Owenass Developments - Fairgreen & Esker Hills, Portlaoise

I was looking at the Esker Hills dev in Portlaoise as a possible investment prop location. The developer is just finishing a similar dev called Fairgreen up the road.

This developer includes flooring, tiling & kitchen appliances.

Has anyone moved into Fairgreen, or has anyone bought in Esker Hills?

We have snagged a number of the houses in Fairgreen Village and they were to a very high standard.

But maybe someone who lives there would give you a better feel for the development.

Kind Regards
Fintan
www.HomeSnag.ie

Just so happens one of my friends has bought there(fairgreen),a lot of extras and very good service from the builder...for investment purposes I'm not sure are you buying it for capital appreciation or rental?Lots of house being built and to be fair also being sold...get the local paper(Lenister Express) and look at the rentals section it's out on Wednesdays....

Thanks all. Very helpful.

I live there and the builders are excellent. Fairgreen would maybe be a better investment than Esker Hills in my opinion. It is going to have its own pub, restaurant, supermarket etc whereas Esker Hills is down a back road near to Dunnes Stores. Thats fine until you realise that Dunnes Stores is relocating in November to James Fintan Lalor avenue. Also the road serving it is already quite busy so unless they are building a new road I think traffic will be a problem.

Sandrat, my understanding(I know some of the employees there) is that Dunnes are going to keep the current store open even after the new one is in full swing. Are you assuming that they are relocating or have you heard/read something different?

Thats correct Dunnes won't be moving from where they are in the short term but I guess if everyone starts using the new store that might change...

I haven't had confirmation. I just know from experience of previous towns where it has happened. In mullingar for example they opened a new store in Harbour Place shopping centre and the old one was left shut down for years before eventually turning into one of those "convenience" dunnes.

Personally I can't wait until the new store opens because it will be a decent dunnes. I will shop in the new store because with the promimity to tesco and lidl you have the best access to all the special offers available. Also the access to the current dunnes is awful you can be waiting ages trying to get in or out of the car park on a busy day. The new store will be much more accessible.

The current store is extremely poor and the type that Dunnes should be trying to get away from. It is very run down and even the car park is very poor. They don't even have a fitting room for trying on clothes (although according to the website there is a bra measuring service - I wonder where they do that?!). At the very least they need to shut it down for refurbishment. It has been losing business since Tesco became 24 hours and attempted a move to stay open until midnight on weekdays but these hours have been cut back. The space would be better used as some kind of community sports centre with squash courts or some such.

sandrat said:

The new store will be much more accessible.

Click to expand...

I'd agree with most of the previous posters regarding Dunnes Stores- a new Dunnes is very badly needed and the new location will allow them to improve dramatically on their current range of products and services to the public. However I don't think access will be any better, in fact I think it will be far worse- access is via JFL Avenue which is already busy and serves Tesco and Lidl. Getting out onto JFL Avenue from either the Timahoe Road/ Tesco or Lidl is a disaster even at the moment. Traffic congestion within the town has worsened considerably in the past 2 years and Dunnes new store will compound this even further. We'll all be shopping after midnight!

At least there are roundabouts on JFL avenue, for the current dunnes you are waiting for someone to let you in or out, out of the goodness of their hearts.