Hello
Find this forum really informative so I would appreciate your ideas, suggestions, advice, recommendations, insights etc. on our scenario.
We are a couple in our mid 50’s currently living abroad and we want to come back to Dublin and buy a place to live in. No young kids so schools don’t come into it.
Grown up children and grandchildren living on North side so it may make sense to get a place there although happy to look anywhere.
Want to be within walking / short driving distance, of shops, bank, Post office etc. Also would want access to transport link to visit said children within a reasonable travelling distance.
Wont be travelling into city centre on any kind of regular basis but it would be nice to be able to do so.
Need a secure place for car.
Budget: 180K – 200K
Bedrooms: Need 2 bedrooms
Apartments: Veering away from apartments in city centre as I don’t think they would be ideal for a middle aged couple, unwanted night-life noise etc. Apartments outside the city seem overpriced and combined with management fees don’t seem like an ideal solution. Can we commit to ever increasing management fees on a pension?
Dont want a place to ‘do up’. Happy to paint etc. but no structural work.
Dont want a garden ( or one that needs maintenance) at least. Tiled or decked is fine.
Security is important.
Currently looking at DAFT.ie from abroad and I am not really seeing much fitting this description for my budget. Am I being unrealistic? Your feedback on the ground would be great. Hope to come over in April to really look and ideally buy.
If you have kids and grandkids over for even one night, you’ll need a 3 bedder.
Indeed, if you have grandkids over on a regular basis you might need a room for the boys and one for the girls.
I would look at the Marino / Donnycarney areas. House prices have a bit to fall yet so maybe look at houses slightly over budget. I would probably avoid new developments, apartments / townhouses with management fees, anything too far out or too inner city.
Unusual layout in that the bathroom ( only 1) is on the ground floor and both bedrooms are on the first floor. I like the area. Any comments on this one?
Lovely bijou house, but I’d personally have a few issues with it:
No room for a downstairs bedroom should one of you become infirm - which is likely later on in life.
No room to extend out into back garden to create downstairs bedroom.
It looks like you can only comfortably dine about 4 people at a time - so not great if you want to have a few of the family over at Christmas.
I lived in a terraced house once: there was a problem along the whole row with rats. If one house had them, every house had them.
Very little room for storage, if you have files/books/musical instruments, etc.
Forget having a dog to keep you company in your dotage.
I think that you could probably install an ensuite in one of the bedrooms, where the wardrobes are. Security looks good.