Is it harder to sell a 1 bed apt?

D

dereko1969

Registered User
Messages
3,046
i'm currently thinking of buying an apartment in dublin,
i have a significant deposit and could afford the repayments on a 2 bed apartment in a reasonable area without huge strain but it would entail me paying around 40% of my take home pay on the mortgage, part of me is thinking i should buy a 1 bed and have a much easier time of it financially and while i intend on living there for a while a good few people have said that selling a 1 bed is a lot harder than a 2 bed and that the capital appreciation is much less on a 1 bed.
one of my concerns is that in some developments i've looked at online there is little difference in size between 1 and 2 beds but a very large difference in price see here for example
1 Bed Apartment from €305,000 c. 707 square feet (3 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment from €395,000 c. 708 square feet (1 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment plus study from €409,000 c. 812 square feet (8 remaining)

any thoughts?
 
1 Bed Apartment from €305,000 c. 707 square feet (3 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment from €395,000 c. 708 square feet (1 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment plus study from €409,000 c. 812 square feet (8 remaining)
Click to expand...

Just to qualify my input I'm an EA but not in Dublin, I work in Limerick city. Just looking at those figures the only real difference is price, the sizes are all pretty similiar. For €80,000 more you are getting a 2 bed apartment in the space of a one bed. Apartments in general are the worst sellers especially in harder times and don't tend to fare as well in terms of appreciation. People seem to love the appeal of a new apartment but not so much a second hand. I think that you can't look at appreciation etc unless you are in a comfortable position to make a choice and 40% of your income doesn't suggest that you are, don't forget to include management fees into your annual payments.

All things being equal the general consenus would say that a 2 bed is more desirable because the 1 bed market would be very investor orientated. Maybe wait awhile and see can you get the 2 bed for the one bed price ( I seriously think look elsewhere though because 708sqft for a 2 bed is going to date very quickly and I can see all apartments getting larger down the line if they are to entice purchasers. We have seen down here that 1300sqft duplexes and 850/900sqft 2 beds are already the norm).
 
Reading this thread makes me glad to be in Donegal !!

€305k for a 707sq foot 1 bed apt - thats just crazy money for something so small.

I've seen 4 bed detached on 1/2 acre sites up here for that sort of money.
 
dereko1969 said:
i'm currently thinking of buying an apartment in dublin,
i have a significant deposit and could afford the repayments on a 2 bed apartment in a reasonable area without huge strain but it would entail me paying around 40% of my take home pay on the mortgage, part of me is thinking i should buy a 1 bed and have a much easier time of it financially and while i intend on living there for a while a good few people have said that selling a 1 bed is a lot harder than a 2 bed and that the capital appreciation is much less on a 1 bed.
one of my concerns is that in some developments i've looked at online there is little difference in size between 1 and 2 beds but a very large difference in price see here for example
1 Bed Apartment from €305,000 c. 707 square feet (3 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment from €395,000 c. 708 square feet (1 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment plus study from €409,000 c. 812 square feet (8 remaining)

any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Be careful what they mean when they say "study". they probably mean "cubby hole".

On the choice between 1 and 2 bed i think the following (based on the price difference shown)....

If you're planning on living in it go for the 1 bed. Bigger living area, do you need a spare room taking up a lot of your living space.

If you ever intend to let it out completly go for the 1 bed. Living area and less maintenance for you. Rental income is not much different between the 2.

If you ever intend to rent a room and live there then go for the 2 bed. (Rent a room scheme.)

On capital appreciation - ignore it, noone knows what will happen here in the short term. In the long term you should be fine.

Resale for any of them will depend on whether it is on the market at the right price.
 
leghorn said:
Are there many jobs there?
Click to expand...

There might'nt be a whole lot up there... but there is down here in Westmeath... there's plenty of 4 bed houses on half acre sites within minutes of athlone and mullingar... i think leghorn was just pointing to the extreme price differential... only some of which can be explained by income differences
 
the same price differential exists within dublin itself. And 707 sq ft would not be considered small - certainly not for a 1 bed.
 
RMCF said:
Reading this thread makes me glad to be in Donegal !!

€305k for a 707sq foot 1 bed apt - thats just crazy money for something so small.

I've seen 4 bed detached on 1/2 acre sites up here for that sort of money.
Click to expand...
You can get a three bedroom house in Dublin now for less than 200k.www.daft.ie/120769
Or....
http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure/94--33-mountjoy-square-north-city-centre-dublin-co&-city/ODHKM327750
http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure/9--rutland-cottages-north-city-centre-dublin-co&-city/BSKGP320205
Plenty of sub 190k apartments too.
"appreciation" may also be a long way off the way property is going at present, especially in the apartment market.
Not sure if we are allowed to link to other sites here but www.thepropertypin.com is a site I use and certainly has steered all my decisions (propertywise) and the posters there seem to have a good overall grasp of the market.
Mod. can edit this post if inappropriate.
 
dereko1969 said:
i'm currently thinking of buying an apartment in dublin,
Click to expand...

What is the point of buying now when property prices are plummeting, especially prices for apartments. Developers and private sellers are struggling to sell anything at the moment so the numbers of properties for sale is escalating.

