Dublin Property Radar

Buying on the MetroLink Corridor in 2026: Ballymun, Glasnevin & Future-Station Areas

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Dublin Property Research Desk

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If you are house-hunting anywhere on the northern side of Dublin this year, the same question keeps coming up: should you buy near a future MetroLink station? The answer is not “yes” — it is “yes to some stops, no to others, and it depends entirely on what you can spend and how long you can wait.” If your search for “MetroLink stations Dublin property” keeps circling back to two suburbs, that is not an accident: Ballymun and Glasnevin are the corridor stops with actual houses around them, and they are where the buying decision is real. The corridor now has a legal green light: the Railway Order became operative on 12 January 2026, procurement is running in parallel streams, and the Minister says ground will break in August 2027 (metrolinkro.ie; Irish Independent). That makes 2026 the window when the interesting price decisions happen — before the diggers arrive and before any confirmed opening date starts compressing the timeline.

This is the buying-focused guide to the corridor’s two real residential neighbourhoods — Ballymun, where the median price is €246,000 and growth is running at 8.4%, and Glasnevin, at €355,500 with 7.3% gross rental yield — plus a realistic read of the other station areas (Mater, O’Connell Street, Tara, Charlemont) and the future stops that do not exist yet. It is the neighbourhood-spotlight companion to our full MetroLink corridor property guide . All market figures were verified on 5 September 2026.

1. MetroLink status 2026: approved, in procurement, digging from August 2027

Before any buying maths, the project status — because every price and yield below is a bet on this schedule:

Milestone Date Detail
Railway Order granted 30 Sep 2025 An Coimisiún Pleanála approved the Railway Order (RO) for the 18.8 km, 16-station line (metrolinkro.ie)
Railway Order operative 12 Jan 2026 RO operative under s.43(4), Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001 — TII may now build and acquire land (metrolinkro.ie)
Funding locked Nov 2025 €2bn from the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund for MetroLink 2026–2030, within the €24.3bn Sectoral Investment Plan for Transport (TII)
Enabling-works procurement 2026 Frameworks for utilities, archaeology and the Dublin Airport station box, which must finish before major tunnelling (MetroLink; ENR)
M500 concession launched May 2026 Design–Build–Finance–Operate–Maintain contract for trains, track, stations and systems plus 25 years of operation; notice value €7.3bn NPV (MetroLink)
Main civil packages award target Q3/Q4 2027 Separate civil and rail-systems packages, three bidders shortlisted each (ENR)
Construction start target Aug 2027 “We will break ground next August,” Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien said in June 2026; opening could be phased (Irish Independent)
Build duration 6–8 years Project guidance; no official opening date confirmed as of 2026 (Wikipedia)

The scale is the point: a fully segregated, automated, mostly underground metro built for up to 20,000 passengers per direction per hour at peak, initially every three minutes — the largest public-transport infrastructure investment in the State’s history, and the defining Dublin metro investment decision of the decade for anyone buying near its stations (ENR). For a buyer, three things follow:

  1. The legal risk is mostly gone. The Railway Order survived judicial review — a Ranelagh challenge was lodged in November 2025 and withdrawn the following month — so the alignment and station list are fixed unless cost forces a change (Wikipedia). You are no longer betting on whether the line happens; you are betting on when it opens.
  2. The timeline risk is real and long. Construction is targeted to start in August 2027 and take six to eight years, with phased opening already mooted. On the current schedule the first trains run around the mid-2030s — which means a buyer today is underwriting a 2035 commute (Irish Independent).
  3. The price-moving window is now. The Luas evidence (Section 7) says the biggest relative moves happen in the announcement-to-construction phase and again around opening. The Railway Order operative date is the announcement; the diggers are the confirmation. Between them sits 2026–2027 — the period when sellers start pricing the metro in and buyers can still find stock that has not.

2. Buying near a MetroLink station: what each corridor area costs in 2026

The corridor runs 18.8 km from Estuary in Swords to Charlemont on the Grand Canal, with 16 stations (metrolinkro.ie). Only some of those stops sit in real residential neighbourhoods — the rest are airport, business-park or city-centre interchanges. For buyers, six station areas matter, and the district figures below use the same PPR-based series as every guide in this category (Dublin house prices by area; Dublin rental yields by area):

Station area Postcode(s) Median (2026) 1-yr growth Gross yield Buyer read
Ballymun D11 (Finglas & Ballymun) €246,000 +8.4% ~8.4% Cheapest serious corridor market; biggest re-rating candidate; FTB and investor battleground
Glasnevin D9 (Glasnevin & Drumcondra) €355,500 +6.7% ~7.3% Family-belt compounder; three rail investments converging
Mater D7 / D9 / D1 edge D7: €330,000 +7.5% ~7.9% Hospital + Phibsborough catchment; Luas Cross City already there
O’Connell Street D1 (north inner city) €275,000 +6.3% ~10.2% Apartment-led, income-driven city-centre stock
Tara D2 (south of the Liffey) No D2 series; Dublin city €480,000 (CSO) — — DART interchange; office and Docklands flows; apartments
Charlemont D2 / D6 edge D6: €595,000 +6.0% ~5.0% Southern terminus; premium market; defence, not discovery

Sources: PPR-based district medians and growth (Dublish, March 2026 update); CSO RPPI June 2026 for the Dublin city median (CSO). Gross yields divide RTB registered rents by PPR sale prices; they run below asking-rent series, and net yields run roughly 2–3 points lower after mortgage interest, tax, property tax, insurance and voids. Against all of this: the Dublin region median is €500,000 and Dublin prices are growing 4.6% year on year (CSO) — Ballymun’s district is growing at nearly twice the city rate from a base half the regional median.

