Moving to Athy

Gael23

Looking to leave Dublin so I can afford to buy in my own and Athy looks to be the most affordable town for me.
Looking for some local knowledge on the place, are there many amenities and facilities in the town or nearby? I can’t drive so ideally in Athy itself.I work for a company in Dublin so would be working from home a good deal of the time.

ThewhiteJesus

Gael23 wrote: »

Looking to leave Dublin so I can afford to buy in my own and Athy looks to be the most affordable town for me.
Looking for some local knowledge on the place, are there many amenities and facilities in the town or nearby? I can’t drive so ideally in Athy itself.I work for a company in Dublin so would be working from home a good deal of the time.

Apart from the river there’s not
Much there tbh but I guess that’s why it’s cheap

sanjose1

Handy though, Id end up throwing myself into it if I lived in that awful kip

saabsaab

Before you move anywhere spend a week in the place and ask around see what it's like first and if it suits you.

Tom Mann Centuria

Nice Lidl close to the town centre, near the bizarre "your guess is as good as mine" road layout.

Gael23

sanjose1 wrote: »

Handy though, Id end up throwing myself into it if I lived in that awful kip

The whole town?

tabby aspreme

Like any town there is good and bad, while there was always a bad element in Athy, most other towns have now caught up with Athy in that regard. There are good amenities in the town, all sports are catered for, well run, public swimming pool, trains, a few good pubs, good supermarkets, the Barrow and a canal.

son.of.jimi

I'd bet that Athy will have a resurgence in the next 10 years, despite the inevitable Recession that is on the way.

Few nice estates in the town but overall it's currently past it's prime.

Gael23

Looks a small bit that way alright. Also most of the nice new housing developments seem to be well out of town so you need a car

Tork

Don't. It has always had a bad name.

Gael23

There’s obviously a reason why it’s the one place where houses are affordable

Darc19

Gael23 wrote: »

Looking to leave Dublin so I can afford to buy in my own and Athy looks to be the most affordable town for me.
Looking for some local knowledge on the place, are there many amenities and facilities in the town or nearby? I can’t drive so ideally in Athy itself.I work for a company in Dublin so would be working from home a good deal of the time.

Look at Kildare Town or just outside it, Nurney. Good local bus service from Nurney to Kildare (5km) and far superior transport links from Kildare.

Nice 3bed semi in nurney €200k
Small 3bed bungalow €140k

I would suspect both will be a bit lower now.

marieholmfan

Surely the likes of Kilcullen (drive to Newbridge for train) would be nicer?

Im born and raised in Naas so hating Athy is in my blood.
I now live 50/50 between the two so often go to Athy to do the grocery shopping.
Its not as much a **** hole as people say IMO.
But I still wouldn't move there!

Gael23

I can’t afford Naas or Kildare town and Athy has a bus to Dublin so that’s what drew me. Not familiar with Kildare town but €200k is about as far as it goes so it does look like an option

blindside88

Athy is not a great area to be honest. I’d consider renting there for a few months before you consider buying there. From a quick look on Daft, property in Carlow town is only slightly more expensive. Far nicer area and very good bus and train links to Dublin.

ghostdancer

i'd take another year of saving, or start driving, rather than move to Athy tbh. Just driving through it is depressing enough.

Tork

I think you should learn how to drive. That is a handicap once you move out of Dublin. You would have more options if you weren’t impeded in the way you are.

Athy does have a train station too so if you don't have a car it has that going for it.

marieholmfan

BrownFinger wrote: »

Athy does have a train station too so if you don't have a car it has that going for it.

You need a car to live in Athy. You can commute by train but all stuff like shopping needs a car.

Gael23

ghostdancer wrote: »

i'd take another year of saving, or start driving, rather than move to Athy tbh. Just driving through it is depressing enough.

