moving up North! where to live?

foxy_j

hey there

boyfriend was in college while workin up in northern Ireland, Dungannon co tyrone to be precise. We're both from cork and i'm still workin part time in cork. after the course he's been offered a permanent job up there, so i'm considering moving up.

However to increase chances of me gettin a job etc we wanted to move bit closer to belfast, as a compromise somewhere round lisburn perhaps.
he doesn't mind the commuting as much as me. anyone have an suggestions where would be a good place to live, lisburn or anywhere else? also maybe somewhere thats bit lively, with gym and few shops.

Ideally i'd prefer belfast city but that would be a bit too much of a commute for him. however not sure if there's loads of jobs in lisburn or apartments. had quick look.
thanks

aquascrotum

Belfast to Dungannon would be about an hour or just under to commute (depending on where you are in Belfast), as your going against the traffic flow. Lisburn to Dungannon would knock maybe 15 mins off that I'd have thought.

If your looking along the M1 corridor then your looking at Belfast, Lisburn, Hillsborough, Moira, Portadown and Lurgan. Without meaning offence Portadown and Lurgan are grim. Moira is a typical dormitory town, quite pleasant but wouldn't tick the "lively" box. Hillsborough is a lovely wee place, quite desireable (pricey) - again wouldnt be buzzing but is 5 mins from Lisburn. Lisburn itself has some nice areas and some not so nice - Hillsborough and Saintfield roads are quite nice that I know of, am not that sure of the rest of the town.

I spent quite a lot of time looking for somethin in a similar area to you very recently but just plumped for Belfast. For some reason there isnt the big fall off in rents the farther you get from Belfast that would make it worthwhile commuting - a 3 bed semi in Moira (40mins out at peak time) will still set you back 500 a month in rent, while an equivalent in a reasonable part of Belfast would only be 75-100 more pcm.

You need to sit down and decide how long you/he is prepared to sit on the road for every day and work out where is feasible distance wise. Then spend time on the ground getting a feel for it. Places I thought were great, my gf (who is from RoI) thought were dives. There is a different vibe in NI, and the standard of rental accomodation here is very different to RoI - we had a boom but it was a long time catching up with the south, so there arent as many new pristine first lets knocking about. I know it took my gf a long time to get used to it cos we were spoilt in round Dublin.

Good luck with the search, any more queries put them up and we'll try to help.

pow wow

I'm from your neck of the woods and work in Belfast with two girls who commute in from Lisburn and Dungannon. Having been to both I'd agree with aqua - if I had to choose it would be Lisburn. It's pretty small but most things are within reach (including Belfast).

The commute from Dungannon is doable but the girl I work with says it does eventually catch up with her. She goes as far as Sprucefield near Lisburn and then does the Park & Ride from there into Belfast (we don't have a carpark at work anyway).

Jobswise Lisburn would be the better of the two but not by much. The jobs market is more buoyant up here but the smaller towns/cities do struggle compared to Belfast. Check out loadzajobs.co.uk, nijobs.com and jobcentreonline.com for an idea. For apartments etc. propertynews.com will give you a good idea on prices and availability.