To buy my first house two minutes down the street from traveller housing initiative?

[MelMar1]

Please give me advice.
I’m sale agreed on a new build house in Dublin . I found out that there is a new traveller housing initiative going in right across the road from me. Please don’t say I’m being snobby I’m really not. I’ve just heard stories of anti social behaviour etc. I know there’s always some lovely people but I’m nervous.

Do I give the house up because of this? It’s a substantial amount of houses for the traveller scheme all together - six very large detached four bedroom homes. It is two minutes walk from me. I drove up to the development to see and the traveller housing initiative is not in front of me directly as I thought. It is not in front of or behind me but about 2 minutes walk down the road. I can only see gable end of one of the houses from mine. Not directly facing.
I need to sign contacts in 2 days and I am so torn.
Otherwise it’s perfect house for me. With this information are you saying yes or no?

It’s not prejudice when it’s based on real, lived experience is it?

I don’t think head wobbling is needed.

the other communities you mention don’t leave their poo and rubbish everywhere, let’s dogs roam, harm animals, steal from shops etc.

lots of people ARE posting from experience.

unfortunately the traveller community don’t help themselves. We had a frequent camp near us and local businesses actually proactively shut for a couple of weeks as it was less hassle and they lost less money than staying open. We had dogs in our gardens and kept awake all night with mopeds/bikes reviving around and destroying grassed areas.

One poster has even said that she will deliberately leave her rubbish for others to clean.

I’m aware settled travellers may behave differently and hopefully they would be ok for OP. But their reputation means that OP would struggle to sell.

It would be great for more communities to be able to live together in more harmony but experience mean people will avoid the risk.

OP, peace of mind is like gold dust too.

Crazy that in 2026 this sort of thread goes unchallenged. Referring to people as “this” and “feral”. Dehumanising language. Utterly vile. “My experience was xyz” doesn’t need to include generalisations about entire swathes of people.

It’s wild how acceptable racism still is against GRT people.

Do better.

‘we will continue to pull up in your car parks and playing fields and have yous clean up after us.

After all it’s what you all deserve.’

New neighbour welcoming you to the area, OP?

Normal.

To prove people wrong would be a start. If messes suddenly were not being left behind, and travellers stayed out of other peoples property and faces, attitudes would have to change. Your post infers that the mess is normal and that society doesn’t deserve the effort it would take you to clear up after yourselves because they complain about it. Can’t you see why this is about face?

We have lived in rented twice now opposite permanent sites. We got on with those (about 4 plots with statics) in the first place well. Kept ourselves to ourselves and they pretty much did the same, although my husband was building a motor bike at the time and they used to come out and offer advice when he was trying to get it to run properly. Second place was one family who were all fine in the main but have now left and the place looks like a waste site - asbestos and piles of crap everywhere. Most of the lighter stuff has blown away (and we’ve had to pick it up). I still wouldn’t buy near a site though, even with a hefty discount. The risk of the local
environment being a complete mess and possibility of anti social behaviour is too high and if that is the case then moving will be near on impossible.

So we will continue to pull up in your car parks and playing fields and have yous clean up after us. After all it’s what you all deserve.

This one sentence belies everything else you have written here.

This

theres a reason this house came back on the market. And this is what could happen to you when you come to resell, people pulling out of the sale. I’d be far too worried about being able to sell it in the future and being stuck there forever. Unless something is truly a forever home it’s really important to consider ease of resale.

A friend of mine lives in Social housing (in Ireland) and her next door neighbours are Travellers. The Mum doesn't believe in paying for rubbish collection and dumps her rubbish in other people's bins. She has been told repeatedly not to do this but has no respect for any authority. They have a large dog in the back garden which nobody in the estate has ever seen walked. They are in a feud with a family who live about ten miles away and this has brought a lot of problems.

But I know that there are so few new builds in Dublin...it's up to you to weigh up the pros and cons. Any neighbour could be difficult but it is more likely that Travellers neighbours could be difficult.

