Malahide ....... particularly Gainsborough

Hello All,

We are looking at buying a house in Malahide. I'd be grateful for any comments on the following:

1. General opinions on the Malahide area.

2. Sound protection quality of the houses in Gainsborough (I know this is a very specific question ......... it's just we had a 3 month spell of noisy neighbours before).

3. General opinions on the Gainsborough estate.

Thanks in Advance,

Zico.

Oh one of my favourite topics
Malahide is a great town, lovely location. Here are some of the pros & cons
Pros
All transport links are accessible including train/dart and bus.
Close to M1/M50 interchange
Great restaurants
Great amenities including the castle & the beach/marina
Brilliant educational facilities including top rated schools in Ireland
Great people (but I'm biased there)
Cons
Unless you live within 15 mins walking distance of the village centre, the dart/train isn't very accessible, and parking in the train station only happens if you get there, oh around 5am!
The town suffers greatly from urban sprawl so you can be a good distance away from shops and restaurants, bus links etc - Gainsborough is particularly prone to this.
Infrastructure isn't great, and the main roads into the town get very clogged, particularly at around 5/6pm (rush hour), and definitely at the school run time 8.30/9am, everybody seems to drive their angels to school.
Cost of living is quite inflated, drink is expensive, as are meals out, take aways are about 15 - 20% more expensive than elsewhere in my experience
People in new developments do complain about water pressure and drainage difficulties a good bit.
There is a waiting list for most schools in the area, and places are in very high demand
If you have any other queries, please ask!
Oh, also, Gainsborough is a lovely and quiet development the last time I was down there, unfortunately going to a house for a half an hour for a viewing doesn't give you a good idea of how noisy the neighbours are!

HTH

Mo

I too am looking at Malahide. Anyone any info on Talbot, Milford or Seabury,please

As a Malahide and Gainsborough resident I concur with most of what m3oart says, great place to live (I grew up there) - wouldn't consider it particularly dear to eat out or drink though - the early bird menu is your friend.

Regarding school places - my information is that its non-Malahide residents who are having trouble getting places in local schools so I think you should be ok on that front.

Gainsborough is about 25mins walk from village but there is a Londis store in Ard Na Mara which is a 10min walk.

I don't have any noise issues with my neighbours and no water pressure issues either.

All in all a great place to live , doubt I'll ever move out of the area.

Regarding Talbot, Seabury and Milford - I'd rate Milford top of those 3 , its a really nice estate but I imagine you'd be paying 550K or more for a house there - generally small gardens though , Talbot is nice as well but is mostly 3 beds I understand. Seabury wouldn't have a reputation as the best area of Malahide but thats a subjective opinion.

Sorry, I meant to say - I grew up in Malahide also and until recently worked there. Unfortunately rising property prices mean I don't have the option of living in my home town - i'm extremely jealous of those who can
Anyhow, Seabury is a lovely development, it didn't have quite a good name for itself when it was first built, but now it's fine.
Talbot court & milford would be small enough. Some of the houses in Seabury are very roomy and the gardens are generous.
Best of luck with your search!

Zico,

We've just about bought a house in Seabury.

Reasons we chose Malahide were:
- accessibility via DART, bus, M1, M50 etc.
- out of city location, but not too far out!
- hopefully strong future house value (or at least some protection from future falloffs)
- near the beach, estuary and castle.
- has always had a good reputation

We looked at Seabury, Gainsborough, and a couple of houses in Talbot, and a house in the Warren. Would have liked Milford if there were any houses for sale there, and if we could have afforded it (in 6 months looking, not one came up for sale). The other thing we reckoned was that not one house in the estate has a South Facing garden, due to the layout. The Warren seemed very nice, but where do you go for a pint of milk? The Cove is another small estate, mature, in a good location. I think there is a house for sale there, unfortunately it came up too late for us to consider.

Gainsborough seemed nice, and if you check the fingalcoco.ie website, and look at the county development plan, it appears that there is a green belt zone at the edge of Gainsborough (Gainsborough Green I think), so if you bought there, you (might) not be overlooked in future.

One thing that we noticed about the house we saw in Gains. Green was that it had cracks in every single room. I'm not an expert, but cracks literally all over the place don't look good to me!

We eventually went for a place in Seabury, near the Centra. Its not our immediate preference, but the house is roomy, and in a good location for the pint of milk in the evening(!). The other houses we viewed in Seabury had a lot of potential, were generally roomy, and well built, but there don't seem to be many with garage/garage conversion up for sale at the moment. Also, not all of them are suitable for attic conversion, in case you're thinking of doing that. I did hear a bit about Seabury having a poor (or at least a "lesser") reputation compared to other spots, but I can't really comment as we're not moved in yet!

The house prices in Malahide have rocketed in the past 12 months. I remember looking at a place in Seabury with garage, and very large side garden on the market for 380, it would probably fetch 480-500 now. Likewise, a house near seapark was advertised for 460, and last I heard was at 575+.

Good luck hunting.

Bootdog

Hello All,

Thanks very much for all the replies ................ very informative. Unfortunately, the prices do appear to be rising in Malahide. We can't decide whether to take the plunge or not. The banks will give us enough money to buy the house, but we don't really want to be right at our maximum for a mortgage. Anyway, we'll have to decide to take a gamble on a fabulous area (from a regular visitors point of view) or move further out and get a better value (price wise) house.


Thanks Again,

Zico.

Don't forget to read the numerous threads on AAM about which way the property market may go over the next few years. Get as much info as possible and decide given your circumstances and potential risks involved