Melville / Lanesborough

ITGirl33

Hi All, I am looking to purchase a house in Melville / Lanesbourough / Cityside area. Can you let me know a bit about the area? I've lived in various parts of dublin over the years and am currently in Santry.

I naturally have a lot of questions and would love if anyone can assist in any of the answers. The houses seem to be nicely built and are within our affordable range at the moment.
Is there much anti-social behaviour or are the areas safe enough at night?
Does the area feel a bit isolated at all? I only ask this as I read it in an old post somewhere.
Any problems with the internals of the properties, ie poor ventilation / Drainage / roof issues etc.
Are the houses mostly rented or owner occupied?
Is there much recreating facilities in the area? I have been in the charlestown shopping centre a few times, is there plans for a cinema too?
Are there problems with debtors to management companies? Problems with Managing agents? I read somewhere that sales have fallen through in Melville due to common ares not being conveyed as the original developer is a director and can't be contacted. This wouldn't bother me as it can be sorted in the long term, however I'd not like to buy into somewhere that a big legal fee will be landed on all the owners. Are there any problems with parking? Can you park a commercial vehicle in the area? My partner is a van driver and when I lived in an apartment block before, no commercial vehicles were allowed.
Any help is really greatly appreciated. Thanks

odds_on

ITGirl33 wrote: »

Hi All, I am looking to purchase a house in Melville / Lanesbourough / Cityside area. Can you let me know a bit about the area? I've lived in various parts of dublin over the years and am currently in Santry.

I naturally have a lot of questions and would love if anyone can assist in any of the answers. The houses seem to be nicely built and are within our affordable range at the moment.
Is there much anti-social behaviour or are the areas safe enough at night?
Does the area feel a bit isolated at all? I only ask this as I read it in an old post somewhere.
Any problems with the internals of the properties, ie poor ventilation / Drainage / roof issues etc.
Are the houses mostly rented or owner occupied?
Is there much recreating facilities in the area? I have been in the charlestown shopping centre a few times, is there plans for a cinema too?
Are there problems with debtors to management companies? Problems with Managing agents? I read somewhere that sales have fallen through in Melville due to common ares not being conveyed as the original developer is a director and can't be contacted. This wouldn't bother me as it can be sorted in the long term, however I'd not like to buy into somewhere that a big legal fee will be landed on all the owners. Are there any problems with parking? Can you park a commercial vehicle in the area? My partner is a van driver and when I lived in an apartment block before, no commercial vehicles were allowed.
Any help is really greatly appreciated. Thanks

Get the name of the management company from the EA (they probably don't have it and will have to get it) and check their accounts. You can get some basic details on-line or pay a small charge for more detailed accounts. Check that there is a sinking fund and that the company has some cash in hand. If there is no sinking fund or it is very small, then IMHO, steer well clear.

Many complexes have a clause in the owner's contract (and in the management companies rules that no commercial vehicles are permitted while others will allow vehicles under 2.5 tons.

I am somewhat confused by your location request "Melville / Lanesbourough / Cityside area". I know of a Melville near Longford Town, Lanesborough is not that far away but Cityside probably refers to somewhere in Dublin and as you Santry, I am confused.

ITGirl33

Hi Odds_on, thanks for the reply. I was referring to the Melville/Lanesborough/Cityside area in Finglas, Dublin 11.

odds_on wrote: »

I am somewhat confused by your location request "Melville / Lanesbourough / Cityside area". I know of a Melville near Longford Town, Lanesborough is not that far away but Cityside probably refers to somewhere in Dublin and as you Santry, I am confused.

odds_on

OK, Sorry, I haven't lived in Dublin for over 20 years and seldom go there as I hate the "modern" city. Thus, I don't know the new areas.

dinnyirwin

Personally, I would never buy anywhere near where you are talking about.

Take a trip up there about 9pm this evening and walk from the house you are interested in down to the village center (either one of them) and back and then ask yourself are you really interesting in buying there.

tigershould

My sister bought in Cityside over 8-9 years ago. It's a very large 3 bed Dulles. She loves the area, has never had any problems with neighbours or locally. There are teens hanging around in the evenings near the shops but they've caused any problems except for what normal kids get up to.