Haha, the google definition;

A "woolly liberal" is a derogatory term for someone with vaguely defined, naive, or overly sentimental left-leaning views, often perceived as impractical, hypocritical, or out of touch with reality. It describes a person whose idealistic, well-meaning humanitarianism is seen as lacking intellectual rigor or failing to confront tough, hard truths

The local traveller population here are very testing however....it would help if they stopped stealing from my shop

Exactly! I don't believe that reason for a minute, they pulled out too and you should do the same. Whatever about the hear and now as the saying goes the day you buy is the day you sell and selling that in future could be a problem. I wouldn't risk the investment, let someone else take that chance.

But we’re racist 🤷‍♀️

Funny coincidence: headline in the local Derby paper this morning is 'Fears raised city Traveller site plans may wipe millions off property values'.

Hi OP!

I’m in the UK, so not sure how similar the situation is, but a couple I know very well (I consider them my “second parents”) moved into a house that had been built and owned by travellers and all of the other houses in the area (20+) were owned and lived in by travellers.

They were good neighbours to this couple - friendly, courteous, would do absolutely anything to help them. They really looked out for them.

However(!) things like planning permission and any sort of regulations were considered very much optional. There was an awful lot of “unofficial” building that went on. More and more statics popped up, water courses were blocked up improperly causing huge problems. What had been been a lovely pond and stream became something very sewage-y, what had been fields became a HUGE scrapyard for cars, etc. There was horrendous fly tipping, issues with wandering animals (domestic and larger), and some evident animal neglect and cruelty. Kids didn't cause any trouble around the houses (quite rural) but they did in the nearest town.

The only time the police ever appeared was when one of the families had been robbing cash machines with heavy equipment.

The couple I know stayed for ten years, managed to sell quite quickly (value increased) to a couple they stayed in touch with, who then sold within two years and lost money on the sale.

If I were you, I would probably reconsider.

I’m Irish and wouldn’t do it. It’s a shame that you love this house but I couldn’t live close to the travelling community. The theft/intimidation/noise/mess plus potential resale issues are too high.

No. Absolutley not

Exactly.

Personally I wouldn’t. There was a permanent traveller camp about 15 minutes drive away from my old house and it always looked a complete state. However that said, I do believe there are others that are well kept. They aren’t all the same.

We’ve had a few occurrences of travellers parking up near to ours now, and whilst I would love to give the benefit of doubt, when they have left on each occasion they have left mountains of rubbish and human excrement. In addition, coincidentally at the same time our local estate Facebook group was also rife with CCTV of young chaps out trying car doors in the dead of night, and noted a lot of vans slowly driving around our estate when I was out dog walking - which definitely was out of the ordinary

I’ve also had one occurrence when I was cleaning my car out, left pram on my driveway, all my car doors and boot was open and my hoover was next to my car, and I just managed to catch a traveller male grabbing my pram!!! Ruthless

something tells me that the previous buyer’s loan didn’t fall through…

Buying your first home is probably the most important financial decision you can make.

Be blunt with the agents and tell them that if you had known beforehand, you would not have offered. Tell them you will need a 25% discount to consider proceeding because the property is no longer worth what is was due to the poor sell on prospects.

The worst they can say is no. But if they come back with a yes, then you have a choice to make.

Personally, it would be a no from me.

Nope. Walk away. Even if you don't mind living there no one else will want to do it. I bet the potential buyers' loan did not fall through - I bet they got cold feet just like you.

Don’t do it. It’s not just the housing, it’s the issues in the area in general. We have a site in my parents (tiny) village. We now can’t go to the pub as there are so many fights, the shop has closed due to repeated thefts and the rate of general antisocial behaviour has gone up. They are being moved on later this year and the relief is palpable. Save yourself the heartache

No, don’t do it

I am sure you are honest and as good a neighbour in your street as anyone else but face a few facts please.
The OP did not say it was a single home in a neighbourhood she described a community of several homes.
Do you not believe the news stories about groups of up to 20 caravans taking over sports fields or parks and filth and rubbish that has to be cleared once they move on?
Do you deny the problems at Appleby every year for Horse Fair?

The estate agent lied, previous buyers found out what was happening.