Ballymun and Glasnevin get the full deep dives (Sections 3–5). The other station areas are summarised in Section 6, because they behave more like each other than like the two suburbs — and because the real future-station story for buyers sits north of the city centre, in stops that are approved but not yet built.

3. Ballymun property prices in 2026: the corridor’s biggest re-rating candidate — and what to buy there

The numbers

If you track Ballymun property prices in 2026, the headline is a combination no other corridor stop matches. Dublin 11 (Finglas and Ballymun together) has a €246,000 median sale price, +8.4% annual growth and a ~8.4% gross rental yield on the registered-rent basis (Dublish; Dublish yields). That is roughly half the €500,000 Dublin regional median, growing almost twice as fast — the strongest median-plus-growth-plus-yield combination on the corridor. Ballymun also gets two MetroLink stops bracketing the suburb — Ballymun itself and Northwood at the business campus on its edge — and the Ballymun Library is even an official public-inspection point for the Railway Order documents, which tells you how central the suburb is to the project (metrolinkro.ie).

What is actually for sale (snapshot, early September 2026)

The D11 median blends every kind of sale — original-condition houses, regenerated estates, private apartments and new mixed-tenure developments — so look at what the median is made of. On Daft.ie when we checked, Ballymun’s listings split roughly 56% houses to 44% apartments, with a median asking price around €265,000 for a 2-bed apartment and around €462,500 for a 3-bed house — asking prices on mostly upgraded or new stock, well above the €246,000 all-sales median (Daft.ie — Ballymun). Real examples from the same snapshot:

  • €265,000 — 2-bed apartment at The Plaza complex (D09 eircode), asking
  • €310,000 fixed price, no bidding — 3-bed, 2-bath townhouse at The Charter, Santry Cross, Dublin 11, BER B3 (service charge ~€2,659/yr)
  • €304,000 sold vs €245,000 asking — a 2-bed, 2-bath apartment that went ~24% over its guide (Daft.ie — sold in Ballymun)

The last line is the one to internalise: asking prices at the cheap end of the corridor are guides, not prices, and bidding there has been aggressive on well-priced stock. Listings turn over weekly, so treat this as a flavour of the market and check the live pages before you bid (Daft.ie; MyHome).

The regeneration engine (2025–2028)

Ballymun is not a metro bet on an empty plot — it is a suburb mid-transformation, with three catalysts arriving before the metro:

  • BusConnects first. The Ballymun/Finglas to City Centre Core Bus Corridor construction contract went to GRAHAM in December 2025 (announced 15 December, signed 19 December), with site works expected through 2026 (BusConnects; scheme site). Ballymun gets a genuinely better bus service years before the metro — which supports rents and prices in the gap.
  • The town centre is being rebuilt. The Land Development Agency is bringing forward 564 apartments — studio to three-bed, in three blocks of six to twelve storeys — on the Silloge Road lands in the heart of Ballymun Town Centre, on the old shopping-centre site, the tallest residential scheme in the suburb since the towers were demolished. Public consultation ran in July 2026 (including a drop-in at the Axis Centre on 15 July), a planning application is targeted for Q4 2026, and construction could start in 2028 (Irish Times; LDA; Dublin People).
  • The housing pipeline is running. The largest social-housing development since the towers fell — 288 homes on the former flat-block sites — was approved for delivery in early 2025, and the local-area plan envisages roughly 2,000 more homes, mostly apartments, on vacant land (Irish Times; Irish Times archive).

That pipeline matters twice over for buyers: it is what changes the feel of the suburb before the metro arrives, and its new-build homes are exactly where Help to Buy and the First Home Scheme apply (schemes that do nothing for second-hand terraces — see the first-time-buyer section of our MetroLink corridor guide for the full scheme maths).

Who can buy here, and what the maths says

Central Bank rules cap first-time-buyer mortgages at 4× gross income with a minimum 10% deposit on the first €500,000 (Central Bank). Against Ballymun’s €246,000 median:

  • A single buyer on ~€55,000 can borrow ~€220,000 and, with a €24,600 deposit, reach the D11 median — the corridor’s only genuinely single-income entry point.
  • A couple on €80,000 combined can borrow ~€320,000 and reach well above the median — the €310,000 fixed-price Santry Cross townhouse is inside reach with a €34,500 deposit.
  • An investor buying at the median on a 10% deposit faces gross rent of roughly €1,700+/month implied by the ~8.4% gross yield — the income largely carries the wait for the metro, which is why the yield story matters on this side of the corridor.

