 | Athlone: Encyclopedia II - Athlone - Buy to Let
Athlone - Buy to Let
Athlone has benefitted greatly from the Army Deafness settlements made with the state. While motor dealers have undoubtedly done very well from this, the property industry has arguably done even better. At a time when major employers were making redundancies, the deafness money came flooding in to stabilise and boost what would otherwise have been a very difficult market. The timing of the lump-sum settlements coincided with the increased interest in buy-to-let on the parts of both the mortgage banks and building societies and investors in Athlone. As a result, a greater proportion of new housing estates in the Athlone area than ever before has been bought by investors. However, demand has not kept up with supply and three recently built estates in particular are currently (2005) struggling to fill the vacant rooms and houses. The Glen in Coosan has many empty houses and a perennial forest of for-sale signs, while the vast River Village on the Connaught side still has many unsold let alone unoccupied units. Woodville Grange on the Leinster outskirts has fewer buy-to-let units than the Glen, but owner-occupiers have been cashing in on the booming market and moving out to build one-offs in the countryside.
The writer of this piece seems quite bitter and disenchanted with Athlone. Whilst there are a strong percentage of buy-to-let homes in the town, demand is not driven by "army deafness" claims, but by a strong industrial and commercial base, a young population, migration to the town and demographic changes resulting in smaller household sizes.
The recent announcement by AXA Insurances of their location of their 100 employee base in Athlone, not to mention the plans of elan - the pharmaceutical firm, to double their workforce in the next few years and the recent commencement of works on the 100 person strong pharmaplaz facility highlight the inacuracy os stating that the major employers were moving to India. There are also numerous other multinational firms in Athlone, TycoMallinckrodt which ic surrently increasing its workforce, IO Systems, M&C Specialties, Utah Medical, Alienware, Innocol, O'ConorMed Systems, Meditech, Lund International, Ward International, One Direct, ICT Eurotel and many many more.
Work is highly advanced on the €400m Athlone Town Centre Development which will bring new llife to the historic urban core. Would firms be investing such sums if the town were awash with multitudes of felled auctioneers signs? I think not.
Assertions that Moate and Knockcroghery are bursting with new developments that make life hard for those selling houses in Athlone is a fallacy. One development is underway in the latter village, and has been for a number of years, providing solely detached homes. This is a niche market and does not appeal to the family looking to be closer to work of town centre pubs, restaurants, theatre, sports centres, cinema etc. Moate is burgeoning with purchasers here being predominantly first time buyers in Moate envisons families. It is very easy to see development in the smaller places like Moate and Knockcroghery, but Athlone is larger and can easily absorb new development.
To highlight another point made, the River Village estate sold out entirely from plans, with the vast majority of homes being bought by first time buyers. The occupancy rate of those bought for rental is quite high indicated by the fact that only 5 homes out of over 250 have been re-sold by the purchasers in the 2 years since construction commenced and over 250 people turned up the launch of the adjoining development.
The impending arrival of the N6 / M6 will place the town within 1 hour of Dublin, making it a choice for the Dublin commuter, and also hopefully enabling the writer of this piece to fulfill their dream of moving out of the town faster.
In addition Athlone Urban environment has a population of over 15,000 with 25,000 in a 5k redius rising to over 45,000 in a 10k radius (2002 Census)
Other related archives1001, 1210, 12th century, 1641, 1653, 1690, 1884, 19th century, 2004, An Bord Pleanala, Anglo-Normans, Army Deafness, Athlone Institute of Technology, Ballinasloe, Ballymahon, Bangalore, Brian Bóruma, Celtic crosses, Clonmacnoise, Connacht, Connaught, County Longford, County Roscommon, County Westmeath, Department of Education, Dublin, Elizabethan wars, Elán, Ericsson, Famine, Galway, Glen, India, Irish, Irish Confederate Wars, Irish property bubble, Jacobite, John McCormack, Junior Certificate, King William III, Knockcroghery, Leaving Certificate, Leinster, List of towns in the Republic of Ireland, Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lough Derg, Lough Ree, Moate, Mullingar, National Certificates, National Diplomas, Republic of Ireland, River Shannon, Roscommon, Shannon, Sligo, State Examinations Commission, Tang, Williamite war in Ireland, Wipro, abbey, battle of the Boyne, county councils, degree, ford, institute of technology, library, pike, plastics, polymer, round tower, shopping centre, tenor, the Bawn, workhouse
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Buy to Let", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
