New home sale in Belmont, Stepaside, Dublin 18

abrahamb1111 · 23-08-2013 12:01am #1

Hi All

I wish to progress with a new house which is managed by Sherry FitzGerald New Homes. I have been told they are only accepting tockens only at the level of asking prices.

Let me know if any one has succeeded in getting a good bid ? Also kindly let me k now is it worth paying 345 K for a new house in belmont area ?

I have been told all the 2 beds gone and 1 3 bed semi detached is remaining.

Please PM me if you have any other information which can't be shared here.

Enduro · 23-08-2013 9:58am

I was at the viewing last weekend. Lots of people milling around. Probably every tyre kicker in Dublin was there. We were also told all the 2 beds were gone. I wouldn't be surprised if they were not negotiating prices but only accepting asking prices. It's up to you to decide if you think 345K is a good price for the property. Personally, I like the area for my own specific reasons, but these factors would be unusual. I'm sure most people would regard it as beiing a long way out from town. The build quality looks good to me, but I'm no expert. I've heard (but haven't checked) that you don't own the gardens or parking spaces, but have an exclusive liscence to use them, so they're closer to being an apartment style lease than a freehold. Don't buy expecting to be able to build a garage or an extension at some point in the future.

Gadfly Girl · 25-08-2013 12:20am

These were built at lightening speed, and there are already empty 2 and 3 bedroom properties available in the area through NAMA, including penthouses with sea views. I'd be inclined to advise you not to act too hastily and check out what else is available too.

Zaza22 · 25-08-2013 9:16am

We are thinking about buying a 3 or 4 bed house in this new development. Does anyone know anything about the developer - there is very little information online about New Gen homes.

All the west facing 3 bed houses with side driveways are sale agreed. Only 3 of the 8 north or NW facing 4 beds are sale agreed, and these are the ones with a side driveway. I wonder if the parking space arrangement is putting people off buying the remaining 4 beds, as those parking spaces are not directly beside the house and so visitors to the scheme could easily take them.

The 3 bed house seems to have the best layout downstairs, but not sure if the bedrooms on the second floor are adequate for our needs. I wonder if it would be possible to convert the attic in time?

NinjaTruncs · 25-08-2013 10:27am

I was speaking to one of the estate agents up there last week. The builders are "two young guys" from Wexford, apparently they are backed by a private investor. They bought the land from RBS and have made minor adjustments to the original plans approved by the previous developer, one of the main things is they now don't plan to build any apartment, it will be houses only.

There will be about 100 houses in total, with the next batch of houses to be released at the end of September. It's not expected that there will be any major changes to the layouts. As mentioned above they are leasehold, however the owner is responsible for the upkeep of all everything within their boundary, i.e. you need to maintain the little flower bed in front of your house as well as the exterior.

On the houses themselves, i was shocked at them, there isn't one house that I thought was well planned, except maybe the 2 bed which seemed the right sizes for a two bed house.

The three bed had the best downstairs, however there is no room for a kitchen table, and I'm not sure how suitable the island in the kitchen would be for eating dinner at. The living room was a good size, as long as you don't try to wedge a kitchen table into it. Upstairs the bedrooms were all too small, only having room for a bed and very little else and the bathroom was a joke, once one person was in there is was full, i'd imagine drying yourself after a shower/bath would be a challenge.

The four bed had the opposite problems to the three bed, downstairs was laughable, the kitchen couldn't take a table, even though the show house had one wedged into the corner, but only three people could sit at it. the oven door then opened directly onto the table which isn't idle. The living room was an OK size but not huge. The bedrooms upstairs was fine however there was no storage room anywhere.

Like the four beds the 3/4 bed was a joke downstairs, a tiny little living room and small kitchen, it would seriously help from having the area behind the carport extended into. Upstairs was imo the best of them all, but the downstairs living space was so bad nothing upstairs could help this layout, and it's no surprise none of these have been reserved yet. If the builders don't alter these layouts for the next phases they'd be foolish.