Fees run on top: stamp duty at 1% on the first €1m, solicitor ~€950–€2,500 + VAT, survey €400–€700 — roughly €5,000–€7,000 above the deposit on a €260,000 purchase (CCPC). And expect to pay a premium at the sharp end: Dublin homes below €500,000 sold roughly 10% above asking through 2025, and citywide bidding ran ~6.9% over asking in Q1 2026 (Owen Reilly; Herbert & Lansdowne on Daft Q1 2026) — so view homes listed about 10% below your ceiling.

The honest caveats before you bid in Ballymun

  • Tenure mix varies street by street. Inside the old regeneration area, owner-occupation reached only about 28% — most households remain in social housing — so the private stock that trades is scarce and the mix differs from cul-de-sac to cul-de-sac (Irish Times). Ask the agent for the tenure breakdown on the specific development before you fall for a house.
  • Amenity is still arriving. Ballymun’s retail and café base is thinner than Glasnevin’s today; the town-centre rebuild and the 2028 LDA apartments are the plan, not the reality.
  • The wait is a decade, not a year. On the current schedule the suburb stays bus-only until the mid-2030s. Buy here because the regeneration and the numbers work on their own — treat the metro as the upside, not the reason.
  • Apartment service charges run €2,000+/yr on newer complexes and eat into net yields — check them before you underwrite a rental.

Where to buy: the pockets on the Main Street/Ballymun Road transport spine closest to the two metro stops and the BusConnects corridor, and around the new town-centre development. A quiet cul-de-sac far from both is a different, slower investment.

4. Glasnevin property prices in 2026: the family-belt compounder

The numbers

Glasnevin is the corridor’s calm play, and its numbers are the polite version of Ballymun’s: €355,500 median in Dublin 9 (Glasnevin and Drumcondra), +6.7% annual growth, ~7.3% gross yield (Dublish; Dublish yields). The stock is the difference: Victorian and Edwardian red brick around Griffith Avenue, mature semis, tree-lined streets, the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Cemetery and DCU’s main campus — around 19,000 students across DCU’s sites, with the Glasnevin campus and a sports campus on the Ballymun Road (DCU). This is the corridor’s family-and-rental belt, and it does not need a metro to be a good place to buy — it needs growth to continue, and it has three rail investments pointing at one postcode:

  • MetroLink Glasnevin station is planned as a heavy-rail interchange with Iarnród Éireann (Wikipedia).
  • DART+ West will electrify and intensify the Maynooth and M3 Parkway lines; Iarnród Éireann’s preferred option includes a new fully integrated Glasnevin/Phibsborough station serving both DART+ and MetroLink. Its Railway Order became operative in June 2025, with enabling works expected from 2026 (Iarnród Éireann; DART+).
  • The Luas Green Line already runs at Broombridge on the district’s edge (Cross City, opened December 2017), roughly a kilometre from the village core, and Drumcondra’s rail station serves the northern edge (Wikipedia).

No other corridor stop has that stack. Glasnevin is already a functioning transport node; the metro and DART+ make it a junction.

What your money buys (snapshot, early September 2026)

The €355,500 median mixes apartments with houses, so the market splits in two (Daft.ie — Glasnevin):

  • Around €350,000–€400,000: compact terraces needing work on the district’s edges, and 2-bed apartments in the established complexes (River Gardens on Glasnevin Hill and similar). This is the realistic FTB entry to D9 — and note that much of it sits on the D11 side of Glasnevin’s boundaries (Ballymun Road, Finglas Road edges), where prices run softer than the red-brick core.
  • €450,000–€650,000+: the Griffith Avenue red-brick market. Recent sold listings include extended period homes at €575,000–€605,000 (one end-of-terrace sold at €605,000 against a €575,000 asking price) (Daft.ie — sold in Glasnevin; Kelly Bradshaw Dalton). Fully renovated, extended red brick on the Griffith Avenue side is the top of the local market and trades accordingly.
  • The borrowing maths: a couple on €100,000 combined can borrow ~€400,000 and, with a ~€44,500 deposit, reach comfortably into D9’s median territory; a couple on €80,000 reaches the median only at the very top of their approval — so the realistic Glasnevin FTB entry is the apartment-and-compact-terrace band, or bidding discipline on the softer edges.

The rental and family case

The rental side is underpinned by DCU: student and staff demand keeps lettings active year-round, which is why the ~7.3% gross yield holds up despite the higher purchase price (Dublish). Implied average registered rent at that yield is roughly €2,150/month — again, new-let asking rents run higher and net yields run 2–3 points lower.

