Tips for looking for rental in Dublin

Hi all, just wanted to ask a bit of advice from anyone who's looked for a place to rent in Dublin recently.

I currently live in college accommodation but have to move out at the end of May. Myself and my boyfriend want to move in together but my salary as a postgraduate student isn't very high, and he has a long term illness so isn't working at present, so our budget prices us out of most Dublin accommodation. Ideally I would like to find a studio/1 bed for €800 and I'd put up with it being small/cold or whatever because I know I won't get anything nice for that price. I know finding a one bed/studio is optimistic so I'd look at house shares too (although after years of shared accommodation I'm dying just to have my own space!). I'm also happy to accept anywhere in Dublin as long as it's easily accessed by public transport (don't drive).

I have a few questions before I start the hunt if anyone could provide some answers :

The things I know I need (and have) are: landlord reference, work reference, deposit/rent upfront, cover letter to tell a bit about us etc. Is there anything else I'd need? I was planning on including a bank statement to show I have a reasonable amount saved up in case a prospective landlord was concerned about our ability to pay with only me working?

How long does it take on average to find a place? I was planning on starting to look at the beginning of April, would 2 months be enough time?

Is one expected to bring cash for a deposit on the day of viewing? I'd be concerned about paying in cash in case I got scammed...

Are there any other tips to 'get ahead'? I know already it's better to call than text or email, and to bring a copy of all my documents to each viewing!

Thanks!

srsly78

Best tip is not to live in Dublin!

srsly78

srsly78 wrote: »

Best tip is not to live in Dublin!

Lol, wish that was an option. Planning to emigrate as soon as I can! :P

road_high

Not being funny, but is there any chance you could move to a city/town with lower rents? Especially if your BF is ill, I doubt you want to live in some kip- does he need to live in Dublin?
Could you find a post grad position some place else?

road_high

road_high wrote: »

Not being funny, but is there any chance you could move to a city/town with lower rents? Especially if your BF is ill, I doubt you want to live in some kip- does he need to live in Dublin?
Could you find a post grad position some place else?

I'm already in the middle of my post grad so I'm stuck here until I'm finished! Also I don't drive so I think I'd find it hard to get around anywhere outside of Dublin (yes learning to drive is on my to do list :P)

Gumbo

Deleted User wrote: »

Lol, wish that was an option. Planning to emigrate as soon as I can! :P

This is also a factor. Are you planning to emigrate within 12 months?

Also you state you want anywhere in Dublin, but I don't know a single place within Dublin for that price currently.

Possibly a bedsit if one pops up.

kceire

kceire wrote: »

This is also a factor. Are you planning to emigrate within 12 months?

Also you state you want anywhere in Dublin, but I don't know a single place within Dublin for that price currently.

Possibly a bedsit if one pops up.

Depends on when I get my postgrad finished and how long it takes me to find a job abroad. If it is within a year though I believe I have the option of reassigning my lease, and if the landlord does not accept that option then I am legally allowed out of the lease?

I've been following daft.ie for months now and they do exist, probably see about 1-3 places a week that would suit in my price range, and more house shares besides.

pilly

Honestly I wish you all the very best but €800 is a very low budget. Maybe student type bedsits around Rathmines? It is a shame you can't move away from Dublin because you would get great value elsewhere. Why do you have to be in Dublin to do your postgrad?

pilly

pilly wrote: »

Honestly I wish you all the very best but €800 is a very low budget. Maybe student type bedsits around Rathmines? It is a shame you can't move away from Dublin because you would get great value elsewhere. Why do you have to be in Dublin to do your postgrad?

Because it is a science postgrad so I need to be in my lab!

There are bedsits/ studios at this price but I imagine high competition too, want to give myself the best chance!

pilly

Deleted User wrote: »

Because it is a science postgrad so I need to be in my lab!

There are bedsits/ studios at this price but I imagine high competition too, want to give myself the best chance!

I think you have it all covered then in your original post, if you've all these things ready to go you'll put yourself ahead of a lot of people.

You'd be surprised the people who turn up for viewings that don't even have a deposit.

pilly

Oh and you don't need to bring cash to the viewing. Any good LL will take a bank transfer which is overnight anyway.

road_high

Deleted User wrote: »

Because it is a science postgrad so I need to be in my lab!

There are bedsits/ studios at this price but I imagine high competition too, want to give myself the best chance!

