North Circular Road

evorg

Hey, I am thinking about buying a house on North Circular Road. There are lovely red bricks (in need of renovation) for 1/3 price you would pay on the South side. It seems a lot of Landllords are selling their houses, so I am hoping that in the long term it would become a safer nicer place to live as more people buy to live there.

I'd appreciate comments from anyone who is living there or has lived there in the past.

thanks,

hfallada

NCR is an extremely long road and runs from quite upper middle class areas to what some would call a ghetto if it was in America. I didnt mind walking/living in a rough neighborhood. But I almost died when I seen the "housing" on the last few stops of the 46a at the Phoenix Park.

There is no doubt that NCR will become more family friendly as landlord sell due to banks forcing them to and changes to PRE 63 laws. Forget about the area being unsafe though, think about the schools. I imagine you will have to send your Children to private schools like most of Glasnevin/Drumcondra do due to lack of good secondary schools. But colleges of TCD, DCU and UCD are all pretty close by.

But I dont think the area will become any safer as the issues isnt with the people living on the NCR. Its the other housing around it that is the issue. If I were you, I would look at Drumcondra. The houses are large(not as large as NCR), its a very safe area, the primary schools are excellent and the houses are also quite cheap(most LLs are having their houses repossessed. Drumcondra village has improved with more modern shops and cafes. There is a sense of community which you probably wont find on the NCR.

amtc

Depends which end of the NCR, honestly. I wouldn't house a dog in part of it but some is nice. Stay away from the Park end and the Croke Park end, but the rest is grand.

david75

Honestly OP, there is no 'nice' part of the NCR. there's simply degrees of terrible. Some not as terrible as others but still terrible.
Avoid it at all costs. You'll never have a moments peace if you live there nor a moments peace if you had tenants.
Honestly a sh!thole the whole way.
Ironically there are loads of nice streets just off it, in a good few places. Rathdown road comes straight to mind But the NCR itself I think you'd regret it.

ElleWest

North Circular Road has worse reputation than it truly deserves. Its great value in the current market has been totally masked.

We recently bought in the location after having been house hunting for 2 years. We wanted a big enough house (150sq mtr) with charm, near enough to the city centre and a reasonable size garden.

North Circular Road property offered us: nearly 200 sq mtr, easy access to the city centre and Phoenix park and a back garden big enough to build another house in. What’s more is the possibility to rent out 1 room with separate access if we ever needed some help to repay the mortgage.

The price we paid? – Well, put it this way, the amount we paid won’t be enough to buy a small done-up 3 bed-semi in Phibsborough.

Yes, the area can be dodgy. If you are happy to buy in Stoneybatter there’s no reason why you won’t be happy with NCR as they are not much dearer at the moment.

There are lot of changes taking place in the area, DIT Campus, changing of owners on the NCR, possible O'devaney gardens regeneration etc. It’s difficult to say how the area will turn out, but if more people realise the value on the road at the moment it will definitely be a better place. Those houses are just full of character.

The off-putting bit is the renovation. Most of houses are in need of totally renovation. Otherwise, if you are a permanent northsider like us there’s no reason to turn a blind eye to such good deals.