Moving to Cork

Mai1Gioia

Good morning all!
Let me expain my situation first: I'm writing from Italy, and together with my girlfriend, we're planning to move to Cork on september, to look for a job and start a new life there.

Here come my questions:

- I'm already looking for houses on daft.ie, and I realized it's not easy to pick the right area. Is there any area you would suggest me to look for a house in?
- are there areas better connected to each other and to the city centre than others?

- I also started considering a flat-share as a solution, because rents are usually shorter (as well as cheaper), and we could be able to move based on workplace. However, I'm moving to Cork with my cat too, and all flat-share accomodations i found don't allow pets. So perhaps renting an apartment for 6 full months from the beginning could be the best solution, couldn't it?
- is there any chance i could rent a house with no references, but paying all 6 months at once?

Thanks in advance! Any help will be much appreciated!

thomil

First of all welcome to Cork, even if it isn't for another six months

I'd definitely try to secure a job before moving here. It makes the remaining steps a lot easier, and a number of employers actually offer relocation packages even for entry level jobs. You may want to check out the likes of Apple, DellEMC, Amazon, or VoxPro. These companies will usually also provide you with letters of reference for finding a place to stay. That's at least what Apple did when I moved here to start working for them.

For starters, I'd recommend looking for a place in the city centre, at least for the first few months. It'll most likely be a flat share because the housing market here is absolutely insane. That way you can easily reach any workplace that you may find yourself working at, while it can be a bit of a hassle to do that when you're staying in one of the suburbs, like I am. It'll also give you a feel for the different areas of the city. That being said, while some areas can be a bit "dodgy", such as certain sections of Barrack Street, or some parts of Blackpool or Knocknaheeny on the Northside, there is, at least in experience, no really rough area in Cork.

Personally, I'd advise against pre-paying ANYTHING for an apartment par the usual deposit, especially when you're dealing with a private landlord and not an agency, and I'd insist for rent to be paid via bank transfer and not cash, just so you have documentation.

I'm afraid I can't help you with the cat situation, as I don't have any pets myself.

Hope that helps you a bit in preparing for the move.

who_me

FYI, the bus network (like most places) is very oriented around the city centre. So it's best to either live near where you'll be working, or near the centre; to avoid having to take 2 buses to work.

There is now one 24 hour bus service, running from Ballincollig to the West, to Carrigaline to the South East, via the city centre. Bishopstown (in the West of the city) and Douglas (in the South East) are both popular areas to live along this route. Both would be very busy with traffic though. There some very nice, older areas in the inner part of the North side of the city.

Generally, demand is very high and supply is low unfortunately. I'm sure you shouldn't have too much problem with the lack of references, landlords are very used to having tenants from all over Europe and beyond these days. You certainly wouldn't have a problem if you offered them 6 months rent up front!!! I'm not sure it's a great idea though.

fash

Your best bet would be to either live in the city centre (or within walking distance) or close to where you work (which you don't know yet as you don't have a job) - that means city centre most likely.

Having a cat makes things more difficult as most manager committees (i.e. most apartments) don't allow animals. Many landlords don't like them either (damage to furniture/mess/smell/unnecessary problems for people with allergies - as the rental market is so tight that makes it a lot more difficult for you. Does the cat need to come?

raydar

The OP , I wish you well , I was only giving the negative aspects of some of my experiences and others have been possibly positive too ,

i see some have dismmised my comment ,

pushing and promoting a denial to reality and refusing to see the natural order of truth leads to a dead end . Good luck with your thought constructs .