Potential move to Dublin - help!

[WildPatience]

I'm in a huge dilemma. I've been offered a job in Dublin, where I'm originally from. Living in London for over 20 years we have 2 DC - 14 and 11. If I take the job, we wouldn't move as a family until the eldest has done his GCSEs in June 2025, so I'd need to commute fairly regularly for a year, which would be tiring but I think doable as I don't need to be in the office all the time. My prospective employer does not offer any relocation support.
Reasons for moving are to be near family, and for the job which would be a great career move for me. My (British) DP is not sure about it but will do it if I really want to. I have no siblings and will be responsible for caring for my elderly mum in Ireland as she gets older (currently in good health). We almost moved a few years ago but decided not to as the uncertainty about schools. houses etc felt too hard, as did leaving where we currently are. The uncertainty is the same now but I also now know what it's like to live with the regret of not doing it previously.

We have a great community around us in London - brilliant friends, good social lives. But no family, and the schools aren't great.

I'd be grateful for any advice or experiences of moving to South County Dublin (that's where I'm from) or North Wicklow.
Firstly, schools. We'll be looking at 1st year and 4th year I think by the time the kids (boys) move. We probably won't have an address at the point of applying as we'll only move in the summer before they start - does that mean we basically couldn't get into an oversubscribed state school? We might be able to stretch to private schools (completely out of reach in London) but it would be a real stretch. Would much prefer mixed and ideally Educate Together but open to ideas.
Secondly, I know everyone says renting is impossible in Dublin, but I do see some houses for rent on Daft. Does anyone have experience of renting a family home recently in South Dublin? Is the competition as ridiculous as it sounds? Do they rent for higher than the stated amount? I don't know if we could manage to sell our London house and buy in one move - feels impossibly stressful.
Would love to hear from anyone who has done something similar, but basically any helpful advice welcome. Thanks!

Hi there. I know what you’re going through as went through the same a few years ago and this is our story:

I am from Ireland and moved to the UK in 2021 so was nearly 20 years in the UK with an English DH and kids. We both got offered jobs in Dublin with really good relocation packages. We were both on very good salaries. We made the move early 2022 and unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us.

Housing: we wanted a similar place to where we had in the UK - close to the city, close to good schools and amenities. We ended up North Wicklow but even though we had good salaries and a healthy budget it was just really difficult to find a decent family home. We were up against a lot of cash buyers , people who were offering 10-20% over the guide price of the home. We just could not compete - as some have said on here - it’s not so much an issue that the house prices are high (which they are) it’s just the really low supply of housing stock. You are competing with very rich cash buyers in some areas. We probably could have got a house further out into the country (where demand seemed to be less) but it meant sacrificing what we were used to and enjoyed I.e. having everything close by and not spending hours in a car commutinG. We were paying €4k per month on a house so were burning money on rent the longer we found we couldn’t buy in the area we were renting - stuck between a rock and a hard place really. The housing crisis really is as bad as you read - even worse I would say in the past year. The housing stock is simply nowhere near where it needs to be.

schools: we got in touch with about 8 primary schools in the area and got 1 positive reply. Our kids started in the school which was a lovely school but it soon became apparent that it was massively overcrowded (the school had to give up their library, IT room, other rooms to hold classrooms). Then the local secondary schools were so overcrowded there was the risk our kids couldn’t get a place (see recent newspaper reports on certain areas). We couldn’t risk spending a huge amount of money on a house in an area that our children might not get a secondary school place in. It’s different over in Ireland in the sense there are no catchment areas so you get people all over the county applying to a school and you’re competing with those people. It’s not the case that if you buy a house close to the school and you get a place because you’re in the catchment area - it really is a lottery which is really stressful. You probably already know all this but I don’t think I appreciated how hard it was to get a secondary place. You might be ok though if looking for 4th year places as kids move etc, might be harder for 1st years. Saying that, things might be better in a couple of years if the GOvt react to what’s been going on re lack of school places and build some more schools. Also we applied to private schools but they were also really oversubscribed and my LO was 200 on the waiting list for one.

jobs: my husband enjoyed his job and got on well. I struggled with mine as it was very different from what I did in the UK. My job didn’t work out and because for what I do there is quite a small market, the options to move were less. It all depends on what you / your husband do for a living but the job opportunities for me were less in Ireland than in the Uk simply because it’s a smaller market in my field. We also didn’t earn anymore in Ireland than we did in the UK (in fact my other half took a pay cut).

