted separately from the rest of Dublin

So there are a mixture of good and bad places within them

wakka12

messy tessy wrote: »

Is 'middle class' a thing? Genuinely have never heard anyone describe themselves as middle class.

I regularly hear people call themselves middle class

Goose76

The village part of Ballyfermot closer to Inchicore/Chapelizod is very nice and settled - not one to avoid I would say.

JDD

For anyone buying in Dublin who doesn't know it very well, check out this map https://maps.pobal.ie/WebApps/DeprivationIndices/index.html

Don't be put off by it being called a "Deprivation Index", it's essentially a research tool. It takes the information from the last census and colour codes different areas of Dublin based on unemployment rates, level of educational achievement and rate of population change. I've found it to be pretty accurate, with some surprising small pockets of areas that are better than I thought or worse than I thought. Just zoom in on Dublin and click the drop down "Pobal Deprivation" arrow on the right side bar, and then click "2016 Census". You can compare to the 2006 and 2011 Census' to see which areas are improving over time, though that might be skewed somewhat by the effects of the crash.

Filter Daft/Myhome for houses within your price bracket (which will be few with your budget) and then use the map to find the best area, while bearing in mind transport links to your jobs.

Goose76

Goose76 wrote: »

The village part of Ballyfermot closer to Inchicore/Chapelizod is very nice and settled - not one to avoid I would say.

Also I’d rather live in Ballyfermot or Crumlin than somewhere like Ongar or Swords, personally. The latter may be a tad “nicer” but are fairly soulless and still have their fair share of social problems, not to mention the distance from town.

Give me an older village with some character anyday. Plus proximity to town a huge plus.

Samuel T. Cogley

+1 on Kilbarrack, I might not be middle class but for a working class lad like myself I've loved living here. OP's budget won't get a 3 bed out here though, they might squeeze in a 2 bed. Ideally buy on the Greendale/Foxfield side of the tracks.

On the whole middle class thing, I hear a lot of clerical workers describing themselves thus, to me it's always been the traditional professions, lawyer, doctor etc. what were middle class. I'm not directing this as the OP but some people have 'notions' about where they should be living based on perceived class, personally I'd just be looking to make the best of what I could afford and not be worrying about whether my neighbor works in IT or is a plumber.

Day Lewin

Settled district, quite central and respectable: also, older council houses are larger than many new privately built apartments.

https://www.daft.ie/dublin-city/houses-for-sale/kimmage/?ad_type=sale&advanced=1&s%5Bmxp%5D=300000&s%5Badvanced%5D=1&searchSource=sale

andekwarhola

Day Lewin wrote: »

Settled district, quite central and respectable: also, older council houses are larger than many new privately built apartments.

https://www.daft.ie/dublin-city/houses-for-sale/kimmage/?ad_type=sale&advanced=1&s%5Bmxp%5D=300000&s%5Badvanced%5D=1&searchSource=sale

Those specific addresses are close enough to kimmage but Stanaway and Cashel Roads are in Crumlin, one of the areas that the 'middle-class' OP was being warned away from.

Just shows how nominal some of the assessments here are about rough areas.

Cushie Butterfield

OP, at your budget your decision about areas in which to buy is a lot easier as price will eliminate a lot of areas straight away. As has been suggested earlier go on to daft or my home.ie & limit your search criteria to all areas & max 300k (or to be more realistic €275).

Then start worrying about areas.

Ush1

You've been misled, about the areas to avoid and that you are middle class with a budget of 290k.

Eric Cartman

Every time we have one of these threads the same thong happens 'this areas bad, no its not, it used to be etc...'

The reality of it is your perspective depends on where you grew up. If you lived in ballymun 30 years ago ofcourse to you the ballymun of today is a much nicer place to be , however if you grew up in dalkey it may aswell be chernobyl as far as youre concerned. A lot of it is really down to what you knew, Id wager that almost anyone saying ballymun / finglas etc.. isnt a bad area anymore would have grown up in that area or a similar area.

Ireland is also very much about where you were from before, somebody born in crumlin might have a grand time and never be bothered by the local anti social element because their ma used to go to school with your ma etc... a blow in with no local ties to the area (especially if its clear theyre not from around there ) will have a much harder times.

Objectively on paper by crime stats, deprivation index, unemployment stats and even insurance loadings on areas , the traditional ballymun, finglas, ballyfermot, crumlin etc.. are still worse for crime and anti social behaviour than the likes of ongar or new developments in swords that may be 'soulless' but are still safer.

I find an easy metric is count the number of bookies and pubs in a town, the more of them the worse it likely is. If you can visably see a probation office its likely not great either.

