Life is good in Terenure where residents' desires are catered for in dinky shops, cosy restaurants and pubs, although traffic can be slow, says Paul O'Doherty
TO MOST people you ask, Terenure, a little republic within a bigger one, has everything: shops, restaurants, pubs, cafés, dinky boutiques, oddities, leafy residential-backwaters, recreational park, the lot. Some might offer token complaint that the Luas decided not to come (apparently, there's no money in the public coffers to buy up half of Brighton Road, for instance, to accommodate the tracks) and that the bus service doesn't quite get you into the places in the city centre that you'd like to go.
Or, that the traffic is a bandit - it holds you up - at rush hour on the crossroads. Or, that there aren't enough parking spaces near shops. Small things essentially, that don't take from one of Dublin's most agreeable suburbs.
And that's unlikely to change with relatively small development possible in an area that already has a population of 20,000. Where development has got an agenda, it's sure to be slow as on the former Quinlan's pub site where Noel Smyth's Alburn has a 37-apartment proposal. At the far end of the road, Capel Developments is also on their second proposal, this time hoping to secure planning for 62 apartments.
How's the market?
There's no consensus from the local estate agents with some acknowledging the market is "down 20 per cent", like everywhere else, on the last 18 months, and that it hasn't bottomed out as yet. While others, possibly talking up the market, are picturing it "as good as ever", after a fall of "five to 10 per cent". It seems most well-positioned properties below €1 million are selling well, and relatively fast, while anything above is sitting idle on denial as well as falling equity.
A spacious two-bed house on a terrace at Neagh Road, near the village, or a quaint cottage, closer, at Elm Park are both €400,000, while apartment-living kicks in around €470,000 for a ground floor home at Cremorne. Prices fluctuate at Bushy Park House - adjacent to the park of the same name - from €590,000 for a wrap-around balcony on the fourth floor with car-park space to €485,000 for something on the ground floor, also with car space.
A three-bedroom duplex at Wainsfort Manor Grove is €535,000, with a 1960s-semi with a 100ft garden on Wainsfort itself at €730,000. A slightly higher €800,000 will get you something like a 1950s semi with an 80ft garden in the sought-after Parkmore Drive.
In the four-bed sector, a Bailey-built semi with side entrance, decent rear garden and garage on Rathfarnham Road is down €1.25 million to €995,000. If it's five bedrooms you're looking for, a guide might be the €2.025 million a 1920s semi with gardens front and back got recently at auction.
And to rent?
Prices start at around €1,050 for a one-bed ground floor apartment in the central Mount Tallant Avenue going up to €1,300 for something on the first floor a little out of the village at Bushy Park House. A spacious two-bed with a terrace costs €1,300 at Temple Hill, while a well-maintained mid-terrace house at Derravaragh is looking for €1,400. Up a little bit more at Bushy Park House, there's a glut of apartments in the €1,600-range. Into the three-bedroom division, a townhouse in Wainsfort Manor Crescent is asking for €2,000, while a four-bedroom dormer bungalow with a well-manicured garden on Rathdown Road will set you back €4,240. Lastly, four and five bedrooms at Bushy Park Houses are generously available and beginning to fall through the €5,000 threshold to €4,000.
Going out?
Good selection of restaurants with a particularly Italian influence, although Vermillion and Elwood's also get good reviews. And, pubs, generally within walking distances of each other at the crossroads all have their own following.
Price of a pint
€4.15 in the Terenure Inn.
Good for families?
Crèche places are in short supply this year, more so than in others, with availability at Snowdrop Creche, tight until September, at €200 a week. Mick Smyth's tennis camp once again starts July in Terenure College.
What's to do?
Bushy Park hosts a range of sports with its pitches, tennis court, skateboarding area and walking. It's also a good spot to relax and take in nature or watch the River Dodder run through it.
Home to. . .Terenure RFC
Locals say
"While, we have a reliable bus service, it does tend to drop you where you don't want to go. 'Terenure, stand up for a light-rail system', I say" (Marjorie Dawson).
"The village has everything you need and don't need" (Patricia Glacken).
"Parking spaces on a busy shopping day's a bloody nightmare" (Jessica Rice)
"Anyone could live here easily, we have everything. All you need is money" (Marian Fitzpatrick).