My wife was down at them yesterday and all 2 and 3 beds (with the exception of the 3 bed show house) are gone, 3 fours beds are reserved and none of the 3/4 were gone which isn't surprising giving the size of their downstairs. I sometimes wonder do these so called professional builds think of their target market when designing a house, rather than how many units can we squeeze in, a little more space downstairs in all house is all that is needed, well except the 3 bed which needs a bit more upstairs.

Stepaside is nice and relatively well located, but where Belmont is located has its issues, getting out will become tough in the mornings, the Enniskerry Road is already busy in the mornings, with the school almost directly across the road, the position of the exit is ridiculous with that steep hill, they'd have been better off flatting out the immediate bit of road at the lights and having the steep hill a bit further back, but that ship has sailed. There is still a lot of land in the Aikens Village/Belmont/Belarmyne area so the demand on that exit could be substantial in a few years. There is also plans to put a halting site into the green area on the right as you drive off the Enisskerry Road, however that may not happen. Even without any more apartments being built in the area is has become very over developed without the infrastructure put in place to cope with the demand.

NewRunnerRoy · 14-10-2013 10:17am

Hi NinjaTrunks,

Do you know where the proposed halting site is due to go in? Is there is any update on the likelihood on it going ahead?

Thanks

NinjaTruncs · 14-10-2013 1:51pm

It's supposed to be on the right hand side as you drive in toward Belmont. At the moment it's overgrown and surrounded by railings. There used to be a huge big sign up in the site saying it would be a halting site and contain more social housing.

I've no idea if it will go ahead. I recall someone saying that the potential residents of the site may not like that it is so overlooked from all the apartments surrounding the site. I recall someone saying that this site wasn't actually needed based on current demand for halting sites and that there were other sites in the borough which hadn't yet been filled, I'm not sure how true that is though.

Santa Cruz · 14-10-2013 5:41pm

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

It's supposed to be on the right hand side as you drive in toward Belmont. At the moment it's overgrown and surrounded by railings. There used to be a huge big sign up in the site saying it would be a halting site and contain more social housing.

I've no idea if it will go ahead. I recall someone saying that the potential residents of the site may not like that it is so overlooked from all the apartments surrounding the site. I recall someone saying that this site wasn't actually needed based on current demand for halting sites and that there were other sites in the borough which hadn't yet been filled, I'm not sure how true that is though.

Will you buy if there's a halting site there ?

NinjaTruncs · 14-10-2013 7:10pm

That wouldn't really put me off, there are halting sites all over the city close to developments.

I won't be buying in Belmont as the houses have ridiculously small living spaces, and that's from someone currently living in a two bed apartment. Building up isn't the solution to making houses bigger.

Enduro · 14-10-2013 10:42pm

From what I hear it is extremely unlikely that a halting site will be built there. Apparently the most recent proposal for using that land was as a school. But given that things apparently aren't going well in the newly moved private school across the road I would guess that that is also less likely now. Time will tell, but I don't think much will be happening on that land for a while.

Ninja, there are mostly totally different houses being built in phase 2 and 3. The small 3 beds with the reasonable living spaces and squashed bedrooms are still going up. However the "carport" 3/4 bed with attic conversion has changed. That now has the same reasonable downstairs as the smaller 3 beds (a bit better actually, with skylights in the living room on this version), with roughly the same layout of bedrooms on the first floor, but no attic rooms. So the best of both there, along with the carport, making it quite a good house (I've put a booking deposit on one). There are also a new design of semi-d 4 beds which seem very spacious. About 160sq.m. of space over 3 floors. Probably the best value there, at a smidgin under 400k. They sold like hotcakes for both phase 2 and 3. Two different designs of detached 4 beds in there as well, one of which looks to be quite well laid out (the other looks cramped on the plans to me... haven't actually seen the showhouses for those).