There are good colleges like Dundalk, Carlow and Waterford ITs that are not a million miles from Dublin and likely do post-grad science courses that are equally as good as anywhere in Dublin....far far cheaper to live.
But I do realise there are other factors at play...I did my MSc affiliated to UCD because I went there. Colleges in Dublin and indeed elsewhere are very poor at providing accommodation.
Saying that, UCD have nice accommodation (shared) for postgrads if that's where you're going? Though I realise it's possibly not suitable with the BF...

road_high

road_high wrote: »

There are good colleges like Dundalk, Carlow and Waterford ITs that are not a million miles from Dublin and likely do post-grad science courses that are equally as good as anywhere in Dublin....far far cheaper to live.
But I do realise there are other factors at play...I did my MSc affiliated to UCD because I went there. Colleges in Dublin and indeed elsewhere are very poor at providing accommodation.
Saying that, UCD have nice accommodation (shared) for postgrads if that's where you're going? Though I realise it's possibly not suitable with the BF...

Thanks for the tips but I don't think you've read my posts right. I am not looking for a postgrad, I am already in the middle of one and can't move it, therefore I am stuck in Dublin for the next year or so.

Fian

pilly wrote: »

Oh and you don't need to bring cash to the viewing. Any good LL will take a bank transfer which is overnight anyway.

I don't know. The last two times i have let my appartment in Dublin I had several prospective tenants trying to push money at me to let them take it there and then, within an hour of the first viewing. I went on the basis of first come first served (with references etc. obviously), but if one had cash for first months rent and deposit and other was promising to lodge it with me the next day I might easily have just said "well I may as well go with the one who has cash just in case the other is not really able to afford it."

Next time i will be looking for 2 months rent in advance + 1 month as security deposit. May not get that in cash but i have no doubt i will have lots of people who will be happy to pay it and who will be offering at least a portion of it in cash on the day. Particularly as appartment is rent controlled off a base rent set in early 2015, so alot more than 4% below current market rent. Though for the same reason current tenants are unlikely to leave, so it is unlikely to be coming up on daft for rent anytime soon.

pilly

Fian wrote: »

I don't know. The last two times i have let my appartment in Dublin I had several prospective tenants trying to push money at me to let them take it there and then, within an hour of the first viewing. I went on the basis of first come first served (with references etc. obviously), but if one had cash for first months rent and deposit and other was promising to lodge it with me the next day I might easily have just said "well I may as well go with the one who has cash just in case the other is not really able to afford it."

Next time i will be looking for 2 months rent in advance + 1 month as security deposit. May not get that in cash but i have no doubt i will have lots of people who will be happy to pay it and who will be offering at least a portion of it in cash on the day. Particularly as appartment is rent controlled off a base rent set in early 2015, so alot more than 4% below current market rent. Though for the same reason current tenants are unlikely to leave, so it is unlikely to be coming up on daft for rent anytime soon.

Well just from my experience as a LL, I only dealt with by email initially, got a feel of the people and then set up say 10 viewings. I didn't make any decision until I'd met them all and went with the ones that I got the best impression of as people. Basically whether I liked them or not was No. 1. Whether they had good references was No. 2 and whether they had the resources was No. 3. Every LL is different I suppose. But expecting people to have thousands in cash on them is a bit unreasonable.

road_high

Deleted User wrote: »

Thanks for the tips but I don't think you've read my posts right. I am not looking for a postgrad, I am already in the middle of one and can't move it, therefore I am stuck in Dublin for the next year or so.

Sorry yes I seen that now...at least you're nearly finished

pilly

pilly wrote: »

Well just from my experience as a LL, I only dealt with by email initially, got a feel of the people and then set up say 10 viewings. I didn't make any decision until I'd met them all and went with the ones that I got the best impression of as people. Basically whether I liked them or not was No. 1. Whether they had good references was No. 2 and whether they had the resources was No. 3. Every LL is different I suppose. But expecting people to have thousands in cash on them is a bit unreasonable.

I could theoretically bring the deposit and rent in cash but I am not comfortable carrying that much cash with me, or with handing over a payment that big without a paper trail!

pilly

Deleted User wrote: »

I could theoretically bring the deposit and rent in cash but I am not comfortable carrying that much cash with me, or with handing over a payment that big without a paper trail!

No I wouldn't blame you, there are some scams going on out there. It will depend on your correspondence with the LL beforehand as well I suppose. You will be able to get a good feel yourself by that.

pilly

Also just be aware that a lot of LL's will be looking for someone who is going to move in immediately so if you start looking in April are you prepared to move straight away?

pilly

pilly wrote: »

Also just be aware that a lot of LL's will be looking for someone who is going to move in immediately so if you start looking in April are you prepared to move straight away?

Yeah I'd be able to move in straight away if necessary. I have my current accommodation until the end May but I'd be worried if I only started looking in May I might not find somewhere in time.

pilly

Deleted User wrote: »

Yeah I'd be able to move in straight away if necessary. I have my current accommodation until the end May but I'd be worried if I only started looking in May I might not find somewhere in time.

No you're right to start looking early as long as you're prepared to move early that's fine.

murphaph

pilly wrote: »

Well just from my experience as a LL, I only dealt with by email initially, got a feel of the people and then set up say 10 viewings. I didn't make any decision until I'd met them all and went with the ones that I got the best impression of as people. Basically whether I liked them or not was No. 1. Whether they had good references was No. 2 and whether they had the resources was No. 3. Every LL is different I suppose. But expecting people to have thousands in cash on them is a bit unreasonable.