COL: I know it’s bad in UK but it felt even worse in Ireland. Everything was more expensive. Add on top of that GP visit costs and prescriptions for us and the kids. We had less disposable income. It just felt harder.

there’s lots of great things about Ireland which I’m sure you know but we found it too hard to make ends meet despite being on good salaries. The housing crisis really is a kicker and then the lack of school places in some areas added to the stress. I think South Dublin has similar issues to where we lived.

Even though it didn’t work out for us I know there are plenty that do make it work. In the end we moved back to the UK.

Thanks so much @2024glengardens for your honest and comprehensive reply. That sounds like a tough experience and lot of what you say is exactly what I'm worried about. I hope you've settled well back in the UK. I really wish Dublin was an easier city to move back to!

Is your mum in the approximate area you'd like to move back to? Could you live with her initially, which would also help with the issue of applying to schools?

Assuming you have to live somewhere while you're here for the year before your family relocate (even if only a small number of nights each week), it may give you a better feel for the COL and the housing market. Best case scenario you can use the time to get your location/house/school issues sorted. Worse case scenario you decide the move is not for you and you either commute for an additional year for the experience in the job, or you look to move job after a year.

The rental market is bad, no question. But just how bad will depend on how much budget flexibility you have.

My mum is not in Dublin unfortunately. My plan is to stay with a friend for a night or two a week until the family move, so that would give me some time to look around a bit more, talk to people etc. And yes you're right - it is reversible I decide it's not doable. Thanks for responding!

Its soo hard to live in ireland now.. one worry is if you sell up in the UK and spend colossal on rent here you will never get back on the prop ladder in UK if it all goes belly up. Major risk OP. Dublin is at grid lock and made the news today because of it . Its cruel everyone like hamsters every day commuting ( like every city -maybe) me and my DH have a combined income of 5.8k euros The mortgage 1300 a month. 2 cars. Gp
Meds. Groceries holidays
Its tough. We go up north and stock up as prices are a bit cheaper. . Everyone is struggling and there is 14k young people emigrated to australia last year alone. Its dearer than the uk here and less job opportunities!! Think carefully. No rose tinted glasses

@WildPatience sorry if it seemed negative- not really my intention, I just wanted to give an honest account of the gamble we took and how it didn’t work out for us. But we are only one story and I have no doubt there are many positive stories of those who did for other reasons and possibilities make it work.

You hit the nail on the head in that I do think at the moment , Dublin is a hard place to move to. A lot of places are hard to move to at the moment but I found the housing crisis really was much more severe than what I thought. I had been warned by friends living there but (naively) thought , well surely we have a decent budget we should be alright.

I am not sure we could have done anything different other than selling our house in UK but as one poster noted - if we had sold it and it didn’t work out there was a slim chance we could have got back on the property market in the UK as that’s going mad too.

you have the benefit that you can try it out for a year - have your ear to the ground in the areas you might like to end up in - get to know what the local schools are like and if they have issues re oversubscribed / overcrowded etc. we didn’t have that chance which is why we had to take the leap of faith. Who knows, things might be easier in a year or so time with hopefully more houses being built etc.

I wish you the best of luck in your decision making. I suppose one last thing to note is if you are generally overall happy where you are and have a nice lifestyle / set up / your kids are happy then is it worth upsetting that ? I wish I had thought more about that when I took the plunge because we were happy where we are - it was just that I wanted to be closer to my ageing parents - but we swapped that one “issue” for a host of others that really upset our immediate family’s contentment and happiness (for a bit anyways). We are back in our old house and settling back in so things have turned out Ok .

take care .

