Investment property

gaeilgegrinds

With the new bub on the way my partner in crime has decided we need an investment property. Have found a lovely one in Laurel Park. Know the area quite well but a friend told me it's gotten quite rough. It seems squashed between two very different areas. Know people in Dangan & that's grand but not sure on the other side. Any Galwegians who can shed some up to date knowledge on that? Seems a good area regarding location though as it's right near the hospital & college. Thanks

PopeBuckfastXVI

OK I know it's not your question, but is now the best time to buy? House prices are currently dropping, you don't want to buy in at the top surely?

Have a read of the below forums, they're pretty much 100% negative sentiment, but it's good to see both sides of the story (assuming you have been hearing only positive things about the market).

http://www.thepropertypin.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=4&sid=886f4c4234feb1526d3925fc2ae63b24

http://www.thepropertypin.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=10&sid=886f4c4234feb1526d3925fc2ae63b24

gaeilgegrinds

We plan on buying in about 3 months, assured we can secure it then with a higher offer than the current buyers. Know the auctioneer. Basically I don't think they'll come down that much, maybe a few grand. From what I've heard anyway but thanks for your input.

JohnCleary

Laurel Park is fine, but is a mix of a mix. Lot's of families, and a few pikey's. I've often left my car up there, no probs. Often walked through there drunk late at night, no problems. Nearly all families down the front of the estate, few of the rouger crowd up the back.

Pretty much guaranteed rent there, very popular with students

gaeilgegrinds

Well we wouldn't be looking to rent to students, medical personal preferably. It's right down the front so should be ok then?

scitpo

Galway must be one of the worst places in the world to invest in property.

It has the highest per income prices in Ireland. It has far lower rental yields than Dublin.

Plus the whole property market in Ireland has started a major decline.

But yeah go on invest in the place and you can tell everyboyd at dinner partys how you are a shrewd property investor like the rest of the 30-40 year old gombeens in Ireland.

Amazotheamazing

No need to be offensive Scitpo, even if you are right.

The apartments facing the docks have dropped prices considerably in recent months, I wouldn't buy anywhere in Galway at the minute.

That being said, the OP clearly has a long term investment in mind, and if we're talking in terms of 20+ years it would be a good (though not a great) investment.

biko

An area that is considered rough at the moment can turn into a nice family estate in 5-10 years time, or the other way around. Run-down area often gets the councils attention and gets funding and whatnot to get them back in shape again. Westside also has the shops close by.

It is always a bit of a gamble.

gaeilgegrinds

Scitpo who ever said anything about dinner parties? It's an investment for our baby, surely we can not be blamed for trying. Thanks for all the advice, think we'll go for it!

paulie.walnuts

Without meaning to be offensive or snide in anyway to the OP do you read the papers or watch tv/listen to radio? Property prices have fallen for four months in a row now (ESRI reports) and there is no sign of this doing anything but getting worse over the next couple of years. You say you think prices will drop a couple of grand, well they have lost on average 8 grand in six months already this year http://www.rte.ie/business/2007/0810/houses.html
These drops are based on very low sales volumes so most likely hiding the real crash that's underway.

If you do it it's a terrible investment decision (imo) and i am saying that in a totally detatched way so you can take it or leave it. It's akin to a pyramid scheme and if you buy now you're going to be the one left holding the baby (no pun intended). I have no vested interest unlike the EA that you know.
Anyways I wish you the best of luck in whatever you do but please do some research so you don't leave yourself in negative equity the day you turn the key in the door, and it is happening already. http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=60966

If you absolutely have to buy a house then make sure and haggle as it's a sellers market if nothing else. I would low ball the seller by 10-15% and if they don't play ball, walk. Loads of properties for sale out there and you will hit one that works after a while.
Good luck with the new arrival too!

Amazotheamazing

Prices are dropping faster in Galway too, for the reasons mentioned by scitpo above.

But like I said, if it's a long term thing, your house will appreciate over time, might take a few years, might happen sooner.