The main drawback for the 2nd and 3rd phase houses are that if you like to have a big garden, you're only going to get it with the detached 4 beds. All the rest still have small back gardens, and no front gardens. The only downside of the huge semi-d 4 beds is that they front directly onto the main access road for the development The upside of that though is that they will be facing the parkland (which can never be developed). All of Phase 2 and 3 will also be built with an air pump heating system and be BER A3.

There weren't too many houses left even in phase 3 by Sunday (I think they sold 24 over the weekend). Sherry's reckoned no more phases will be released this year

NewRunnerRoy · 18-10-2013 2:50pm

I agree that the best value was in the 3/4 beds with the 2nd living room looking over the park land. I would be very surprised if these did not jump up in the next phase in February.....they sold very quickly and there seems to be a waiting list if any sales fall through. I have a deposit on one of the 3/4beds at the front of the development which I am delighted with.

I like the area but I am nervous about the traffic in the morning. Can anyone living in the area comment on the rush hour traffic? I work in the Monkstown area so would be driving.

I hope that the infastructure around the area is developed in the coming years but this may just be a pipe dream.

copacetic · 18-10-2013 2:54pm

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

It's supposed to be on the right hand side as you drive in toward Belmont. At the moment it's overgrown and surrounded by railings. There used to be a huge big sign up in the site saying it would be a halting site and contain more social housing.

I've no idea if it will go ahead. I recall someone saying that the potential residents of the site may not like that it is so overlooked from all the apartments surrounding the site. I recall someone saying that this site wasn't actually needed based on current demand for halting sites and that there were other sites in the borough which hadn't yet been filled, I'm not sure how true that is though.

That's incorrect, the halting site was planned for enniskerry road south of the section you are talking about. It is in the small gap between the site you are talking about and the next development. It was supposed to be built in 2005/6/7 et etc.

NewRunnerRoy · 18-10-2013 3:08pm

I was talking with the DLRCC this week on this and Ninja is correct. They confirmed that the likelyhood of this going ahead is very slim as there was complaints that the proposed site was too exposed and over looked.

copacetic · 18-10-2013 3:33pm

Correct that it won't go ahead, incorrect on where it was to be. It was to be right over beside the park view development with an entrance on enniskerry road in a small 4 bay site. Which was later changed to be a 4 house site, rather than halting site.

The large site on the right as you go toward Belmont was supposed to be for affordable/social housing, but this also appears to have been overtaken by private builds in belarmine becoming available for that purpose.

NewRunnerRoy · 18-10-2013 3:39pm

copacetic wrote: »

Correct that it won't go ahead, incorrect on where it was to be. It was to be right over beside the park view development with an entrance on enniskerry road in a small 5 bay site.

The large site on the right as you go toward Belmont was supposed to be for affordable housing.

Fair enough, I have obviously been misinformed by the DLRCC section that deals with this. I suppose it makes minimal difference as it is more than likely not going ahead.

copacetic · 18-10-2013 3:44pm

The sign used to be up right at the intersection of park view and the overgrown site, where the steam runs under the road and down the hill. It was specifically put up as there were a lot of complaints and mix ups over where the proposed site was, as above some people thought it was the massive site indicated above which would be enough room for a 100 bay site!

If you go by on the enniskerry road you can see the outline of the site as it was proposed, or if you look on google maps you can see the outline of the triangular site on the sat image. Right where the stream is opposite fernhill gardens.

Edit - and to top it off if you open street view the sign is still in their image!

Enduro · 18-10-2013 4:22pm

NewRunnerRoy wrote: »

I agree that the best value was in the 3/4 beds with the 2nd living room looking over the park land. I would be very surprised if these did not jump up in the next phase in February.....they sold very quickly and there seems to be a waiting list if any sales fall through. I have a deposit on one of the 3/4beds at the front of the development which I am delighted with.

I like the area but I am nervous about the traffic in the morning. Can anyone living in the area comment on the rush hour traffic? I work in the Monkstown area so would be driving.

I hope that the infastructure around the area is developed in the coming years but this may just be a pipe dream.

We might be near neighbours some time next year then. Did you get one of the "Laragh"s or one of the "Derrybawn"s then?

