Portarlington or Mullingar?

S

stephen1381

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I'm looking into buying outside Dublin at the moment. I'm trying to pick an ideal commuter town in terms of value for money and distance from work (I work in Leixlip) I put a booking deposit on a great house in Portarlington for a great price but my concern is that the town might be a bit too quiet for me. I'm now thinking of Mullingar as its a bigger town, there are good houses for 20K more. Mullingar seems a better option for amenities.

So should I go for the great house in Portarlington or a house in a better town in Mullingar?

Thanks
 
Given your choice between those two towns I would go for Mullingar. I almost bought a house there myself in 2005.
There are many more amenities and rental potential will be greater should your plans change.
It seems like a generally nice town with minimal anti-social behaviour once you avoid the usual less desirable areas - but I am not from the town - locals will be better able to comment.

Once you get on the Mullingar bypass it will take you 45 minutes to Intel if you use the back road - if you use the toll road, you could shave a little over ten minutes off that. Delays are rare.
In the evening it will be similar duration.
There is a rail service between Mullingar and Leixlip - quite limited and probably of little use for commuter purposes if your job requires any sort of flexibility regarding hours.

On the other hand IMO there is little value for money to be had in Mullingar - personal opinion only of course.
Prices skyrocketed when the motorway opened, and have been slow to fall. In the area where I was buying, prices were 180K in Oct 2005, rose to 250K at the peak of the boom and are now around 240K.
New estates have begun viewing recently and anecdotal evidence suggests demand is very sluggish.
I will comment no further as I'm probably treading on thin ice as it is - but draw your own conclusions.

In addition the costs of a 70 mile round trip versus savings in property prices need to be considered - fuel prices are going only one way long term - but I'm sure you've considered this already.

Good luck
 
Thanks for the input John, I'm going to be looking at houses all this week in Mullingar so hopefully I will be a bit more clear about my decision
 
John J said:
locals will be better able to comment.
Click to expand...

Here goes! I'm a 'local'... born and bred in Mullingar - so beware, I might be slightly biased. Note the following is solely my opinions from living in the town for the best part of 20yrs.

Regarding top/bottom areas:

The traditionally most sought after areas in the town would be Brookfield, Pettiswood, Dublin Road and the Lynn area.
Traditionally areas seen as having lots of anti-social activity would be Grange, Dalton Park and Springfield.
Naturally you'll find prices really reflect this (€150k vs €450k!)

Other estates:

College Hill - very good area near Brookfield, but a good €100k cheaper (smaller houses/gardens)
Greenpark - too far to the West of the town for commuters... aside from that nothing actually wrong with it.
Ard Leigh/ArdliVale/Ardilaun/Ard XXX - a hugh series of houseing estates with no facilities and cut up by a busy ring road - very affordable, full of commuters... but no facilities
Lakepoint - another huge commuter estate, you'll get lost here... again no proper facilities. Rumors of poor build abound also, particularly in the apartments
Clonmore - I come from near here and wouldnt recommend it... houses are old and anti-social behaviour on the rise.
Marlinstown - perhaps the easiest location to get on the motorway... although i've heard rumors of shoddy builds.
Ashfield - near town with tesco and shops beside it not too far from motorway, reasonably affordable

Of course there are many many more estates, these are just some of the larger ones. Depending on your budget, College Hill, Brookfield, Pettiswood and perhaps a few of the smaller estates would be my personal preference.

If you can find a house you like and can afford, Mullingar offers plenty of good facilities and theres big plans already in motion to add more - the Robinstown Development Plan will eventually see a state of the art sports complex built alongside whole new streets and a larger county grounds. The Lynn Shopping Development already approved is likely to bring Argos/PC World and others to the town. In addition the Blackhall Development (similar in scope to the new shopping center in Athlone) will hopefully get through the planning stages soon - it will bring a huge amount of retail and cultural space to the town center. A local bus service (despite many false dawns) is likely to get the go ahead in 08/09.

With a population arguably bigger than Athlone, Sligo, or Kilkenny - and certainly bigger than Portlaois, the town will hopefully seen continued growth in the coming years... and hopefully for my sake it'll become an employment center in its own right soon!!

I know the above might sound like marketing speil from an over enthusiastic local - but as I warned you I might be biased! Feel free to ask me any questions if you think I can be of use.
 
Have you looked in killucan this is a lovely village five minutes from kinnegad.Thinking of buying here myself.Seems to be good value.There is a development called Ivy Court which looks very nice not too many houses.
 
Leesoph said:
Have you looked in killucan this is a lovely village five minutes from kinnegad.Thinking of buying here myself.Seems to be good value.There is a development called Ivy Court which looks very nice not too many houses.
Click to expand...

Yeah I saw that development on myhome.ie, its probably a bit too expensive for what I'm looking for. Thanks
 
I read a write up in the Indo about that development describing Killucan as a fully sustainable town with plenty of facilities... this is not really the case, aside from a few small pubs/shops theirs little there and you'd still have to drive into town for many things.
 
Thanks for the detailed post CGorman.

I'm looking into buying in the new Rathgowan development. I heard the builder dropped the price because they aren't selling which is a bit of a worry if I decide to sell in the future. The estate is blocked by a gate at the entrance which suggests no one has moved in yet even though the development looks complete from the outside
 
Nothing really wrong with Rathgowen AFAIK. My only concern is that is adds yet more houses to the Ard XXX series of estates which are already having serious problems regarding facilities. At least Rathgowen is actually closer to Tesco, N4, Hospital & Schools.

Would'nt worry about getting 50k off... developer probably eager to get development off his hands in case prices continue to decline. If your planning to live here for the next few years, then this shouldnt be a concern.
 
stephen1381 said:
Thanks for the detailed post CGorman.

I'm looking into buying in the new Rathgowan development. I heard the builder dropped the price because they aren't selling which is a bit of a worry if I decide to sell in the future. The estate is blocked by a gate at the entrance which suggests no one has moved in yet even though the development looks complete from the outside
Click to expand...

This weeks local paper confirms that 20 houses in the estate have been sold in the past two weeks since the price drop.
 
Yeah the guy doing security on the development told me the last 2 weekends have been busy
 
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