For families, the school belt is real and verified: Dominican College Griffith Avenue (girls’ secondary, ~800 pupils), Holy Faith Secondary School on the Glasnevin side, and St Vincent’s CBS (boys’ secondary, Finglas Road) are the best-known local secondaries, with primaries to match — but enrolment pressure is normal in D9, so verify catchments against each school’s published admissions policy (Dominican College; gov.ie school record; Department of Education school finder).

The honest caveats in Glasnevin

  • The median understates the house market. €355,500 is a blended figure; a house in the Griffith Avenue core starts well above it. Buyers anchored on the median will be surprised by asking prices on the red-brick streets.
  • Century-old stock has century-old problems: BERs are often poor, parking is on-street in the core, and extensions vary in quality and compliance. Ask for the BER before bidding and budget for retrofit on anything pre-1920.
  • The yield premium sits in the wrong pockets for a family buyer — student-heavy areas near DCU rent well but are not where you want to raise a family. The two goals point to different streets.
  • Growth is steadier than Ballymun’s — which is exactly why it is lower-risk. Glasnevin does not need a re-rating to work; it needs compounding to continue.

5. Ballymun vs Glasnevin: which corridor neighbourhood should you buy?

Ballymun (D11) Glasnevin (D9)
Median sale price €246,000 €355,500
1-yr growth +8.4% +6.7%
Gross yield (registered-rent basis) ~8.4% ~7.3%
Typical stock Regenerated estates, apartments, new mixed-tenure Red brick, mature semis, apartments
MetroLink stops Two (Ballymun + Northwood) One, as DART+ interchange
Other rail BusConnects (2026), no rail today Luas Green (Broombridge), Drumcondra rail, DART+ West
Single-buyer reach Yes (median ≈ 4× on ~€55k income) Mostly no (needs ~€89k income or a partner)
Family stock Emerging; tenure mix varies by street Established; verified school belt
Upside Re-rating candidate — but a decade-long wait Compound growth — fewer ways to be wrong
Main risk Timeline, tenure mix, thin amenity today Overpaying for the red-brick premium; period-stock costs

The honest summary: Ballymun is the bet, Glasnevin is the balance. If you are a first-time buyer whose approval tops out near €250,000–€300,000, or an investor who wants income to carry a long wait, Ballymun is where the corridor’s upside is priced cheapest — but you are buying a transformation story and must underwrite a mid-2030s payoff. If you are a family, a couple on a stronger combined income, or a buyer who wants schools and amenity now, Glasnevin costs €110,000 more at the median and is worth most of it — the question there is whether the red-brick premium has already run. Both beat the city-centre stops for most buyers, because those are apartment markets with a different risk profile entirely (Section 6).

6. The future-station play: Mater, O’Connell Street, Tara, Charlemont — and the stops that don’t exist yet

The four city stops (confirmed stations, urban catchments)

Mater — serves the Mater Hospital on Eccles Street and the residential ring around it: Phibsborough’s terraces, the North Circular Road apartments and the north-inner-city streets. Its catchment is Dublin 7 plus the D1 edge — D7 median €330,000, +7.5% growth, ~7.9% gross yield (Dublish). It gains the least novelty: the Luas Cross City line already runs through Phibsborough (opened 2017). For buyers, this is the stop where our Dublin 7 (Phibsborough & Stoneybatter) house-prices guide is the right read — the metro adds a second line to a neighbourhood that is already gentrifying.

O’Connell Street — the north side’s busiest interchange, where MetroLink meets the Luas Cross City lines. The catchment is D1 apartment stock: €275,000 median, +6.3%, ~10.2% gross yield — small units, income-driven rather than family-driven (Dublish). TII bought the former Carlton Cinema in July 2026 for the station entrance, a reminder that city-centre land values are already moving around the alignment (Wikipedia). Buy here for yield and city living, not for a garden.

Tara — the DART/Commuter interchange, whose catchment is the whole south-east rail basin: office and Docklands flows, apartment-led stock. There is no D2 median in our district series; benchmark against the €480,000 Dublin city median (CSO). A commuter’s stop, not a neighbourhood play.

Charlemont — the southern terminus, interchanging with the Luas Green Line on the Grand Canal at the Ranelagh border. The premium southside market begins here at a €595,000 Dublin 6 median with ~5.0% gross yield (Dublish). The read is the reverse of Ballymun’s: already expensive, so MetroLink defends values rather than creating a re-rating. If you want the metro’s uplift maths working hardest, you are on the wrong end of the line at Charlemont.