It is 15-20mins (€20) taxi into
City centre, you're close to the M50, airport - so I wouldn't call it isolated.

It's well served for amenities (spar, chipper, Chinese, pharmacy, beauticians all opposite the deputy mayor pub - then you have Charlestown with dunnes, lido/aldi are round the corner and tescos down the road). The cinema is under construction and there are 24hr McDonald/KFC on the site.

There a big park with a football and cricket pitxh. Poppin tree park is down the road too. There are a couple of astro pitches within walking distance.

Finglas village is a little run down IMO but my sister would never drink or go out in it. It has a new swimming pool, Northwood gym is 10 mins down the road.

It's fairly well served by busses to Charlestown and ikea.

I know in Cityside there are issues with the conveyance as you describe. Each property has it's own car parking and there are limited visitor spaces (which you need a pass for) there's no issues with conmercial vans.

my sister walks from Cityside into the village almost every night (when it dark) as part of her daily exercise without any fear or anti social behaviour.

Its a decent area IMO.

Muahahaha

If you search there are a few threads on the area, at least one here and another in the Dublin city forum

I've lived in the area for four years now. You will come across some low level crime like burglaries, etc but no worse that most areas IMO. The cinema is built but still hasn't opened, they're saying "Spring 2014" which I suppose means it should be open now but it hasn't happened.

For me it is a reasonably safe area, there are a lot of kids just coming to teenage years so how well their parents have a grip on them could dictate things in the area down the line.

Price wise it's a good location for the money. I've seen 2 bed apartments in the area sell for €75,000 which is a bargain IMO. The area kinda suffers from the Finglas reputation but it doesn't really have anything to warrant it. As a result property prices in the area are low enough to suggest that the place is rough when it really isn't.

Personally I like the area but I don't love it. There's good transport links and you can also be on the m50 within 5 minutes. The shopping center is nothing to write home about but it does have all the everyday items you need. I never really go down to Finglas village as everything is in the shopping center, the only exception being the post office is down in the village though the shopping center does have a postal machine. I don't really bother with the Deputy Mayor pub- I'm not really into watching middle aged women sing karaoke so it's not my scene. The Eurospar is one of the dearest I've ever come across so I avoid it except for the occasional emergency, luckily the Dunnes in the shopping center is close by so you can easily avoid Spars rip off prices.

If I was buying in the area I'd try for a location as close as possible to the shopping center, there's some nice places overlooking the park at the back of the Eurospar that are nice and close to bus stops and only a 5 minute walk to the Dunnes in the shopping center.

ITGirl33

dinnyirwin wrote: »

Personally, I would never buy anywhere near where you are talking about.

Take a trip up there about 9pm this evening and walk from the house you are interested in down to the village center (either one of them) and back and then ask yourself are you really interesting in buying there.

Thanks for the post Dinny, I have done that and it seems ok. The houses we've seen for sale in this area tick the boxes, it's just the area I have a concern about as I'm not hugely familiar with it.

SarahLil

ITGirl I am born and bread in Finglas 30 years, I have been living in Cityside the past 5 years also, there is good and bad everywhere, its not where you live its how you live, regarding burglary's, muggings, theft that happens everywhere you just have to listen to Joe Duffy radio show they were only talking about muggings in Ranelagh area today and asking people to be aware. As one of the other posters said check out the management company see how there finances look regarding sinking fund etc, check your rights to parking etc, parking spot

I walk for exercise 3 - 4 nights a week from 7 pm - 8.30 pm onwards and have always felt safe, there does be lots of people out jogging and walking

There are lots of pros to that area, great bus route, great community spirit you just have to look at how the locals all searched for Late Peggy Mangan, choice of 2 gyms Northwood and the Dublin City Council gym with pool and astro turfs on Mellows Road, you have Peter Marks in Finglas Village, House of Colour in Charlestown lots of other hair dressers around and barbers, Burger King on the Finglas Road down by Tesco, McDonalds, KFC, McCaris chip shop, some nice Chinese takeaways, I could go on,

If you need to know anything else pm me, best of luck