I live in South Co Dublin and the average rent for a 3/4 bed house is €4000 -€6000 a month and they are like hens teeth. Absolutely crazy. A neighbour who was renting had been paying 3.5k for a pretty basic 3 bed, the landlord decided to sell, she was at her wits end trying to find something in the area because of schools, ended up paying 4.5k for a very similar house. Insane.

We have a lovely lifestyle here but I thank my lucky stars we bought before prices went through the roof. My young adult dc live at home, and will be doing for the foreseeable future. One looked around recently but the going rate for a room in an apartment share is 1200 a month.

If you have a nice lifestyle in London I would stay where you are and commute.

@capelmustard yeah we were paying €4k per month rent for a family home. Bills on top of that so were spending €4.5k per month just on the house. Which means, €54k per year meaning we had to be earning approximately €100k per year just to cover the rent and bills. We took that lease on in October 2021 (we moved Jan 2022 but to secure the house we had to pay three months rent when we weren’t there - that’s how mad it was back then). A very similar house in the same location is now looking for €8.5k per month - it seems to have really gone bonkers in the last 18/24 months.

when we moved to the area we met a family who had moved from a different country about 12 months before us - so around Jan 2021 (in midst of Covid). They were renting similar house to us (paying similar price). They are still renting three years on but have been served a notice to evict but they are really struggling to find either a house to buy (they have a massive budget too) or another house to rent for their family of 5. They sold their home in their original country so really are stuck between a rock and a hard place. It’s been three years of stress for them.

as you said - you were lucky you bought when you did. I often think if we had made the move a few years before we did we would have had a better chance of making it work but such is life. I honestly thought the housing crisis would get better as the Govt have known this was coming for years but if anything it’s got worse. Such a shame. I do hope for the younger generation that something happens soon so they have a chance to have their own home life. Fingers crossed.

I live in an expensive European capital city.
A friend's son was moving to Dublin to work near the airport.
Had a look on Daft and saw a bedroom in a shared house in D9 (Swords) for €1200 pm which is what I pay for a 4-bed apartment.
Insanity.

Do you need to be in North wicklow/ South Dublin? They are the most expensive parts. North Wicklow especially is very popular and trendy at the moment and there are issues with oversubscriptions for schools. I would not choose to live there personally.
There are some lovely areas in north Dublin you could look at for example Clontarf, Howth, Sutton, Donabate, Skerries, Malahide, Castleknock, Drumcondra, Raheny, Glasnevin.

Thanks everyone - really appreciate the advice, even though it's quite scary! We're looking at South Dublin/Wicklow only because that's where my extended family is. I'd hate to move back and not see them often because we're on the other side of the city. But having said that, I know it's definitely worth exploring other areas.
We have a good enough life in London. Schools are pretty rough where we are (but I can't face starting all over again elsewhere in London/the UK). It's just that looking ahead I feel we'll be trapped here until retirement if we don't go soon, because the DC will probably need to live at home wherever we are, and if they complete their education in London, they'll want to be here.

It's so difficult. In the meantime, the role I've been offered is not quite what I expected so there's that headache too. Wish I had a crystal ball and could see how our lives would turn out :)

@WildPatience I was chatting to someone yesterday who lives in Cherrwood and thought it might be somewhere for you to look at. There are big plans for it, and I'd say it's about a quarter/a third of the way through the development. She was saying there are a lot of ex pats there, apartments/schools arranged by corporate employers. Direct Luas into town and buses on the N11
10 mins to the Wicklow mountains.

It might not look great now, but there's another big development in Honeypark that looked a bit grim when first built about 5/10 years ago, but now the trees and parks are established it's really nice.

Worth a look anyway! Best of luck with your decision.

Thanks so much @capelmustard! I actually did come across some Cherrywood apartments when looking at rentals. It's a good point that it might feel less grim in a few years!