The stops that don’t exist yet: Collins Avenue, Griffith Park, Northwood

North of Glasnevin and south of the airport sit three approved stations whose catchments are only partly built today — and this is where the “buy before the diggers” logic is sharpest:

  • Collins Avenue (DCU/Whitehall) — will sit at the DCU edge of Whitehall, a student-and-staff catchment wrapped around one of the country’s biggest universities plus the St Aidan’s CBS and Whitehall school belt (Wikipedia). DCU is not going anywhere; demand around the campus is structural. The stock nearby is a genuine mixed bag of 1930s–1970s houses and apartments, with DCU-related lettings underpinning yields. This is arguably the corridor’s best undiscovered family-and-rental hybrid — a Collins Avenue address today is priced as a decent D9/D11 edge, not as a two-minute walk to a metro serving the airport and city.
  • Griffith Park (Finglas Road) — named for the park beside the Finglas Road, this is the stop where Finglas meets Glasnevin’s southern edge. Its catchment is where D11’s cheaper stock starts rubbing against D9’s schools — an arbitrage pocket for buyers who want Glasnevin-adjacent family amenity at Ballymun-side prices. Expect the 0.5–1.5 km walkable ring around the planned entrance to be the battleground as construction approaches.
  • Northwood — the large office campus on the DCU edge between Ballymun and the airport. It brackets Ballymun with a second stop and serves the office catchment; for buyers it matters as the northern anchor of the Ballymun regeneration area.

A note of caution for all three: these stops are on the operative Railway Order, but their entrance locations and phasing will be refined during detailed design and enabling works, and the land around them is not yet assembled. Do not pay a “station premium” today for a station whose door you cannot yet stand at. The disciplined move is the one the Luas data supports everywhere: buy the 500 m to 1.5 km walkable ring — close enough to walk, far enough that you are buying a house, not a station concourse (PropertyData).

7. The Luas precedent: what rail actually did to prices — and the 40–60% claim, examined

Both bulls and bears argue from the same episode — the Luas Green Line, which opened on 30 June 2004 from St Stephen’s Green to Sandyford and was extended to Bride’s Glen at Cherrywood on 16 October 2010 (Wikipedia — Green Line). Corridor commentary sometimes claims that homes near Green Line stops saw uplift of roughly 40–60% versus off-corridor areas across the 2004–2010 window. That figure is repeated often enough to deserve a health warning: we could not re-verify a 40–60% range against published primary research at writing. The peer-reviewed and data-led evidence points to a smaller, better-documented effect:

  • A standing premium, not a one-off spike. Geocoding 40,896 Property Price Register sales from 2024–25, Property Data Ireland found homes within 1 km of a Green Line stop sell around a +15% premium versus homes beyond 3 km of any stop — and measured a +27% DART premium and a negative Red Line one, the cautionary half of the story (PropertyData).
  • Faster appreciation after opening. TU Dublin research found prices within 1 km of Green Line stops rose faster than comparable areas after opening — the direct evidence for a real tram effect rather than pre-existing wealth (PropertyData). Daft’s 2018 analysis put the sales premium at ~15% (about €61,000) within 1 km of a stop, with rents ~15% higher too (TheJournal.ie); its earlier 2016 Rail Report found an average ~6% premium across DART and Luas, with the Green Line’s extension adding over 10% around Cherrywood (TheJournal.ie).
  • The sweet spot is not the station door. The 0–500 m band prices below the 500 m–1.5 km ring, because station-front land fills with apartments; the family-house premium sits in the walkable 0.5–1.5 km band, worth roughly €115,000 versus transit-free Dublin (PropertyData).
  • The Red Line is the limit case. Rail access alone did not transform Tallaght or Saggart; transit amplifies demand that already exists (PropertyData). The northside lesson: Ballymun’s re-rating depends on the regeneration and BusConnects work happening, not on the rails alone.

What that means for the corridor: underwrite on the verified range — a real but modest premium (roughly 10–15% in the walkable ring), faster appreciation after opening, and the effect concentrated in neighbourhoods already improving. If the 40–60% figure ever turns out to be true for a specific stop, it will be because that stop was in a genuinely transforming area with a long construction runway — which is, precisely, the Ballymun thesis. But it is an unverified industry claim, so do not pay 2035 prices in 2026 on the strength of it.

8. The risks: timeline, funding and the value-capture question

  1. Timeline slippage. An operative Railway Order is not a shovel. Main contract awards target late 2027, the August 2027 ground-breaking is a ministerial target, and no opening date is official — phased opening has already been floated, and a decade-plus of construction on a mostly underground line through Georgian and medieval Dublin carries archaeology risk no one can price out (Wikipedia; Irish Independent). Every slip pushes the payoff later, and it is the buyers at the discount stops — who need the payoff most — who feel it most.
  2. Cost and funding. The 2021 planning estimate was €7–12bn; €2bn of Climate and Nature Fund money was committed in November 2025; and July 2026 reports put a possible Cabinet preliminary budget at up to €19bn, with higher published figures disputed by the Minister (Wikipedia; TII; Gript). A heavier final business case raises the odds of scope or phasing changes. The station list is fixed unless cost changes it — cost is the one force that could.
  3. Value capture. Governments have discussed taxing the windfall that public infrastructure creates for landowners for years without enacting it: the 2021 General Scheme of the Land Value Sharing and Urban Development Zones Bill never progressed, and the OECD documents Ireland’s reliance on developer contributions rather than true value capture (OECD). A future levy is plausible precisely because MetroLink is so large — and it would most plausibly target development land and large sites, not existing homes. For the second-hand buyer this is a watch-item, not a deal-breaker; for anyone buying a plot or a site near a stop, it is a genuine underwriting risk. Watch the autumn Budget and the final business case.
  4. Overpaying for the promise. The classic megaproject mistake is paying 2035 prices in 2026. The expensive southern stops and much of Glasnevin have limited re-rating headroom; the discount markets hold the upside — but only if the regeneration arrives with the rails. And with homes below €500,000 already selling ~10% over asking, part of the metro story is already in Ballymun’s prices too.

