New home sale in Belmont, Stepaside, Dublin 18

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

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

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

With reference to the last few posts but as a general point more so...

Why on earth are you still proceeding with it at all with so many potentially fatal flaws in the paperwork? I certainly wouldn't be trusting banks and estate agencies/builders that "ah it'll be grand!".
Fair play to the solicitors though for pointing out the gaping holes that some have spotted!

It's already been noted that this seems to be being done in the "celtic tiger" mindset and yet people are still willing to hand over money/get into debt for it?

Have we REALLY learned nothing from the last 5/6 years??

Well, in our case we definitely won't be proceeding unless our own solicitor is satisfied. So we definitely won't be succumbing to any celtic tiger mindset. Our own soicitor has been doing a very good job of looking after our interests.

I agree absolutely with the thrust of your point. I'm one of the people who had no problem avoiding falling for the bubble mentality the first time round. I certainly don't intend to fall for similar crap now. Unfortunately we both know that there are fools around (who somehow still have access to money) that are capable of falling for the same old crap again.

abrahamb1111 wrote: »

Friends, i have been invited today for a snag and the site was totally disappointing. The house was not even ready for animal shelter. The quality of fixtures are really horrifying. I see rushed job everywhere ; i was covered in dust and mud in 10 seconds. The foreman was optimistic and could not see nothing wrong as he know wiring was not complete, no water in taps etc.. but still;; called me for snag list ? i do know why ? I also see lots of building materials left everywhere in all rooms. The main door is still locked and had to access the house through a muddy path way.

I am seriously thinking about pulling out from the deal as house is not even worth 1/3 of the money which we need to pay.

Go with your gut. Don't make the same mistakes so many other people did not even 10 years ago and get stuck with a sub-standard overpriced noose around your neck.

There'll be other houses.

shoutman wrote: »

Finally, I don't know if you were looking to get the house with a mortgage or not, but if it was with a mortgage, there is no way a bank would give it to you if they did not feel the house was up to scratch (i.e. worth the money you are paying for it.)

I suppose like anything though, don't sign off and buy it unless you are happy with what you are getting, I just think backing out over the state of an unfinished house seems like something you might regret in the future.

Just my two cents.

I'd argue (and not against you personally) that it's this NEED to believe that "it'll all work out in the end" that is a big part of the problem. Our NEED to own property has resulted in thousands of sub-standard, poor-quality, badly laid-out over-priced shoe boxes that people are now stuck with. I live/work in the area in question myself and the facilities (roads, shops, entertainment etc) are poor for what's there now, never mind another 200/300 houses.

By all means buy a house/apartment if you can (sustainably) afford it.. but don't settle for less just because you're afraid of not getting on the property ladder.

shoutman wrote: »

Finally, I don't know if you were looking to get the house with a mortgage or not, but if it was with a mortgage, there is no way a bank would give it to you if they did not feel the house was up to scratch (i.e. worth the money you are paying for it.)

Yes they will as that's how they've always operated. Ultimately you are responsible for the decision here and the debt you'll be saddled with . I find it quite astounding that this kind of thinking still exists after everything we've been through. It seems some of us have learned nothing.

shoutman wrote: »

I suppose like anything though, don't sign off and buy it unless you are happy with what you are getting, I just think backing out over the state of an unfinished house seems like something you might regret in the future.

The majority of posts on this thread appear to be people really excited about getting on the ladder and trying to justify the numerous faults, issues, poor attitude from the developer etc.

If I was parting with this kind of money I would expect much much better and would have walked away from this debacle weeks ago.

The key indicator here is the developers attitude towards their customers. If they have so little respect now, how do you think they'll respond when you have issues in 6 months or a years time.

Quick build high density housing is no different now then it was in 2007. Genuinely can't believe we've learned so little.