Relocating to Bray

relocatelondon

Hi

My wife and I have moved back to Ireland with our 2 toddlers. We are currently renting in Dublin where I work. We were hoping to buy a house in Dublin but theven houses are too expensive on a budget of circa 425k. We have seen a few houses we like in Bray, but we don't know too much about the area. What are the schools like, whats the commute into Dublin like by car and train/dart..basically we'd like to know more about Bray and is it a nice area to live in..we don't want to be commuting or stuck in traffic going to Dublin. .

2011

If you want to avoid traffic don't drive! The Dart is about 40 minutes from Bray to Pierce station and they are quite frequent.

I would expect that you would be able to buy a home in a nice part of Bray on that budget.

murpho999

Bray is a great place to live.

Close to the sea, city and mountains.

A good social scene with some great pubs alongside a vibrant and improving restaurant/food establishments. Lots more choices in Bray than previous years.

Main Street has suffered with recession and competition form Dundrum but new Florentine Centre (New shopping street) being built now and due to open late next year is hoped to bring some life back to the main street.

As said already, you do not want to drive to city centre.

M11/M50 is very heavy every day, particularly in the rush hour evenings. I would definitely use the Dart. My wife drives to Sandyford every day to use the Luas which is another possibility.

Town also has a good selection of schools. Pres Bray for Boys and Loreto for girls would have very good reputations and academic levels.

Overall, I think the pros weigh up the cons and Bray is a good option.

punisher5112

As there are in all areas there are places to avoid, why not book into a b&b or hotel and make a day or 2 out of it and see what you think.

I've lived there and there are some mad yokes going around.

Has most shops one would need and plenty to do.

super_furry

Might be worth looking in Shankill too.

murpho999

punisher5112 wrote: »

As there are in all areas there are places to avoid, why not book into a b&b or hotel and make a day or 2 out of it and see what you think.

I've lived there and there are some mad yokes going around.

Has most shops one would need and plenty to do.

What areas should you avoid?

I don't get why people say this? There are a few rough estates but why would you be in them?

Areas around seafront, Main Street, Quiinsboro Road etc are perfectly fine.

Unless you mean avoid certain parts to live in?

o1s1n

Bray is a fantastic place to live, had a great time growing up there as a kid/teenager. Some good schools too.

The commute to Dublin city entirely depends on where you live in the town. I spent years living on the 145 bus route, however it's just a too long a journey to get into town and back every day. Took on average 1.5 hours each way.

If you live within walking distance of the dart though that would be much more manageable and pleasant. Anything within a 15 minute walk to the Dart would have you in the city in an hour.

fjon

o1s1n wrote: »

If you live within walking distance of the dart though that would be much more manageable and pleasant. Anything within a 15 minute walk to the Dart would have you in the city in an hour.

Unfortunately a lot of the cheaper houses would be out in the west part of Bray which is not walking distance to the dart station.
I would say look at buying something east of Main St/ Vevay Road, but unfortunately that's also where a lot of the more expensive houses are.

I've no experience with Secondary Schools, but there are a lot of primary ones to chose from. Unfortunately they are mostly in the same part of Bray so the traffic during drop off and pick up tends to be bad.

I've been going through the process of buying a house in Bray for the last year (nearly over now), so if there are any questions you have I may be able to help if you PM me.

MaccaTacca

145 takes 45-50 minutes. DART takes 35-40 minutes to Pearse.

Bray is like living in any other suburb of Dublin but you’ve got a choice of more restaurants, pubs etc than your average lifeless suburb.

Outside peak hours you can drive to city centre within 25-35 minutes depending on where you’re going.

People exaggerate how far away Bray is from the city centre all the time.

punisher5112

murpho999 wrote: »

What areas should you avoid?

I don't get why people say this? There are a few rough estates but why would you be in them?

Areas around seafront, Main Street, Quiinsboro Road etc are perfectly fine.

Unless you mean avoid certain parts to live in?

Yes of course I would avoid certain spots to live in.

o1s1n

MaccaTacca wrote: »

145 takes 45-50 minutes. DART takes 35-40 minutes to Pearse.

Bray is like living in any other suburb of Dublin but you’ve got a choice of more restaurants, pubs etc than your average lifeless suburb.

Outside peak hours you can drive to city centre within 25-35 minutes depending on where you’re going.

People exaggerate how far away Bray is from the city centre all the time.

It's nothing to do with distance and everything to do with traffic.

There's no way you can get from Bray to Dublin city in 45-50 minutes on the 145 during peak commuting traffic, especially if you're living up towards the Ardmore Studios end.

I did it every day for 4 years of college. There were some mornings it took the 145 20-25 minutes just to get from my old house in the Ballywaltrim area out of Bray and into Shankill, traffic was at that much of standstill.

RosieJoe

Sure a-b.ie gives times in excess of an hour from Bray Main Street to Dublin for both the Dart and the 145. Times increase for rush hour, and of course where in Bray you are.

Creamy Goodness

Sure the 84X took at least 45-50 minutes to get from southern cross to town when I used to get it 3-4 years ago. Definitely faster than the 145 but it doesn't serve the town. Can't imagine the 145 being any faster at peak time (i.e. when you need it).

Calibos

Sure I drove to the Airport from Bray in 20 minutes......at 4am in the morning

If you're still looking, here's my two cents!

Bray is a great place to live but (like absolutely everywhere in Dublin), from a property perspective, there's a lot of diversity.

I moved to Bray recently (last five years) from south Dublin and it's a great spot to live but depends on what you like to do/your lifestyle. We didn't move here because we couldn't afford a Dublin property, we moved here because it's close to all the things we like to do in our spare time and at the time, what we were looking for represented better value for what you got compared to anything in Dublin, that may be different now because the property market is mental and Wicklow is now the most expensive county in Ireland (yes, even more than Dublin!). It's become more expensive (the places you want to live) since I moved. Because of the size of Bray (35,000+ population), you've a mixed choice of properties for your budgets from 350+K - >2+ million Euro so it has something for everyone.

Parts I like are along the Herbert Road, King Edward Road (Some of the best properties in Bray are scattered around here and some nice estates up the top of Herbert Road!), around Sidmonton, Novara Avenue, Galtrim Road. Parts I'd avoid are in Little Bray near the Dublin part, parts of the Boghall Road and Fassaroe. There's lots of nice estates/houses scattered everywhere though!

For your budget, you may get something along the Herbert Road which has some fantastic places to live...but to be honest, using Daft& MyHome is the best indicator of what that means now! PM me if you've any questions!