9. Frequently asked questions

Will MetroLink increase property prices near its stations?
Structurally but modestly, on the Luas evidence: homes within 1 km of a Green Line stop carry roughly a 15% premium and appreciated faster after opening, with the effect strongest in the 0.5–1.5 km walkable ring and in neighbourhoods already improving (PropertyData; TheJournal.ie). The Red Line shows rail alone does not transform a weak area. Expect the biggest relative moves at the corridor’s discount stops — Ballymun above all — and the smallest at its premium ones.

Is Ballymun a good place to buy in 2026?
On the numbers, the strongest combination on the corridor: a €246,000 median, +8.4% growth and ~8.4% gross yield, with BusConnects arriving in 2026, the LDA’s 564-home town-centre scheme targeting planning in Q4 2026 and construction in 2028, and two metro stops approved (Dublish; Irish Times). The caveats are tenure mix street by street, amenity still arriving, and a wait measured in years, not months. Buy the transport-spine pockets and underwrite 2%-a-year rent growth.

What are Glasnevin property prices in 2026?
The Dublin 9 median (Glasnevin and Drumcondra) is €355,500, up 6.7% year on year, with ~7.3% gross yield (Dublish). In practice the market splits: apartments and compact terraces from roughly €300,000–€400,000, extended Griffith Avenue red brick from about €575,000 upward (Daft.ie).

Ballymun or Glasnevin — which should a first-time buyer choose in 2026?
Choose Ballymun if your approval tops out around €250,000–€300,000, you can hold for a decade, and you want the corridor’s cheapest entry and strongest upside. Choose Glasnevin if you have ~€90,000+ of combined income (or a bigger deposit), want schools and amenity now, and prefer steadier compounding to a re-rating bet. Ballymun is the bet; Glasnevin is the balance (Section 5).

What can I buy near the corridor for €300,000?
In Ballymun, a fixed-price 3-bed townhouse at Santry Cross (€310,000) or a 2-bed apartment around €265,000 asking (Daft.ie); in Glasnevin, entry apartments and compact terraces on the district’s edges; in D1 near O’Connell Street, apartments around the €275,000 median. Expect to bid ~10% over asking on the good ones.

When did the MetroLink Railway Order of 2026 become operative — and when will the line open?
No official opening date. The Railway Order became operative on 12 January 2026; main contract awards target late 2027; the Minister says ground breaks in August 2027; the build is expected to take 6–8 years, possibly in phases (metrolinkro.ie; Irish Independent). Working assumption: first trains around the mid-2030s.

What is the “value capture” tax risk for buyers near MetroLink?
The State has discussed taxing land-value windfalls for years without enacting a levy — the 2021 Land Value Sharing Bill never progressed (OECD). A future MetroLink-era levy would most plausibly target development land and large sites rather than existing homes — a watch-item for second-hand buyers, a genuine risk for anyone buying land or a site near a stop.

Which MetroLink station area has the best rental yield?
The city stops yield highest on registered rents — O’Connell Street’s D1 catchment at ~10.2% gross — followed by Ballymun’s D11 at ~8.4% (Dublish). Net yields run 2–3 points lower after costs and tax, and under the 2% national rent cap (in force since 1 March 2026) in-tenancy growth is capped, so underwrite on 2%-a-year (RTB).

10. Bottom line

MetroLink is approved, in procurement and due under construction from August 2027 — which makes 2026 the window when corridor prices start moving and the choice of which stop matters more than the choice of whether to buy near one. The evidence says rail adds a real but modest premium and accelerates appreciation where neighbourhoods are already improving. That points one way along this corridor: Ballymun is where the re-rating upside is priced cheapest — a €246,000 median, 8.4% growth, ~8.4% gross yield, BusConnects arriving in 2026 and a 564-home town-centre scheme planned for 2028 — bought with eyes open about tenure mix, amenity and a decade-long wait. Glasnevin is the balance — €355,500, a verified school belt, DCU demand and three rail investments converging — the steadier family and rental play with fewer ways to be wrong. The city stops suit apartments and investors; the unbuilt northside stops (Collins Avenue, Griffith Park, Northwood) are where the buy-before-the-diggers logic runs sharpest. Buy the 500 m to 1.5 km ring, buy the street where transport and amenity arrive together, underwrite the 2% rent cap, and never pay 2035 prices in 2026. For the full stop-by-stop corridor data including Swords and the outer belt, read the MetroLink corridor property guide .

Download the free Dublin by the Numbers 2026 PDF — every shortlisted district’s median price, growth, yield and transport on one screen, current to September 2026.

Buying along the corridor? Book a free consultation with our Dublin mortgage or buying specialist — or get one Dublin property email a week, data first .

Next, read: Best Areas to Buy in Dublin in 2026: The Full Guide by Buyer Type — MetroLink Corridor Property Guide 2026: Prices by Stop — Dublin 7 (Phibsborough & Stoneybatter) House Prices 2026 — Dublin Rental Yields by Area 2026 — How to Win a Bidding War on a Dublin Home in 2026 .

Sources (verified 5 September 2026)

  1. MetroLink Railway Order project site: RO granted 30 Sep 2025 (An Coimisiún Pleanála); RO operative 12 Jan 2026 under s.43(4) Transport (Railway Infrastructure) Act 2001; 16 stations, ~18.8 km, Estuary–Charlemont; Ballymun Library an inspection point. – https://www.metrolinkro.ie
  2. MetroLink (Dublin), Wikipedia: station list and route map with Luas/Iarnród Éireann interchanges; M500 procurement (€7.3bn NPV notice); Carlton Cinema site acquired Jul 2026 for O’Connell Street station; Nov 2025 €2bn ICNF approval; Jul 2026 reports of a possible ~€19bn preliminary budget; JR lodged Nov 2025, withdrawn Dec 2025; no official opening date; 6–8-year build guidance. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetroLink_(Dublin)
  3. ENR, “Ireland Splits $18B MetroLink Procurement”: M401/M402 packages with awards targeted Q3/Q4 2027; enabling works incl. Dublin Airport station box; capacity 20,000 pphpd; initial 3-minute headway. – https://www.enr.com/articles/62986-ireland-splits-18b-metrolink-procurement-into-separate-civil-rail-systems-packages
  4. Irish Independent (21 Jun 2026): Minister O’Brien, “We will break ground next August [2027]”; possible phased opening. – https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/metrolink-could-open-in-phases-after-breaking-ground-next-summer-minister-darragh-obrien-says/a/157349440.html
  5. TII press release (26 Nov 2025): Cabinet approval of the €24.3bn Sectoral Investment Plan for Transport 2026–2030 incl. €2bn ICNF allocation for MetroLink. – https://www.tii.ie/en/news/press-releases/minister-obrien-secures-cabinet-approval-for-243-billion-sectoral-investment-plan-for-transport-2026-2030
  6. MetroLink news: M500 contract notice (trains, track, stations, 25-year operation); enabling-works frameworks; archaeology and heritage contracts. – https://www.metrolink.ie/en/news/procurement/metrolink-announces-contract-for-supplying-trains-tracks-and-stations-and-operating-service-for-25-years
  7. Gript: Minister O’Brien rejects reported €23bn cost figure as “far off the mark”. – https://gript.ie/metrolink-e23bn-cost-far-off-the-mark-says-obrien
  8. Dublish, Dublin House Prices by Area 2026 (PPR-based, March 2026): D11 €246,000 +8.4%; D9 €355,500 +6.7%; D7 €330,000 +7.5%; D1 €275,000 +6.3%; D6 €595,000 +6.0%. – https://dublish.ie/guides/dublin-house-prices-by-area-2026
  9. Dublish, Dublin Rental Yields by Area 2026 (registered-rent basis: RTB registered rents ÷ PPR): D11 ~8.4%; D9 ~7.3%; D7 ~7.9%; D1 ~10.2%; D6 ~5.0%. – https://dublish.ie/guides/dublin-rental-yields-by-area-2026
  10. CSO, Residential Property Price Index June 2026 (19 Aug 2026): Dublin +4.6% YoY; Dublin median €500,000; Dublin city €480,000; national €396,000. – https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-rppi/residentialpropertypriceindexjune2026
  11. Property Data Ireland, “The DART & Luas Effect” (2024–25 PPR sales, 40,896 sales): Green Line within-1km premium +15% (€500,000 vs €435,000 beyond 3 km); DART +27%; Red Line −13.5%; 0.5–1.5 km sweet spot; ~€115,000 transit gap; TU Dublin studies. – https://propertydata.ie/articles/dart-luas-effect-dublin-property-prices
  12. TheJournal.ie (Oct 2018) on the Daft.ie Luas study: ~15% sales premium (~€61,000) and ~15% rent premium within 1 km of a Luas stop. – https://www.thejournal.ie/daft-property-prices-luas-4275356-Oct2018
  13. TheJournal.ie (Jul 2016) on the Daft.ie Rail Report: ~6% average premium near DART/Luas 2006–2014; Green Line biggest impact; Cherrywood extension boosted prices by >10% and rents by up to 5%. – https://www.thejournal.ie/luas-rental-market-2883446-Jul2016
  14. Wikipedia, Green Line (Luas): opened 30 Jun 2004 (St Stephen’s Green–Sandyford); Bride’s Glen extension opened 16 Oct 2010. – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Line_(Luas)
  15. BusConnects Dublin: Ballymun/Finglas to City Centre Core Bus Corridor construction contract awarded Dec 2025; site works anticipated from 2026. – https://busconnects.ie/cities/dublin/core-bus-corridors
