My girlfriend lived in the apartments and a relation owns a house in The Pines, the houses at the back.
1. Problem with parking exists because cars get broken into when parked in designated spots at rear of buildings.
2. Graffiti and other social problems such as underage drinking behind trees/bushes, smashing of car windows, kicking of car mirrors off cars exist here. Most of the problems stem from the fact that there is a right of way lane way at the rear of the estate into Abbeyfield. There doesn't seem to have been much of a move to try to close this or it is difficult to get it closed, don't know for sure. My relation had a traffic cone thrown through the kitchen window, which sides onto the footpath, at about 3am one morning. The management companies are different for The Pines and Venetian Hall which doesn't help. I don't believe either are too active and there appears to be a large amount of cronyism going on in respect to contacts for maintenance. It's regular for The Pines management company to run out of funds, although very little work is done. Car probs are easily fixed if gates were erected at side of apartments and CCTV was installed yet there doesn't appear to be any move to do this. The problems exists for well in excess of 5 years. A large percentage of both The Pines and Venetian Hall are rented these days which comes which possible causes the lack of interest in sorting out problems. Venetian Hall, being somewhat older, would be some way down the rental list for apartments around the general Clontarf/Killester area.
3. I found Dart very loud. My girlfriend did not, saying that she got used to it soon enough. I guess it depends on how light a sleeper you are.
4. Yes there is a lane way as per 2 which is the root cause of most problems.
5. Not familiar with pre-fab.
On the positive side, it's a well located development with close proximity to Killester Dart station. If the number owner/occupiers increases and there is a will to tackle the issues, such as lane way and CCTV, gates on side car parks then the issues should be easily resolved. The lane way is the biggest prob IMO.