One thing though, there is no such thing as guaranteed rents. You have very specific type of tenant in mind, have you any evidence that they actually want to live there? Medical personal have the wages to be picky about where they live, and Galway being so small means nowhere is really that far away from the hospital.

mikemac

gaeilgegrinds wrote:

Well we wouldn't be looking to rent to students,

You don't want to rent to students and fair enough, that's your choice.
But you're ruling out a huge portion of potential tenants.
This is even more important in Galway than Cork or Limerick for example as students make up such a high percentage of the population

This is going to end in tears.

scitpo

It's an investment for our baby

Put your money in a long term savings account or in some sort of bond scheme. your interest repayments are going to be far more than the rent you will recieve with every chance your property will lose 10% of its value in the next few years. Great way to lose some money fast. And then theres the whole hassle of owning a property and letting it. Having people ring you to fix stuff. Getting bad tennants which is inevitable if you plan on buying where you are. Why would good tennants want to live there when theres lots of much better areas to rent in.

I just think its crazy that when you have a child on the way that you want to invest in property. The exact time when your finances and time requirments will be stretched.

If I sound a bit harsh and condascending its because this sort of blind optimism and clueless investing has had a large part to play in the massive problems in the Irish property market.

You Suck!

The build quality up in laurel park ain't so hot either, so chances are you'd have to fork out for renovation or rebuild at some point down the line. Also do you mean investment as in get a mortgage and have the rent pay it off, or do you have the cash?

If ya have the cash, find an alternative such as saving, bonds or something relitively safe, such that when prices do reach the bottom you will be in a much better position to place that money in property. Also try and go for quality because IMHO prices in this country do not actually reflect what you are actually getting. I've seen the worst crap ever sold for good money in this country, not to mention the blazen cheek of some renters and shítholes they try to push.

gaeilgegrinds

Where would be better quality? Heard they were very well built so now I'm all confused!

biko

You Suck! wrote:

The build quality up in laurel park ain't so hot either, so chances are you'd have to fork out for renovation or rebuild at some point down the line.

Do you have a link or some support for this claim? Personal experience?

JohnCleary

biko wrote:

Do you have a link or some support for this claim? Personal experience?

The upstairs are timber flooring anyhow, not concrete. You can hear everything going on upstairs, downstairs. However I presume this was standard for houses built around that time

paulie.walnuts

My parents house has the same deal with timber flooring and is from around the same period as those houses. It's very very annoying and from anywhere in the house you can tell who is upstairs and what they're doing. Very difficult to sneak in late with a feed of pints in you when you're a young fella!
Think the OP is ignoring any finanical advice which is fair enough as the orignial question was relating to the area, not finance. The best of luck to them hope it all works out.

gaeilgegrinds

Thanks for the advice, wanted more info on the area but thanks for the advice all the same.

You Suck!

Do you have a link or some support for this claim? Personal experience?

Some experiance having seen the places myself, and also that I sometimes have worked for an engineers in the past. Most houses conform to the building practices of the decade they were built in, and as such you will see different levels of quality. Afaik, (and this is imho) estates such as laurel, castleview heights and ballyban were built late 70's to the early 80s, when there wasnt exactly a plethora of money to be throw at developments. As such you have features such as timber floors and single block partitions which makes for poor sound insulation, not to mention heat insulation. Other things which may also be lacking in these places would be poor insulation, windows and doors. Kitchens unless upgraded since would also be very poor.

But the clincher about the Irish market is that you are very often expected to pay the same for one of these old houses as you might in a new development, or even if the new developement is more expensive, it still represents a huge improvement in terms of value for your money.

These are just my opinons based on what I have seen, so if your looking for stats and such, sorry, I ain't the cso

You Suck!

gaeilgegrinds wrote:

Thanks for the advice, wanted more info on the area but thanks for the advice all the same.

Its next to nuig, will be guaranteed student rents from here until eternity, is fairly peaceful from what Ive seen over the years.