Yes looks like I need to save a bit more, but then a years saving will give me around €10k extra. I have a medical condition which means I can’t drive so that’s not something I can change.
Maybe I need to lower expectations and look at smaller places in Kildare town and Naas not being able to drive

GavMan

On the plus side for you, property prices will go down a bit with this pandemic as demand will be reduced. But I would not expect what we seen in the last crash as we had a fundamentally strong economy before this. A lot of jobs will come back reasonably quickly

theteal

Dang I used to go to Athy a lot as a kid, never knew it was so poorly regarded. In saying that the granny's house is about 1/3 of the way out the Carlow road so I wouldn't exactly be hanging around the town itself. I do have a lasting memory of the traffic going through the town being pretty muck.

Gael23

GavMan wrote: »

On the plus side for you, property prices will go down a bit with this pandemic as demand will be reduced. But I would not expect what we seen in the last crash as we had a fundamentally strong economy before this. A lot of jobs will come back reasonably quickly

If I save for another year and really plough all my savings into a house I think I can push to €220k. That’s not even leaving enough for a tin of paint though so would have to be perfect

GavMan

Gael23 wrote: »

If I save for another year and really plough all my savings into a house I think I can push to €220k. That’s not even leaving enough for a tin of paint though so would have to be perfect

https://www.daft.ie/kildare/houses-for-sale/allenwood,athgarvan,carragh,coill-dubh,derrinturn,kilcullen,kill,moone,naas,newbridge,nurney,robertstown,sallins,suncroft,the-curragh,two-mile-house/?ad_type=sale&advanced=1&s%5Bmxp%5D=225000&s%5Badvanced%5D=1&searchSource=sale

There's a lot of options up to 225K. Best of luck with the search

theteal

Gael23 wrote: »

If I save for another year and really plough all my savings into a house I think I can push to €220k. That’s not even leaving enough for a tin of paint though so would have to be perfect

Don't worry about that. The joy of home ownership is that there's always something to be done to the house. Get something in a "liveable" state and pick away at the decor bit by bit once you're in.

marieholmfan

Gael23 wrote: »

Yes looks like I need to save a bit more, but then a years saving will give me around €10k extra. I have a medical condition which means I can’t drive so that’s not something I can change.
Maybe I need to lower expectations and look at smaller places in Kildare town and Naas not being able to drive

Could you look at Sallins? The train does NOT go to NAAS. Also NAAS needs a car - total donut of a town ; only about 2 people living in the town itself.

I'd say house prices in Kildare will crash now with work from home.

Without asking you to identify yourself where are you actually from?

Tork

I think house prices are going to drop in the wake of the pandemic. I don't think they'll crash like they did in 2008 but this is going to halt price increases. It remains to be seen how working from home will evolve. My employers have indicated that they still want us all back in the office eventually and they are unlikely to be unique in holding that viewpoint. I think there is no harm in waiting and seeing what does happen with prices. If your wages stay as they are, you should be able to do better for yourself than Athy. The old saying "The day you buy is the day you sell" applies just as much now as it always has. Should you need to sell up and move for some reason, you might find your place in Athy harder to shift if the commuter belt has contracted back towards Dublin.

Gael23

marieholmfan wrote: »

Could you look at Sallins? The train does NOT go to NAAS. Also NAAS needs a car - total donut of a town ; only about 2 people living in the town itself.

I'd say house prices in Kildare will crash now with work from home.

Without asking you to identify yourself where are you actually from?

I’m from Waterford and work in Dublin so Kildare would be handy because the train goes in both directions

marieholmfan

Gael23 wrote: »

If I save for another year and really plough all my savings into a house I think I can push to €220k. That’s not even leaving enough for a tin of paint though so would have to be perfect

That will definitely get you a place in Newbridge next year.
Can you cycle a bicyle (sorry if question is insensitive)

Gael23

marieholmfan wrote: »

That will definitely get you a place in Newbridge next year.
Can you cycle a bicyle (sorry if question is insensitive)

Yes I can although I think cycling in rush hour traffic is very dangerous