Area focus: West Dublin

Dublin West is an area that continues to grow in popularity. Traditionally one of the slower areas of growth of the Dublin regions, the westside of the city has enjoyed a bit of a boom period in recent times due to strong employment in the area, coupled with better value houses and new transport links.

The evidence of that growth is seen by the fact that more homes were sold in Castleknock than any other area of the capital last year and, in the first six months of this year, only Dublin 6 recorded more transactions than Dublin 15’s total of 303. That was an increase of 33 per cent for Dublin 15 – the same rise was also recorded in west County Dublin.

While other areas in the west didn’t see such strong growth, the money being spent there continues to grow. Transaction values were up 65 per cent for the first half of 2014 compared with the same period of last year in Dublin 15, while in Dublin 24 the figure was 58 per cent.

Lucan, which also recorded growth of 33 per cent, led the way with 136 sales between January and June of this year and while sales were strong, transactions were down on last year as a result of stock issues in Tallaght (-30 per cent), Clondalkin (-17 per cent), Castleknock (-11 per cent) and Blanchardstown (-10 per cent). This is an issue that also affected the normally popular Navan Road area, which was down by 80 per cent on the same six month period of 2013.

Saggart, undoubtedly boosted by the Luas line, more than doubled its sales, while Clonsilla was also on the increase – up 18 per cent on the first six months of last year.David Lewis of Sherry FitzGerald Lewis in Lucan said stock remained the biggest issue affecting the market in the city’s west.

“Things are very buoyant but there is a stock shortage issue. There are a lot of first-time buyers out there and Lucan is very popular but there are probably less than 1 per cent of homes in Dublin for sale right now and that needs to be closer to 2-3 per cent.

“There is also very few new builds planned for the area and that is keeping prices up.

“Adamstown was to have 10,000 properties but only about 2,500 of them are built and they are only building the rest in small amounts of between 10 and 20 at a time.”

Lewis added that the westside was benefitting from “other areas being unaffordable” and pointed out that areas outside of Dublin were benefitting from the current upswing in both prices and demand.

“Clondalkin is very strong at the moment, as well as Palmerstown, Chapelizod, and as far out as Maynooth, Celbridge and Leixlip also.

“West Dublin has had a massive boost in recent years from the completion of the M50 to the train service right into town. There has been a huge improvement since the tolls were taken down and that makes a huge difference for people looking to commute.

"The area is also fortunate to have some large-scale employers such as Intel, Hewlett Packard and eBay which all bring people to the area, and long may that continue as it helps not just the residential market but also the rental market, which is very strong at the moment."

“The key benefit of the rising prices is that people who bought in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 are now coming out of negative equity and every time prices go up another bunch of people join them.

“There has definitely been a renewed interest from people looking to sell or trade up and we’ve practically been a helpdesk at times as a result but we’re happy to do that."

“Unfortunately, there are not a whole lot of new developments planned. There is a development of 70 new homes in Stonebridge launching next spring but it will be at the upper end of the market with four or five houses to an acre.”

Jim Flynn of Flynn & Associates in Castleknock is aware of a few more new developments in the pipeline.

“Bracken Park launched recently and sold out its initial lots. There is supposedly another development being launched soon in the Phoenix Park, which will be the single biggest development this year.

“Building developers are also gearing up to work on sites in Carpenterstown and Clonsilla and that has to happen really because the demand is so strong,” said Flynn.

Castleknock was the most popular area in Dublin to buy a home last year but Flynn said other areas were now benefitting from the popularity of west Dublin.

“Castleknock is still quite popular and anything that comes on there is, by and large, moving quite fast. Clonsilla is also performing well. It has traditionally been at a lower price in the market but it is catching up on Castleknock.

“This is a very big catchment area for employment and it’s easy for staff not to have to pay park like they would if they worked in the city centre.

“The transport links are very good. I’d still like to see a Luas stop in the Phoenix Park but I can’t see it at the moment,” he added.