Irish Property Market chat II - *read mod note post #1 before posting*

it’s what attracts the bidders that’s important.

Spot on, have a read of this completely botched HSE IT upgrade…essentially they went with the cheapest supplier and got what they paid for.

Then you have the children's hospital, the complete opposite with new cheques been written out every month.

I dont know if the guy who was getting 420k was worth it or not, but, 420k is nothing in the context of the billions we are spending, and if these jobs were done right we'd be saving multiples of this anyway.

The opposition jumping up and down on something minor like this rather than focusing on putting forward their alternative suggestions makes me sick.

Private second hand home is going to be more achievable than a new build, when the govt are frequently buying/renting new builds because they aren"t building social homes themselves.

Location - every single time unless there's significant work needed on the better located house.

Energy ratings are a bit of a con job in reality - and you'd be surprised how many issues you can have with a new A rated house that you won't have with an older house - particularily given some of the horror stories around how some building work is now done and the relative "unproven-ness" of some of the methods/technologies used over time. (People will argue with this opinon, thats fine)

Older houses can be made more energy efficient and if that is the only thing that concerns you, I'd be going for location all day long.

Depending on your circumstances - being close to a school (national/secondary/ideally both) is massivily important if you have or are planning to have kids. It's something you sometimes only really appreciate when you have kids but it's massive. This is one tick box in relation to location. You'll be ferrying kids to and from school for 8 - 15 years each or relying on public transport, be great if they could walk or cycle…….what kind of premium would you pay on this? You'd heat/retrofit a house with the money and time/hassle you'd save on transport in the first few years or pump a lot of oil into the house to have it toasty all winter long, and be doing your bit for the environment!

Same for closeness to work, ability to walk to shops/pubs/restaurants - obviously the house may not tick all the boxes location wise.

Not much point having a cheap to heat house if you have a 700KM - 1000KM commute every week or similiar.

Never mind the actual matureness of the estate (lack of management fees etc, larger green areas, larger house plots) that you often find in older and generally better located estates.

The reality is any new estate is going to contain some level of "social" housing (general) - this isn't necessarily a bad thing. There can be "social" housing in mature older estates also, either on rental scheme or indeed houses bought by the council - again not necessarily a bad thing.

I don't know the specifics at all so please disregard but the views will get old very quickly while the additional driving time will be a constant and if anything with further new developments in the area might only increase. If access to public transport isn't great, that's even more of an issue. Lucan (as far as I am aware is fairly well served by busses and there are several schools near the village, all with decent pedestrian and cycle infrastructure to them (just from memory) but that may be the case in the new area you are going to also.

The school thing would be significant for me generally but maybe not as important for others.