Buying a house on Clonliffe Road

coffeecup1980

Hi there,my boyfriend and I and I are buying a house. We have viewed two on clonliffe road just off drumcondra,Dublin. They are half way down. We,well more so him are aware of ballybough being at the bottom of that road or around the corner.
I know the drumcondra end is absolutely fine. Would anyone know a bit more about around here? Also we need to factor in croke park and decide if we can live beside it. The concerts arnt a problem as I think there are only three a year. However,the games are obviously on all summer.
We are first time buyers. The estate agent told Us Ballybough in a few years will be fine. We just don't want to buy the house and be stuck beside an area with anti social behaviour and fear of walking at night around the road!

Thanks in advance for any advice. ☺️

Jen44

Ive never lived there but to be honest just from driving through on my way to town i wouldn't want to. There is always dodgy looking individuals going around ballybough. I wouldn't trust an estate agent telling you it will be fine in a few years its been an area with anti social behavior for many years now. But then i dont live there so its just my opinion based on what i see. I always lock my car doors when driving through there and into summerhill

drunkmonkey

Clonliffe Road is fine I wouldn't worry to much about it if your getting good value, it's a good location and handy for town and a lot of other places.
One thing that might annoy you is match days and concerts you can still drive to your house as the Garda station will give you a car pass, some people might not like that and other people will love the convenience.
Never once felt thretened in the area

alastair

As already said, Clonliffe road is grand. More to the point, most of Ballybough is fine too. It might be a bit gritty looking in spots, but there's increasing gentrification too, and if you try and establish why it scares some, you arrive at very little of substance these days. The anti-social activity is generally in easily identified locations, and easy enough to avoid.

Match days that are a major inconvenience are limited too - many of the earlier summer matches are smaller crowd numbers, and the road closures - specifically Clonliffe road, are shorter, or don't happen at all (if you've a residents pass). It really only gets awkward from the semis on.

coffeecup1980

Thank you. We have drove past ballybough during the day,night and weekend. I think they are maybe teens just sitting around. Might have eyed up the car a bit!
I am telling myself they might generally stick to their own area. I don't mean to be offensive,I just mean maybe they have no reason to go near clonliffe road.
One of the houses is €310k. Other 240k with work to be done.
Just would hate to buy and be stuck paying it back knowing the area is roughish.
Obviously would love up near drumcondra end but this isn't totally at the bottom end either.
It looks like a good location with the dart within walking distance. My boyfriend works near Stephens green so seams good to me I think.
He is having doubts. All very frustrating and oh of course there are bids on both so the estate agent says!

drunkmonkey

Where in clonliffe is it, I've had some nice cars and not one of them was touched, it's a mature area and it's not ballybough, your local shop might be in ballybough but I've never seen any bother there.. It's just a shop.
Your also right beside clontarf it's only a 5 minute walk.
240 for a 4/5 bedroom that needs a little refurb wouldnt be to bad, we sold a 4bed for more than that 2 years ago and it needed work.

coffeecup1980

Thank you. We have drove past ballybough during the day,night and weekend. I think they are maybe teens just sitting around. Might have eyed up the car a bit!
I am telling myself they might generally stick to their own area. I don't mean to be offensive,I just mean maybe they have no reason to go near clonliffe road.
One of the houses is €310k. Other 240k with work to be done.
Just would hate to buy and be stuck paying it back knowing the area is roughish.
Obviously would love up near drumcondra end but this isn't totally at the bottom end either.
It looks like a good location with the dart within walking distance. My boyfriend works near Stephens green so seams good to me I think.
He is having doubts. All very frustrating and oh of course there are bids on both so the estate agent says!

coffeecup1980

Thank you. It's one of the villa style ones. Actually number 45 and 47 are for sale.
That's kind of what I think. It's not ballybough!
The bigger houses are 4 bedroom maybe. These are 2/3. They are on the side that the train runs behind them.
There is a local spar I think up towards the top of the road also. Across from the bishops house.
What we are seeing is houses around there are going under budget too.

MarkAnthony

I say this living in a 'rough' area myself. Gentrification is all well and good BUT can slide back if we have another period of prolonged recession. Be careful of EA's and their predictions.

coffeecup1980

Am so sorry MarkAnthony. I genuinely don't mean to offend anyone. There are lovely houses there. There just seams to be one corner where they sit. There was a radio road hog there few weeks ago.i just know it's a corner near clonliffe avenue?
There is good and bad everywhere.

coffeecup1980

Am so sorry MarkAnthony. I genuinely don't mean to offend anyone. There are lovely houses there. There just seams to be one corner where they sit. There was a radio road hog there few weeks ago.i just know it's a corner near clonliffe avenue?
There is good and bad everywhere.

alastair

It's probably worth pointing out that Drumcondra probably has as big a problem with street drinking and junkies, as Ballybough does these days. Most of the Ballybough antisocial activity takes place on the canal near the Charleville Mall library, relatively out of sight, while it's much more visible in Drumcondra. The litter/fly-tipping/general disregard for the environment is much worse in Ballybough though.