You would be silly to buy now because you will be likely to be able to buy the same property considerably cheaper next year!
 
thanks for your posts, don't know how to multi-quote so here are my thoughts.
why buy now? well i have to move out of where i'm renting shortly, mortgage payments on a 1 bed would likely be less than rent for a 1 bed apartment, don't really want to share an apartment. also there is the possibility of getting a 'deal' from a cash-poor developer.
would prefer larger living space than a spare bedroom that would not be used that often and that would cost me an extra few hundred a month.
not really feasible for me to move to donegal, job is in dublin and i want to stay here, yes there's better value in westmeath but i commuted for 3 years from portlaoise and don't want to do that again, not much point in coming home after 3 or 4 hours of commuting per day and enjoying the extra house space by falling asleep on the sofa!
the rutland street property needs total refurbishment so not really a valid alternative.
 
rmelly said:
the same price differential exists within dublin itself. And 707 sq ft would not be considered small - certainly not for a 1 bed.
Click to expand...

optimium size of a one bed for developers is 450 sq ft and 660 sq ft for a two bed!
 
Without a doubt the one-bed is better value (relatively speaking of course - still seems like a lot of money).

In fact I'm stunned that there is a €90,000 difference between the 1 and 2 bed when they are the same size. The square footage is what counts and I always think of property in terms of € per sq ft.

What exactly would you be getting for the extra €90k? One square foot more space and few sheets of plasterboard!

It costs a few hundred quid to throw up a dividing pressure wall to section off a room. Could it be an option to buy the 1 bed and divide the space somehow if you really want a 2-bed? Even if it means moving existing walls I bet the project will cost a hell of a lot less than €90,000.
 
dereko1969 said:
1 Bed Apartment from €305,000 c. 707 square feet (3 remaining)
2 Bed Apartment from €395,000 c. 708 square feet (1 remaining)
Click to expand...

Without knowing some more about the location of the apartments within the block, it's hard to compare the one bed and two bed prices. It may be that the one beds are all ground floor and the two beds are further up? As a matter of interest, the two bed that's remaining - is the price €395k, or is this just the initial price of the cheapest two-bed in the block (it seems suspect that there is one remaining, yet the price quoted is from €395k)? Similarly with the one beds - are they actually available at this price (and indeed this size)?
 
Having recently sold a one bedroom apartment I'd argue with the old adage that it's easier to sell a two bed. One bed apartments have no competition. The are the very bottom of the ladder and if that's all a person can afford that's all they can afford. A two bed apartment on the other hand is competing with two bedroom houses, which usually have an outdoor space of some nature and often no management fee so there's more options for the buyer in that cash bracket.
 
I'm assuming that the development is Hampton Lodge in Drumcondra.

The larger 1 bed apartments couldn't be changed to 2 beds as they are corner apartments. Floor plan available here:
[broken link removed]

Prices for the 1 bed seem okay for this area and resale potential in an established area like this would appear to be better than in more shady parts of the city centre. New prices are now lower than at launch in October 2005.
 
leghorn said:
Are there many jobs there?
Click to expand...

Fair enough I take your point, but I was more hinting that we that have jobs seem to get decent value for money compared to the Dublin region.

OK I might not be paid the same money that someone in Dublin doing my job would be, but I live within mins of beaches and rolling countryside, and drive to work in 10-12mins with little or no jams.

I have experienced being on the main Dublin roads around rush-hours and peak times, and I wouldn't live in Dublin for twice the money (and thats being honest). From what I see many in Dublin have a poor work/life balance, with many having to live many miles away due to property prices, and this then entails many hrs stuck in jams.
 
thanks for blowing my cover budapest! had hoped to keep hampton lodge quiet as there's only a few 1 bed apts left, as you say it seems a decent established area close to town.
i wouldn't have thought it legal to put in a second bedroom myself anyway but an interesting idea.
 
Sorry! If you like the development, you could put a booking deposit on one of the properties to secure it and then have a proper think about it. I really like the area and price seems okay (comparatively speaking). I guess the developer understood that the 1 bed properties simply wouldn't sell if they priced them at the same price as the 2 beds. It also allows them to say that the development prices 'start at 305,000 euro'. Is the aspect of the large 1 beds worse than for the 2 beds?
 
iggy said:
You can get a three bedroom house in Dublin now for less than 200k.www.daft.ie/120769
Or....
http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure/94--33-mountjoy-square-north-city-centre-dublin-co&-city/ODHKM327750
http://www.myhome.ie/residential/search/brochure/9--rutland-cottages-north-city-centre-dublin-co&-city/BSKGP320205
Plenty of sub 190k apartments too.
"appreciation" may also be a long way off the way property is going at present, especially in the apartment market.
Not sure if we are allowed to link to other sites here but www.thepropertypin.com is a site I use and certainly has steered all my decisions (propertywise) and the posters there seem to have a good overall grasp of the market.
Mod. can edit this post if inappropriate.
Click to expand...

I hear the sellers are giving away free tanks with full fire power just so you feel safe enough to live in thoes places :)
 
Very interesting post folks. I am currently doing some research on buying my own place I hope to buy towards the end of the year or maybe in the new year I will have a budget of about 300,000 so whenever I save up the 8% deposit(24000) i will be ready to buy. Currently sharing a 2 bed apt in city centre(rent 565 pm). I really want my own place and i am leaning toward a one bedroom apt. because I do like my own space and don't really want to share with anybody. I work in Ballsbridge and so have been looking around the DART line for property (Castleknock, Ashtown, Clonsilla) these would be nice locations i think. As the country is now heading into recession I wonder should I wait for more than a year or buy now no one seems to know whats gonna happen...........help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top