# Any comments on Edgeworthstown



## nbc (26 Jun 2006)

Hi,
Has anyone any views on buying an investment property in edgeworthstown? Are houses rentable there? I'm looking at a 3 bed semi around the 200k mark. What would rental income be like? Are there any downsides to the town? Or for that matter any upsides?
cheers
nbc


----------



## DonKing (26 Jun 2006)

nbc said:
			
		

> Hi,
> Has anyone any views on buying an investment property in edgeworthstown? Are houses rentable there? I'm looking at a 3 bed semi around the 200k mark. What would rental income be like? Are there any downsides to the town? Or for that matter any upsides?
> cheers
> nbc



Where's Edgeworthstown?


----------



## CCOVICH (26 Jun 2006)

Co. Longford, served by the Dublin/Longford/Sligo train.


----------



## DonKing (26 Jun 2006)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> Co. Longford, served by the Dublin/Longford/Sligo train.




Ah one of those strange towns you pass on the way to Ballina!

Unless there is a centre of employment/college/school close by or easily commutable or some sort of re-juvenation project in the pipeline I couldn't see why it would be a worthwhile investment.


----------



## nbc (27 Jun 2006)

Sounds to me Don you should get out of Dublin a bit more! 
I have a couple of houses I bought a few years ago and will soon be paying a few grand tax per annum. I have been told a section 23 could be a good idea and these are to be found in the likes of longford,roscommon and leitrim. My reckoning was that Edgeworthstown is closer to dublin than other towns in those counties and I have no interest in buying an apartment(paying 1.5k in service charges per annum etc).
Does 200k make it worthwhile?
nbc


----------



## liteweight (27 Jun 2006)

CCOVICH said:
			
		

> Co. Longford, served by the Dublin/Longford/Sligo train.



Passed through Longford last week and was amazed at the amount of building in the area!! It even has a sign calling it "the tax incentive county"!!!!

Had been interested until I saw the volume to population ratio!


----------



## nicelives (27 Jun 2006)

Edgeworthstown seems like a nice place which is going to get nicer with the bypass that just opened last week. The main employer is C&D Foods which was started by Albert Reynolds and is run by his son, currently employing about 200 but should be back up over 300 soon as they recover from the fire. If you buy dog food in Tesco or Sainsbury's anywhere in the world it'll be manufactured in Edgeworthstown. It's about an hours drive from the Liffey Valley shopping Centre when you use the new M4 and about an hour twenty without. But there's a whole world out there as Dublin is only great in certain categories.


----------



## nbc (28 Jun 2006)

Hi,
Not too woried about it being boring! Just wonder if it'll be easy to let a house there. Will the new motorway make a difference to house prices there over the next few years?


----------



## nicelives (28 Jun 2006)

nbc said:
			
		

> Hi,
> Not too woried about it being boring! Just wonder if it'll be easy to let a house there. Will the new motorway make a difference to house prices there over the next few years?


 
There are a lot of foreign nationals working in the factory there, I presume a decent proportion of them would be renting at least initially.


----------



## DonKing (28 Jun 2006)

nbc said:
			
		

> Sounds to me Don you should get out of Dublin a bit more!
> I have a couple of houses I bought a few years ago and will soon be paying a few grand tax per annum. I have been told a section 23 could be a good idea and these are to be found in the likes of longford,roscommon and leitrim. My reckoning was that Edgeworthstown is closer to dublin than other towns in those counties and I have no interest in buying an apartment(paying 1.5k in service charges per annum etc).
> Does 200k make it worthwhile?
> nbc



On the contrary I actually do get out of the Capital quite a bit for business and that's why I know the the road trip to Ballina from Dublin has to be one of the worst in the country and it does involve going through some rather strange/deprived/ boring looking towns which I presume would include Edgewoodstown.

I would be very wary of these section 23 properties in these hmm "less developed counties" in the midlands. You will be paying a premium for the tax reliefs and you will be competing with all the other investor bought properties when trying to sell.

Another recent tread dealt with a very low capital appreciation in co. Leitrim and difficulties with renting. It may be worth your while having a look at it.

As you have a couple of Investment properties in Ireland already would you not consider spreading your risk and purchase abroad?


----------



## CGorman (29 Jun 2006)

nicelives said:
			
		

> The main employer is C&D Foods which was started by Albert Reynolds and is run by his son, currently employing about 200 but should be back up over 300 soon as they recover from the fire.



I would be worried that the town is over dependent on C&D - it is a very significant employer, and so many external jobs rely on it's payroll (shops, bars etc.). C&D don't exactly manufacture the most complicated value-adding  item (i.e. wafer-thin margin pet food!) in the world and as our labour costs continue to rise, i'd expect a relocation overseas or at least layoffs a distinct possibility. Albert, a local may not have the heart to move it himself - but he's a sensible businessman and at his age, new owners could be on the way at any moment. Basically don't bet your house on steady employment from minimum-wage C&D.