Traffic in and out onto the Enniskerry road is generally no big deal in the mornings in my (passenger) experience. It's the Enniskerry road itself, and then the routes in the Sandyford area that seem to be worse. There are absolutely no traffic problems if you cycle though!

NewRunnerRoy · 18-10-2013 5:23pm

Enduro wrote: »

We might be near neighbours some time next year then. Did you get one of the "Laragh"s or one of the "Derrybawn"s then?

Traffic in and out onto the Enniskerry road is generally no big deal in the mornings in my (passenger) experience. It's the Enniskerry road itself, and then the routes in the Sandyford area that seem to be worse. There are absolutely no traffic problems if you cycle though!

Thanks for that.... that's great news, you can give me a backer on your bike in the mornings so?

.

We have a deposit on one of the Derrybawn's. I don't think there are any completion dates set with these but we were told that the completions were based on how quick the contracts are signed. I can't see us being in before January. Our current lease is up in February so we have a bit of a safety net there.

From what I saw most of the deposits being given over the last 2 weekends have been by young couples and families which is a good sign. There didn't appear to be too many people after investment properties. It's great that there will be a lot of new people moving in around the same time. I hearby designate you as the official moving in party planner for the area!

NinjaTruncs · 18-10-2013 7:01pm

NewRunnerRoy wrote: »

I agree that the best value was in the 3/4 beds with the 2nd living room looking over the park land. I would be very surprised if these did not jump up in the next phase in February.....they sold very quickly and there seems to be a waiting list if any sales fall through. I have a deposit on one of the 3/4beds at the front of the development which I am delighted with.

I like the area but I am nervous about the traffic in the morning. Can anyone living in the area comment on the rush hour traffic? I work in the Monkstown area so would be driving.

I hope that the infastructure around the area is developed in the coming years but this may just be a pipe dream.

If you're going to Monkstown traffic could be bad enough, I go the other way (through the village) and traffic is light enough however my wife needs to go down Enniskerry Road and is always complaining about the traffic, either at the school or further down at the mint but you probably won't go that far down. Leopardstown can be a nightmare also, it could be best for you to go through the village, down Glenamuch road onto the N11.

The prices probably will go up a bit but I'd be surprised if they went up much, my main basis on that belief is Belmont is targeted at the right price point for the target demographic, making them another 10K or 20K dearer puts them into the price Rathfarnham 3 beds are going for and given the choice I'd be buying in Rathfarnham.

I must go down again this weekend and take a look at the second phase units, the main thing putting me off buying from the first phase was the small living space downstairs, if they've corrected they would suit us perfectly.

copacetic wrote: »

That's incorrect, the halting site was planned for enniskerry road south of the section you are talking about. It is in the small gap between the site you are talking about and the next development. It was supposed to be built in 2005/6/7 et etc.

A bit of perspective here, we're talking about the exact same plot of land, you've described a corner of the plot not 200 yards from belmont you'd swear I said it was in Tallaght with your reaction.

copacetic · 19-10-2013 1:03pm

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

A bit of perspective here, we're talking about the exact same plot of land, you've described a corner of the plot not 200 yards from belmont you'd swear I said it was in Tallaght with your reaction.

What reaction? I just said it was incorrect?

abrahamb1111 · 28-10-2013 12:20pm

I have booked a 3 bed room semi and paid deposit planning to move in by december 2013. The inner space seems to be ok for the price in south Dublin. Looks like all sold out now may be there will be new houses in the next phase.

NewRunnerRoy · 29-10-2013 2:18pm

Congrats abrahamb. We are hoping to move in late January as current lease runs until then. I was told that the homes where contracts have been signed are priortised and usually completed within 2/3 weeks. I'm hoping that there won't be a huge amount of disrutpion from the ongoing building as they are opening up a new access point for machinery further down the road. If the plans are anything to go by the development will be very nice upon its completion so hopefully they get moving in 2014 and get the majority of it finished! Has anyone heard anything about a service charge for the houses? Sherry fitz have told me it is estimated at €100 p.a

abrahamb1111 · 30-10-2013 12:02am

Thanks NewRunnerRoy.

