BER certs and quality of South Dublin housing stock for sale

The Irish Property Bubble Sell, Buy or Rent?
#1

I have lived in a cookie-cutter 4 bed semi box in Dublin 15 since it was built in 2004. It does the job and I don’t mind where I am, but I hanker after something of about 200sqm with a bit more character or individuality, and I wouldn’t mind going somewhere with a bit less knifey-knifey and fewer cocaine factories.

Castleknock is a nice-ish location but the doric columns are a bit offputting, style-wise. It seems like some sad, damp copy of a 1980s Dallas set.

South of the Liffey seems to offer a bit of character, but the ones on the market seem (from threads here, and BER ratings on the ads) to be mostly badly maintained old husks that need extensive rebuilding, and my busy life and deep fear of building contractors rule that out.

I’d really like a warm, structurally sound gaff that I could just move into and enjoy.

Out of curiosity, I did an advanced search in the Dublin area on MyHome, filtering to 4+ bed houses with a BER cert of B3+.

I got about 11 results inside the M50 and South of the Liffey. Eleven.

Setting a max price of 1.5m brings the selection down to 8, of which a couple are characterless new build boxes much like I have now.

There are only a couple of properties with any sort of character:

The Mews, Rostrevor Road, Rathgar, €1.175m.
myhome.ie/residential/brochu … -6/2117748

12 Monkstown Road, Monkstown, €860k.
myhome.ie/residential/brochu … in/2257875

19b Garville Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, €795k.
myhome.ie/residential/brochu … -6/1702618

That last one has peculiar proportions but at least is priced under a million quid.

Otherwise I’m left with this sort of thing:

8 Clonmore Road, Mt. Merrion, Dublin County, €875k.
myhome.ie/residential/brochu … ty/2083095

A nicely decorated but horrifically ugly dormer bungalow. I always thought bungalows were for old people who were too frail to use stairs.

If I relax the BER cert filter I get over 300 results. If (as some threads here have pointed out) it costs little to properly insulate a house, surely anyone selling a million quid house should have done so before putting it on the market?

Am I wrong in using a higher BER rating as a proxy for “not a complete kip”?

Where are the high quality period renovations? Do they not exist or are people just not selling them?

#2

Not surprising… anyone who will have invested in a property to improve it’s BER rating is likely to have done it for their own benefit.
Considering these are much less likely to sell… then it’s understandable how the crappier gaffs are the ones for sale.

#3

Doesn’t that make a bit of a mockery of any attempt at aggregate price tracking?

If the properties selling now are falling down but are still 45% of average peak prices, then the real like-for-like price decline is greater.

#4

This is indeed very possible… of course… it’s also safe to say that during the boom the same applied. With people investing more in the insulation of their homes. And the rubbish stick was the stuff up for sale!

It’s also highly likely that a lot of the stock is from executor sales etc… with those in negative equity in 4 bedroom well insulated homes looking to avoid selling up at all costs!
Afterall… where is there to go? Isn’t SCD as good as it gets in Ireland :slight_smile: And not like any of them are likely to be forced to sell up or be evicted any time soon!

All just speculation on my part of course… it could be as simple as a lot of the stock just not having BERs done! Not like its the law or anything :slight_smile:

#5

I gather the BER is a largely inferred measure relying on box ticking. It’s value in absolute terms is much the same as the box ticking exercise that determined a burger to be a burger - until such time as someone figured to check whether the right boxes where being included on the list. I work in the burger sector.

Pick the right BER certifier and you’ll adjust yourself a notch or two. Replace the perfectly functioning (but not quite the very latest in efficiency) central heating burner … and you’ll notch up another grade. Put chimney balloons in for the certification test and take 'em right back out again afterwards … and you get another boost.

BER wouldn’t be my measure of whether a gaff is comfortable / energy efficient or not. An acre of double glazing on a south facing will give you solar gain. An acre of Velux’s over your dining table will have the dinner guests begging you to take the balloon out of your chimney. I wouldn’t be confident that BER certification would tell the difference between the acres.

I could be wrong in this but anecdotal evidence suggests it’s worth limited.

In a word, yes. I imagine two identical (in any way that matters) properties could be a grade or 4 or 5 apart from each other depending on the nous of the owner come BER time.

Move to Bray or Greystones. Get a house with quick access to the N11 and you’ll be in the city or where ever you need to be faster than you’ll be from the nether regions of SCD (DL/Dalkey etc). There’s plenty of posh areas and not at all as much knifey knifey or coke as the chequered history (of Bray) would have you believe. :slight_smile:

#6

OP is wrong - in that asking for a BER of B3 or more means you are asking for a proxy of “a house built later than 2007”.

#7

Lovely bit in the myhome ad for this property:• Wi-Fi wired.

#8

:smiley:

#9

Fantastic. I love it.

#10

Technology moves so fast these days.

#11

But for how much longer… :frowning: