Moving back to Ireland from UK - who’s done it?

[ImEoinMcLove]

I’ve just discovered Craicnet!

My husband and I are looking to move back to Dublin after 12 years in London, along with our 18 month old DS. We’re both from elsewhere in Ireland but looking at Dublin for job opportunities and the buzz!

We’re pleasantly surprised at the job market and hopeful we can both get jobs that broadly match our UK salaries. We will need to sell our house here though.

Looking for advice from anyone who’s done this...

1. If you were both looking for new jobs did you go when one of you secured a good one, on the hope the other would follow suit?
2. How did you sort accommodation? We’ll have to rent for awhile regardless of the sale of our UK home but from what I heard you need to be prepared to fight to the death for a rental place at open viewings? Any tips?
3. How did you do the actual logistics with regards to moving/ storage etc? Did you drive your car over?
4. How have you found childcare and schools? (We’re looking at south dublin city for context)

Any help or advice would br so appreciated as this seems very daunting when I start thinking through all the variables!

Thanks!

Watching with interest.

We haven’t made the move yet, but are planning to in a couple of years. It is indeed not a renter’s market and the rentals seem high for what you get so we’ll probably stay put until we get a deposit together for something in south Dublin, although we’re also thinking to go further out along the Luas.

For schools, we’re absolutely desperate to get into an educate together school, as we are not religious, and schools seem to be mostly run by religious establishments. Waiting lists are long though, so we’re trying to get on lists now.

Also should mention that it’s really hard to get a home loan atm that’s what’s really delayed our move. I think we’ll at the very least need a job with a salary denominated in Euros before we’ll even get a look in.

Pineapple - yes we’re banking on getting past our probationary periods in new roles before even being considered for a mortgage.

Rents look crazy but we kinda want to base ourselves where we hope to buy so we can get DS settled in childcare etc.

Schools seem ridiculously stressful too! We’re putting his name down now as well - I think I prefer the UK catchment area system as opposed to enroll them the minute their born thing 🤣

We moved back to Dublin in 2000 after 20 years in London.

School was easy as we are Protestant and the parish school has to take parishioners’ children. Some primary schools are harder to get into than others, for instance Educate Together or Gaelscoils, but in general all national schools are a reasonable standard and you will get in somewhere especially if you belong to a parish.
(More to follow, it’s a pain positing from a phone.)

I’m a SAHM so DH was working in Ireland for about nine months while I stayed in London with the DC to finish the school year. That also meant that we didn’t need to find childcare. The crèches in my area all do drop off and pick up from all the local schools, and you find that schools have slightly different start and finish times to neighbouring schools. In my kids’ national school some of the mums do child minding, but you wouldn’t be able to arrange that before you move.

We drove our car over from London, you have to have owned it for at least six months you moved over, and you will need proof that you were living in the UK and are now permanently in Ireland, documents like mortgages/rental agreements, utility bills, school reports etc. So make sure you don’t shred all your UK stuff. We used a good international moving company to pack and move the household stuff.

I have just done it! We moved our business so that brought work with us. Otherwise was OK. Didn't want to live in Dublin due to cost and school issues, so went slightly further north into Meath and is a bit cheaper and calmer. Schools places were hard to find, DC are going to be going out to next village to get spaces. And I'd forgotten about copy books and having to cover books!
Has been a great move for us so far. Nice to be back home.

Watching with interest, as we are contemplating this, though we've been away (mostly in England, but also in the US and ME) since the late 1990s...

Accommodation is the real issue, unfortunately. It's hugely expensive to rent and while there are a lot of new houses being built there still isn't enough housing stock available. New developments tend to have overnight queueing to buy them on the day that they are released. There is one by my DC's school that had people queueing for 48 hours because they were very good value and relatively roomy. Also, most new builds are put up very quickly and appear to be made from cardboard, so I think quality might be sliding back down to what it was at the height of the Celtic Tiger.

A lot depends on your budget, there is a huge amount of competition for houses up to about half a million. That's because it's still quite hard to get a mortgage and they are extremely conservative in calculating how much customers can afford to pay back, so I suppose they did at least learn some lessons from the catastrophic end of the Celtic Tiger. If your budget is higher, say from €750K upwards then there is less competition.

We did it. Unexpectedly as was offered job that was too good to turn down.
DH followed in six months. Lived with my parents for a while and then bought a house. We were lucky as this was in middle of recession and houses were lower in price. And we were lucky as sold London flat immediately.
Accommodation and schools will be your issue. Our local Educate Together is on first come from registration at 2 years.
A friend contacted lots of schools and worked out their enrolment criteria before looking in the area
Also as mentioned before mortgages are difficult.

Overall we love it including my English husband and I do feel my life and our families life is better than if we were living in London

Also, don't forget that tax is higher here, so if you are earning the same gross as you were in London your take home pay will be less, which in turn will affect the size of your potential mortgage. On the other hand, they do seem to have a better life/work balance. I see more of my DH than I used to because even though his instinct is to work all hours everyone else in his office goes home at reasonable time so he does too and I know far more people with flexible/part-time jobs at reasonably high levels than I did in London.