My solicitor also given the estimated service charges which is about 100 P.A; my solicitor is still verifying the details on this further. I heard that all the new houses also got booked. Sherry told me that there are few families moved in already which is unbelievable but nice they did. Sherry told me that the house will be ready in 2-3 weeks time upon deposit payment.

Anyone knows knows about the list of emergency work we need to do in the house before we move in ? I know tiling rooms one of them ; do you know any other list of items ? If any one knows a good tiler or suggestions please let me know.

NewRunnerRoy · 30-10-2013 10:47am

That's mad how people have moved in all ready. When I was up there last week the entrance was still blocked off and I would imagine the dust and noise levels are very high. Luckily my current lease does not run out until early Feb so we will have a bit of time to figure out how we want to decorate and can take advantage of the January sales.

I'm not 100% sure what work has to be done TBH. I think the bathrooms come tiled but not quite sure what needs to be sorted with the kitchen. I will be looking to put some carpet on the hall stairs and landings relatively early on but other than that it will be a wait and see exercise where we will decide when we get the keys what we want to do.

Did you get the DFS vouchers? 10 coupons where if you spend over €160 per item you get €40 off, I know in the grand scheme of thinks its not major but advertising it as a €400 voucher is a bit rich.

Also I will need to get a house alarm sorted asap. Are you going to get an engineer to check the place over before moving in?

_Kaiser_ · 30-10-2013 1:03pm

If this is the estate I'm thinking of (just beside the Belarmine complex) then they were built ridiculously fast and I'd be concerned about quality, insulation and what not, and from the sounds of the reviews above, the living spaces/parking arrangements would be a concern too.

Traffic in/out of there is a mess in the mornings too unless you're leaving around 7/7:30 as everyone tries to get out onto the same road.

On a more general note, the fact that despite this, and other uncertainties highlighted by people above, they're being snapped up shows that we're all just itching to "get on the property ladder" again, and so the cycle begins again.

NewRunnerRoy · 30-10-2013 2:20pm

While the houses have been built quickly I don't feel this is necessarily a bad thing. I have family who are developers and had them take a look at the show houses, they said they they were build to a very high standard with excellent finishing and a great BER. That being said I will be getting an engineer in to inspect the property just for my own peace of mind.

The uncertainty around a small area of kitchen that may of may not be tiled makes very little difference to me as I have a family member who is a tiler and will do the work to the highest of standards for a few pints.

NinjaTruncs · 30-10-2013 2:24pm

The Kitchen is tiled, not sure about the rest though, i.e. bathrooms, en-suites and utility.

strandroad · 30-10-2013 3:22pm

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Traffic in/out of there is a mess in the mornings too unless you're leaving around 7/7:30 as everyone tries to get out onto the same road.

I know this area and I am puzzled as to how they want to accommodate extra traffic from 250-300 houses, mostly families/employed demographics. Does not compute? Are there any new roads planned?

Jared20130204 · 19-11-2013 10:11pm

Hi, has anyone had any issues with contracts and their solicitors suggesting title deed issues may be a problem?

nakom · 19-11-2013 11:45pm

Jared20130204 wrote: »

Hi, has anyone had any issues with contracts and their solicitors suggesting title deed issues may be a problem?

Yep, got same concerns from my solicitor. Waiting for an answer from their solicitor to the questions arised.

abrahamb1111 · 20-11-2013 8:00am

Dear All

I have been informed that the house which i have taken is ready to be snagged from this week beginning however the agent keeps on changing the dates. I was wondering any one has done the snag list ?

Looks like they are constructing houses super fast and bit concerned about the quality as they are changing dates.

My solicitor did not point any issues with title deeds ; however i have requested additional clarification about my drive way which looks different to the maps and in reality. if you know any specific details about the deeds please PM so that i can request more information from my solicitor too.

New home sale in Belmont, Stepaside, Dublin 18

Comments