Doesnt mean youre going to get robbed every week, but paying double on the car insurance and having that pub you have to tell your teenage kids not to walk by at night might seem normal to some and a nightmare to others.

Judging by the OP asking , Im going to guess that they are used to areas where kids on scramblers, burned out cars and gangs of kids in hoodies riding round bikes at 2am are things theyve only heard about in papers, if you find that 'common' or are saying 'well it used to happen a lot more' then youre probably not living in / from the kind of area that the OP wants, so in the scope of thos thread, those are bad areas.

posy2010

I recently bought in Tallaght - however in Old Bawn. Your budget would not get you anything here so be careful on the generalities

Birneybau

No response from the 'middle class' op then

gmisk

Goose76 wrote: »

The village part of Ballyfermot closer to Inchicore/Chapelizod is very nice and settled - not one to avoid I would say.

Totally agree I have lived in Lally Road in lower ballyfermot for about 4 years, not one bit of bother great neighbours and lovely and quiet.

John_Rambo

I'm familiar with the North Bay area, I've bought and sold successfully and I'd predict solid growth in these two areas due to public transport DART, improving services, new builds with good infrastructure, mature buyers and the two areas being hemmed by good areas.

Portmarnock and Harmonstown.

Apartment dwelling might be the only option in Portmarnock, but you've got a beach and decent parklands.

Harmonstown isn't even listed on DAFT, but it's an area worth looking at.



https://www.daft.ie/dublin/apartments-for-sale/portmarnock/32-millbank-the-links-portmarnock-dublin-1949872/

wakka12

Birneybau wrote: »

No response from the 'middle class' op then

Ah lots of people call themselves middle class even when theyre not its no big deal, I guess more culturally middle class as in theyre not skangers or on the dole and have no major money problems

holliehobbie

We're the squeezed middle paying for everyone else!

khaldrogo

Birneybau wrote:

Not a chance, anywhere. And you've heard wrong about a lot of places you've been told to avoid

They mentioned 5 areas. I wouldn't buy a house in parts of any of them with your money.

Tallaght - there are some reasonable parts of Tallaght but there are also some really terrible places. I lived in Springfield.

Ballyfermot - unless you are from there or an area similar why would you want to live there. I know some really good people from there but even they say it.

Finglas - maybe if its close to Glasnevin area it might be ok.

Ballymun - a good friend of mine lives in Coultry Gardens. He's happy there. But he did grow up there. I wouldn't buy a house there myself.

Crumlin - depending on where in Crumlin this would be the best of the 5 mentioned. Equally though, there are some pretty rough parts


@OP - for your budget it's going to be a commuter town for you if you don't want to live in a rough part of Dublin.

khaldrogo

messy tessy wrote:

Is 'middle class' a thing? Genuinely have never heard anyone describe themselves as middle class.

University educated earning c.50k pa

khaldrogo

antodeco wrote:

Jesus, it seems that 50% of Dublin needs to be avoided according to this!

Probably closer to 70%

khaldrogo

I always laugh when these threads come about and people take offense to someone saying an area is not great.

It's subjective ffs! If you were born and raised in Foxrock then you probably wouldn't view Knocklyon as a particularly great area. Equally if you were born and raised in Darndale then Ballyfermot might be a good area to buy in for you.

If you like the area you grew up in great, but it may not stack up to the area another person grew up in and that's fine.

ongarboy

Goose76 wrote: »

Also I’d rather live in Ballyfermot or Crumlin than somewhere like Ongar or Swords, personally. The latter may be a tad “nicer” but are fairly soulless and still have their fair share of social problems, not to mention the distance from town.

Give me an older village with some character anyday. Plus proximity to town a huge plus.

As someone from Ongar (not originally of course but living there the last 13 years), I do agree with a lot of what you say (distance from city centre, some social problems, can be soulless but not necessarily more than any other part of Dublin) but would challenge some of it also. If OP has no roots to Dublin and wants somewhere to start a family and is affordable, then you could do a lot worse than places like Ongar or nearby Hansfield.

There are lots of new and nearly new families in the area and very active residents associations, tidy town volunteer groups, neighbourhood watch groups and family associations. There are community centre halls in place, street parties organized during the summer, Halloween and Christmas parties for the kids and neighbours to meet also. Train stations at Clonsilla and Hansfield and frequent bus connections. ( I get from Hansfield to IFSC in less than 30 minutes every morning by train - it used to take me the same time on the bus from Phibsboro to IFSC when I lived there) Numerous schools in the area and an extensive main street of shops, cafes, pub, supermarket.

Prices are a tad more affordable also than other areas too.