As a landlord I'd see carrying thousands of Euro in cash to a public viewing reckless. It's easy for muggers to find out when and were such viewings are taking place!

Cheshire Cat

It might be worth your while to look into caretaker agreements or house sitting.

lizzyodd

Hi I feel your pain. If you managed to find a place for €800.00 in Dublin how much approx on bills not including food would you expect to pay monthly?

pilly

pilly wrote: »

Honestly I wish you all the very best but €800 is a very low budget. Maybe student type bedsits around Rathmines? It is a shame you can't move away from Dublin because you would get great value elsewhere. Why do you have to be in Dublin to do your postgrad?

You can't just walk out in the middle of a course and take it up elsewhere that's not how it works. If you left you would be throwing away what you did and starting again from scratch. Particularly if it's a research post grad in science the chances are you cannot do it anywhere else as different universities have different topics they specialise in so it may be simply impossible to study the topic you have been elsewhere. Even taught postgrads tend to vary a lot for university to university so there is a good chance you can't do that else where either.

Basically I think people need to forget about suggesting moving outside Dublin to the op.

lizzyodd

lizzyodd wrote: »

Hi I feel your pain. If you managed to find a place for €800.00 in Dublin how much approx on bills not including food would you expect to pay monthly?

A couple I know who live together in a 1 bed say they spend roughly €100 between them on household bills (Internet, electricity, gas) a month, so basing my estimates on that!

CollyFlower

Can you go for lodging, ie, rent a room?

hytrogen

A lot of students that would have taken private accommodation would be moving out around the end of May similar to yourself, it's always a good time for the foreign language students / people moving to Dublin to take up rental contracts in apartments / studios from people finishing their degrees.
However many students also look to keep their contracts for the following term and sublet out their room or share of an apartment /house etc. so be wary of this as well.
Have a look at your college accommodation support pages you might find something opening up for the both of you then, best of luck

B.A._Baracus

Deleted User wrote: »

A couple I know who live together in a 1 bed say they spend roughly €100 between them on household bills (Internet, electricity, gas) a month, so basing my estimates on that!

It is the average estimate for two people living in a small place
For what it's worth, me and my girlfriend have been looking for a place for the last two months in Dublin with no success. We even expanded our search to Meath and Louth at one point and still nothing.... 99.9% are just over-priced and it gets very annoying after a while. We have pretty much the same budget as you and also looked at studio and house share.

So if you want some advice here is what I can offer:

House sharing:
- Most places do not accept couples so your options go down further. Do a quick search on Daft and you will be shocked. But all in all give yourself as much time as you can to find a place.

- Sadly due to the fact your boyfriend is currently unemployed you will get more people overlooking you's. Long story short, I know another couple who one party is not working and also looking to move in together. As soon as they mention this they get a lot of "I'll get back to let you know when you can view it" or if in person the usual we'll call you (being fobbed off)
The reasoning for this is that certain people think one will be at home all day using more gas and electric. Thus upping the cost of the shared bills. You will experience this more when a place is owner-occupied.

- Expect a lot of people to not answer the phone or reply to emails when inquiring about a place.

- Be careful of scams. If a place sounds to good to be true....

- Expect people to waste your time. Not saying everyone... But to give you an example me and my girlfriend checked out a double bedroom in a house-share in December. Landlord easily could have stated in the ad on Daft, or even told us on the phone, that the property was above a busy bar :rolleyes:
Only found out when we went to the place. To quote the landlord "erm it does get a bit noisy at the weekends" - No harm doing a quick Google Street Maps of certain places if you are unsure.

Studio:
- Most are over-priced and it's hard to even find any going at that.

Sorry if all the points are negative it's just any good place is usually taken. Me and my gf have come to the conclusion it's just best to rent a studio. Even if it's a dog box.

Thanks for the tips, it is as I feared! I wouldn't rule out house shares if that's all I could find but as I said they wouldn't be my first choice, and I am aware that as a couple with one person at home during the day we're not most people's ideal! I do have my daft search for house shares restricted to those that say they take couples so hopefully that would save some time.

I'm hopeful I can find a studio for our budget!

hytrogen

hytrogen wrote: »

A lot of students that would have taken private accommodation would be moving out around the end of May similar to yourself, it's always a good time for the foreign language students / people moving to Dublin to take up rental contracts in apartments / studios from people finishing their degrees.
However many students also look to keep their contracts for the following term and sublet out their room or share of an apartment /house etc. so be wary of this as well.
Have a look at your college accommodation support pages you might find something opening up for the both of you then, best of luck

Yes this is an option too, I previously subletted a place for the summer using this route so might get lucky again!