With regard to nice cars and Clonliffe road - there's someone on/off the street that drives an Audi R8 and a Porsche GT3, so they seem to manage...

smeal

Hi I rent a house on Clonliffe Avenue.

As someone already pointed out, most of the anti social drinking etc does take place down by the canal but I'd be inclined to say that's more Summerhill than Ballybough. Then on the SUmmerhill parade there is definitely a huge issue with littering- I walk to work every morning and the sides of the streets are destroyed with open bin bags, old sofas and other filth that the residents on that part of the road throw out and simply expect the Council to clean up.

Down by Ballybough is fine though. I rarely see much littering/drinking in streets down that end. Clonliffe Road itself is extremely well kept and I've personally never seen any anti social behaviour on it. I wouldn't be at the Drumcondra Road side myself regularly unless driving through so I can't really comment on that side of things.

With concerts/GAA games etc I must commend the Gardai on clearing the streets fairly rapidly after events. You can get an access pass for your car from the local Garda station really easily so you won't have problems that way. You can join the Croke Park Community Residents emailing list and they're great for keeping you updated on upcoming events/Garda cordons.

I have to say I really like living in the area- its extremely handy for city centre (15/20 min walk to O'Connell St) yet you're only 5mins up the road from Clontarf, easy access to M50/M1, plenty of local gyms (The Ballybough Community Centre itself actually does a great variety of classes), there's a nice park half way down Clonliffe Road, Fairview is only around the corner and it has great little cafes etc and a huge park

MarkAnthony

coffeecup1980 wrote: »

Am so sorry MarkAnthony. I genuinely don't mean to offend anyone. There are lovely houses there. There just seams to be one corner where they sit. There was a radio road hog there few weeks ago.i just know it's a corner near clonliffe avenue?
There is good and bad everywhere.

Not at all! When I put rough in inverted commas I meant that a lot of places people (especially on the southside - Sorry folks!) consider rough aren't rough at all. I live in Kilbarrack that has an awful reputation if you listen to people that have no first hand experience of the area. If you know the area in any shape or form you'll know it's actually very nice. That said, like where you're looking it's going through a period of 'gentrification'.

Many of the old council tenants have sold up and a lot of first time buyers are hitting the area. D3 is seeing the same but it's more lively crowd, younger people and lots of places rented to students. It's also closer to town so you do get some overspill of the problems there.

We fell in love with that wreck on Waterloo Ave down there actually. Would have cost too much to restore. I've no real first hand experience of the area - other than looking there myself. I just caution you that the settled areas will be the first to fall back into problem areas if we start back tracking. Just something to keep in mind, be guided by people that know the area, we did and are delighted with where we are now.

coffeecup1980

Thank you everyone for the replies. We are going to view them and and have another think.

Tarzana2

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Your also right beside clontarf it's only a 5 minute walk.

Ah now, Clontarf is a bit farther away than that, more of a 20-30 minute walk. :P

Breezer

coffeecup1980 wrote: »

It looks like a good location with the dart within walking distance.

Maybe this is a small point, maybe not, but Drumcondra station isn't on the Dart line, it's on the Maynooth Commuter line. The frequency is about half that of the Dart. Heading towards town, the vast majority of trains will only go as far as Connolly or Pearse. If you want to go further you'll need to change there and there's often a wait of 15 minutes or so. It may not be a deal breaker if you're only heading to town, but just giving you the heads up if you hadn't realised.

The line is scheduled to be converted to Dart at some point, and to connect to the Bray branch (the existing line north of Connolly will then be a separate line, with the two meeting at Pearse). When/if that will happen is anyone's guess, and probably contingent on Dart Underground being built.

As for driving down Clonliffe Road on match day, you may get a pass from the Gardaí, but good luck with the massive crowd if Dublin are playing - you'll be driving at a walking pace anywhere in that area.

Roxee

Hi, maybe just something else to consider - depending on what part of the road you're dealing with, have you considered flood risk from the canal? There seemed to be a run of it in previous years. I say this having never lived in that area specifically so it might not be so bad but just something to ask about, perhaps

alastair

Roxee wrote: »

Hi, maybe just something else to consider - depending on what part of the road you're dealing with, have you considered flood risk from the canal? There seemed to be a run of it in previous years. I say this having never lived in that area specifically so it might not be so bad but just something to ask about, perhaps

The city council have supposedly sorted the flooding with remedial works on the river. So, unless you're the sceptical type, it should be less of a concern. Those houses are definitely in the danger zone, if the anti-flood measures don't work out.