Make sure you cost everything properly (i.e. medical insurance) - Ireland is very expensive... Also be prepared to pay your rental deposit in cash on the day, maybe you haven't got that far yet!

Thanks so much everyone - lots to think about.

I've been doing a ton of research and have a big spreadsheet on the go. I've been looking at our current cost of living and trying to assess how it would change in Dublin - some things are clearly worse as you've pointed out (like tax, no NHS etc) but some are better.

The school point is scaring me a bit as we're not religious so seems like we'd be at the bottom of the pile for most enrollment policies.

I'm also bricking it about taking DS out of childcare here where he's so settled and moving him. I know he's young and will benefit from the change in lifestyle, seeing more of family etc. But you can't help but worry most about the kids can you?!

PS. what kind of rental deposit are we talking? It's been a few years since we've rented here and it was 6 weeks deposit, first month rent in advance & some other random charges. Is it similar at home?

Can’t help you on rental stuff.
But go onto Educate Together website and get details of their schools and apply for them. Most don’t operate a catchment area.
Good luck

There is a new-ish Educate Together in Stepaside (not really Stepaside IMO, but I suppose near enough). I don't know whether the newness would improve your chances of getting in there or not. They have also opened an Educate Together secondary school in the same building (it will eventually move to its own building) for which the junior school is a feeder.

There are literally thousands of new homes in the pipeline in Stepaside/Kilternan/Carrickmines/Ballyogan (I think 2,000 in Kilternan alone in the next 2 years) so it might be a good area to consider to buy in a couple of years time. Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown CC planning dept are pushing through a lot of new high-ish density developments with an emphasis on family homes. Mostly in the form of 3-storey terraced houses with teeny, tiny gardens.

There are a number of new Educate Togethers opening that are taking enrollment. I think there is one in Harold’s Cross.
If you are Protestant it will be easier to get a school place in south Dublin.

I wouldn't worry too much about being non-religious, there's no real requirement to turn up a church much or anything as far as I can see, I think it's more or less a case of declaring yourself to be a particular religion. I didn't have to show baptismal records or anything, although I did need a letter from our vicar for DS to get into (private) secondary school. Unfortunately something ridiculous like 98% of national schools are religious, less in Dublin but still a very high percentage, so if you definitely want a secular school you are limiting your choices a lot.

The Dept of Ed are making noises about wanting to change this, but part of the problem is that in a lot of cases the churches actually own the land that the schools are built on. Certainly in the case of my DC's national school the church and school are side by side and share a lot of facilities and activities.

If you aren't from Dublin, is there a reason why you are dead set on the south side? I think the school situation seems a lot more reasonable on the north side from comparing our own experience with friends and colleagues. Areas I'm familiar with are Malahide, Portmarnock, Howth, Sutton.

You only apply to national school the January before your child is due to start (apart from educate together) but at least you'll have a good local primary school option (albeit baptism issue). Check out Malahide Portmarnock ET and Belmayne ET and ask about likely availability.

The ETs prioritise according to when you put your child's name down but the other national schools generally just go by cachment, age and religion.

There aren't private secondary schools in these areas (generally speaking) so none of the enrol at birth and only get in if your dad went there stuff. It also means the schools are more of a level playing field and more what we are used too - as Irish non-Dubliners - meaning all the local kids pretty much go to the local school (with a few getting on the bus/dart for Belvedere or Loreto on the Green).

The baptism barrier will be removed for the 2019/2020 intake apparently, so that should help you out in getting into a school. Baptism records etc can't be required then. Mind you apparently the church plan to fight that so it may take longer.

Watching with interest ! Just spent the weekend in west cork with family and I seriously didn’t want to come back this time and for the first time ever I’m back and wish I was in Ireland. Been in London almost 7 years

Rental deposit is usually one month's rent, although I've heard of people being charged six weeks... plus the first month, so you may need to stump up the guts of four grand just to get a place. Second the posters suggesting the northside, everything from housing to school places seem to be scarcer on the southside.

I think we need to look at some areas North side too... I went to college on the south side so it’s what I know and where I feel comfortable.

We don’t want to be miles out - what areas on northside are villagey but within easy reach of the city centre?

Moved to rural Ireland after 10 years in London.Dc were 3 and 1. Settled in very quickly.

Used an international moving firm and drove our cars back. Had no jobs lined up but savings etc to fall back on. Had built a house here prior to moving back.

Both happy now in good jobs. Dc are in a Catholic school. No choice but have decided not to do communion etc.

No regrets. Better work life balance and kids and happy little country folk with hurleys abs thick accents!

Depending on your budget, Castleknock is northside. It has a national school, a COI school and an Educate Together school. All schools are oversubscribed though but you can apply for the ET now as it does not operate a catchment policy. Once you're living in the catchment area the local national school is excellent. Very easy commute to City Centre if you use public transport, it is also commutable by car but traffic is bad in the mornings. With light traffic I can have the car parked in town in about 20 minutes.