  16. Liffey Valley scheme site (BusConnects): GRAHAM contract signed 19 Dec 2025 for the Ballymun/Finglas corridor. – https://liffeyvalleyscheme.ie/busconnects-dublin-infrastructure-head-discusses-ballymun-finglas-corridor-as-contract-is-signed
  17. Irish Times (8 Jul 2026): LDA to build 564 apartments (three blocks, six to twelve storeys) on the former Ballymun shopping centre site at Silloge Road, Ballymun Town Centre. – https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2026/07/08/former-ballymun-shopping-centre-site-to-be-redeveloped-into-564-apartments
  18. Land Development Agency, Silloge Road Ballymun project page: 560+ homes, studio–3-bed mix; public consultation Jul 2026. – https://lda.ie/projects/silloge-road
  19. Dublin People (15 Jul 2026): Silloge Road planning submission expected Q4 2026; construction start 2028. – https://dublinpeople.com/news/northsidewest/articles/2026/07/15/ballymun-shopping-centre-site-earmarked-for-housing
  20. Irish Times (21 Jan 2025): Ballymun 288-home social development; ~2,000 more homes possible under the local-area plan; LDA talks on affordable housing at the former Town Centre site. – https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2025/01/21/ballymun-to-get-biggest-social-housing-development-since-towers-demolition
  21. Irish Times (2017): Ballymun Local Area Plan, ~34 hectares vacant land, ~2,000 homes; owner-occupation ~28% after regeneration. – https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/council-approves-plan-to-build-2-000-homes-in-ballymun-1.3151320
  22. DART+ West (dartplus.ie): Railway Order operative Jun 2025 after judicial review; enabling works expected 2026; electrified Maynooth/M3 Parkway to Connolly and proposed Spencer Dock. – https://www.dartplus.ie/en-ie/projects/dart-west
  23. Iarnród Éireann, DART+ West Emerging Preferred Option: new fully integrated station at Phibsborough/Glasnevin serving DART+ Maynooth Line and MetroLink. – https://www.irishrail.ie/en-ie/about-us/iarnrod-eireann-projects-and-investments/dart-programme/dart-west-public-consultation/dart-west-line-emerging-preferred-option
  24. Daft.ie area pages (snapshot, early Sep 2026): Ballymun for-sale medians and examples; Ballymun sold properties; Glasnevin houses for sale; Glasnevin sold end-of-terrace houses. – https://www.daft.ie/property-for-sale/ballymun-dublin ; https://www.daft.ie/sold-properties/ballymun-dublin ; https://www.daft.ie/property-for-sale/glasnevin-dublin/houses ; https://www.daft.ie/sold-properties/glasnevin-dublin/end-of-terrace-houses
  25. Kelly Bradshaw Dalton, Glasnevin area sales (red-brick period homes €575k+). – https://www.kbd.ie/property-area/glasnevin
  26. DCU (Dublin City University): ~19,000 students across campuses; Glasnevin campus and St Claire’s sports campus on the Ballymun Road. – https://www.dcu.ie
  27. Dominican College Griffith Avenue (girls’ secondary, Dublin 9; ~800 pupils); gov.ie school record. – https://www.dominican-college.com ; https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-education/schools/dominican-college-2
  28. Department of Education school finder (for catchment verification). – https://www.gov.ie/en/service/school-finder/
  29. Central Bank of Ireland, mortgage measures (4× income FTB / 3.5× others; 10% deposit owner-occupied). – https://www.centralbank.ie/financial-system/financial-stability/macro-prudential-policy/mortgage-measures
  30. CCPC: stamp duty 1% on the first €1m; costs of buying. – https://www.ccpc.ie/manage-your-money/buying-a-home/about-mortgages/understanding-mortgages
  31. RTB: rental law changes from 1 March 2026, national 2% rent cap. – https://rtb.ie/renting/rental-law-changes-from-1-march/
  32. Owen Reilly Report 2025 / Q1 2026 commentary: ~10% over asking below €500,000; bidding dynamics. – https://www.owenreilly.ie/the-owen-reilly-report-2025 ; https://www.owenreilly.ie/current-trends-in-the-dublin-property-market-2026
  33. Herbert & Lansdowne on the Daft.ie Q1 2026 Sales Report: Dublin “market heat” ~6.9% over asking. – https://herbertlansdowne.ie/2026/04/02/house-price-trends-dublin-latest-daft-ie-sales-report-q1-2026
  34. OECD, Global Compendium of Land Value Capture Policies (Ireland chapter): 2021 General Scheme of Land Value Sharing and Urban Development Zones Bill; Ireland’s developer-contribution regime. – https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/global-compendium-of-land-value-capture-policies_4f9559ee-en/full-report/ireland_3547819a.html

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