I live a few minutes drive down the road in Mullingar. Edgeworthstown is located between Longford and Mullingar. The road between them is excellent compared to others in the region.... so perhaps commuting from Edgeworthstown to Mullingar/Longford might become an attractive option? Mullingar is one of the fastest growing towns in the country, with a county council forecast of 40,000 inhabitants by 2010. Longford is experienceing a massive amount of construction investment (mostly tax-fueled). The IDA are launching a new business park in Mullingar in a few months and Lidl have just announced a major distribution center in the town (200 jobs in a complex the size of Croke Park).

That begs the question - why invest in Edgeworthstown in the expectation of growth in Longford/Mullingar? Perhaps directly investing in these towns would make more sense? Anyways it all depends on the price you can buy for.


----------



## nbc (29 Jun 2006)

Thanks to king and cgorman for your comments. Problem with mullingar in 2006 is you pay an extra E60,000 for a smaller 3 bed semi for maybe an extra E100 a month or less.
Has anyone any comments on strokestown or lansborough? They are even cheaper but I would have reservations on rentability. Would anyone be familar with these areas at all?
nbc


----------



## CharlieC (4 Jul 2006)

The market in Co.Longford is artificial due to tax schemes
2nd hand houses take a long time to shift


C+D main employer in Edgeworthstown

Abbots in Longford and the Irish Prison service are decentralising there


----------



## jfk (6 Jul 2006)

nbc said:
			
		

> Has anyone any comments on strokestown or lansborough? They are even cheaper but I would have reservations on rentability. Would anyone be familar with these areas at all?
> nbc


There are no major employers in strokestown, but there are a lot of houses being built, and there isn't much about the town that will intice people to live there.
If you have time check out the prices in roscommon town. At least you have the hospital there, a good few foreign workers and civil servants on the way. There is plenty to do and lots of the bigger chain stores such as Dunnes and Tesco have opened up there recently. There is also a train station and a good road network which connects to towns such as Athlone, Longford are close by with Sligo and Castlebar about  1h 10 away.


----------



## nbc (6 Jul 2006)

Thanks jfk for the suggestion. However as far as I know the section 23's are not available in roscommon town. This is to encourage development in smaller towns in the county I suspect.
nbc


----------



## Sunnyboy (6 Jul 2006)

CharlieC said:
			
		

> The market in Co.Longford is artificial due to tax schemes
> 2nd hand houses take a long time to shift
> 
> Abbots in Longford and the Irish Prison service are decentralising there


 
Given the wages and overtime in the Irish Prison service how many employees there do you think will become renters and how many will become landlords, i.e competitioon.


----------



## jfk (7 Jul 2006)

nbc said:
			
		

> Thanks jfk for the suggestion. However as far as I know the section 23's are not available in roscommon town. This is to encourage development in smaller towns in the county I suspect.
> nbc


Section 23 is only available in the north of the county (the "upper shannon basin" region) but it could still be a good investment so thats why I mentioned it. Good luck!


----------



## CharlieC (7 Jul 2006)

Sunnyboy said:
			
		

> Given the wages and overtime in the Irish Prison service how many employees there do you think will become renters and how many will become landlords, i.e competitioon.


 
RE: Overtime - The prison officers won't be relocating. They will be staying with the prisoners 

Lanesborough used to have a peat burning ESB station that is now closed and a new slim-down one in its place. BNM would be the other main employer

It is popular with anglers as it is located on the shannon


----------



## aaa1 (7 Jul 2006)

200k may seem cheap but it's very expensive if you have no rental income. There is little or on industry there and lots of people lost their jobs when C&D burned down. Tax incentive properties are a way of luring in buyers into areas where the Celtic Tiger has passed by. You can bet your bottom dollar than in five years time there will be thousands of empty Section 23 properties. Your best bet to check out for potential rentla income in the area is to buy the local paper. You'll probably see lists of houses up for rent.
Remember the mantra "location, location, location"


----------



## Morven (12 Aug 2006)

We have Section 23 property in Edgeworthstown. Purchased May 2005 - €170k.  Rent €650 pm.  Current tenants receiving Rent Allowance. Took over 2 months to rent out house initally - little or no interest or viewings - despite our putting many extras in house (e.g. garden, patio, garden furniture).  Am very nervous of current tenants moving out. We have about €150k in tax relief on this property.  In doing projections from other 2 rental properties it looks like we will only need about €10k of this tax relief over next 10 years (ill advised to buy in first place possibly). We are considering selling this Edgeworthstown House in about 3/4 years time (before we have used any tax relief).  We hopeful that it might be an attractive buy for an investor who could use €140 tax relief.  We certainly want to get out before the flood gates open of houses for sale once tax relief used up.  Are we delusional?!


----------

