Best place to live within commuting distance of Belfast

Willyk

Around Ballyhackamore has plenty going for it:

Good transport links in and out of Belfast and A55 ring road handy.

Holywood to Bangor coastline handy for walks.

Lots of good primary schools and secondary schools: Grosvenor, Campbell, Strathearn, Bloomfield etc....

Comber greenway also set to be expanded so good potential cycle and walking links to Titanic quarter once fully up and running.

If you have a dog some good parks closeby for walkies: Stormont, Belvoir and Cregagh Glen. Oh and Redburn also is excellent.

A few pubs / eateries and far too many takeaways.

Phoolgrrrl

What about Jordanstown? That budget would do medowbank or lynda farm. Quick comute to belfast by car or train, bit longer for metro bus. Car traffic not too bad at rush hour as duel carriageway most of the way, bottleneck starts after jordanstown. Whiteabbey primary is a good ps and belfast high is close, or train for high schools in belfast. Also loughshore park and whiteabbey village in vicinity.

(I want to live in Jordanstown!)

southantrim3

I see noone has mentioned Jordonstown yet in Newtownabbey. Lovely area, you have Loughshore park nearby, the village of Whiteabbey with it's own butcher, bureau which is a nice bar, coffee shop etc. Well worth checking out as a County Antrim alternative. Only 20 minutes out of Belfast, also a railway halt for the university.

Really nice houses around the £300k mark. Also only 30 min from Bangor, Lisburn, Ballymena so fairly central.

Hope this helps.

Phoolgrrrl

hehe snap Southantrim3!

almillar

Lots of valid opinions and I think we've covered most options, and also established that OP wants to, and can afford to, actually live in the suburbs of Belfast anyway!
Just on commutes - Lisburn is better to commute to Belfast from than Bangor. It's closer, trains are cheaper, and the drive won't take as long. Also to echo the above, I used to commute from Comber and Dundonald onwards is a nightmare, whatever route you take. Even the country roads, going past Roselawn, are busy.

Pythagorous

Thanks everyone for the input. Its interesting to hear why different people like different areas.

Oh and when I said within commuting distance I meant anywhere within 40 mins commute, but didn't mean that I necessarily want to commute! My preference is to be close to the city, but would consider further afield.

On another note, what is the general feeling on here regarding further house price drops? My own opinion is that there will indeed be further drops possibly up to another 15%, so I would only want to buy somewhere that represented good value for money - typically below rateable value imho.

dmxdave

RTNI wrote: »

Don't forget the butchers, barbers, beauty treatment place, bookies and the wedding dress shop too!.

OOPS Haven't frequented the last 3 but I hope Stephen or Julie haven't seen this :eek: will be in with them in the very near future..

highrisklowreturn

Up the Shankill Road

leftieM

OP, you can live on the Malone for 400k so why wouldn't you? It's a no-brainer.
As for house prices, if you try to pay more than RV for a house your mortgage company will stop you in your tracks so don't even think about it. I'd say we're at 10% below RV now.

Pythagorous

leftieM wrote: »

OP, you can live on the Malone for 400k so why wouldn't you? It's a no-brainer.

I'd be interested to hear why you think Malone is worth the extra premium? Thanks