Moving to Dublin - Where to begin?

Hi all

I'm a 32 year old self employed female from Toronto, Canada. Over the past 6 years I have achieved all the goals I set for myself and I now feel as though I'm ready to toss everything overboard and start fresh in a new country. So, I'm moving to Dublin in May 2009. I've never been before and would love some advice. I'll be arriving with a 1 year work permit.

I'm not afraid of starting over, being on my own, or finding work (I've been in this position a few times before)...the only thing I'm unsure about at the moment is where to begin. Which area(s) would be good to start looking in for a somewhat affordable 1 bedroom or studio flat?

Any help would be much appreciated.

• smile*

Bibi

Hey Bibichic,
I don´t intend to put a damper on your move to Dublin, but does it have to be now? You couldn´t be picking a worse time in the past 15 years. With the economic ´crisis´we hear so much about Ireland has really been hit quite badly. Our economy was built on the construction industry which has just burst and the waves of immigrants from Eastern Europe are now finding themselves mostly out of work and returning home. I don´t know what area of expertise you excel in but Ireland is running on empty at the moment with unemployment set to soar sky high in the coming months. The good times are over here for a while....
But having said all that, if you have niche skills you´ll always find work here. Plus if you´re a go-getter and can bring some of your experience and skills here we can do with all the help we can get. And, with so many people moving out of the country and so many houses and appartments unable to sell you´ll have no problem finding a place to stay. It´s a renter´s and buyer´s market at the moment.
As for the area you want to live in.... how long is a piece of string. My advice would be get a place in Dublin (if it has to be Dublin, how about Cork or Galway) for a very short rental period until you´ve sourced a job. The location of the job will determine where you should live in Dublin as it doesn´t exactly posess the best public transport structure in the world (in Dublin even for that matter). If you want to start looking for a place I´d suggest you try somewhere like http://www.myhome2let.ie that´ll give you an idea of prices etc.
That´s about all the general information I can give you at the moment. If you want to send a Private Mail with specific questions I´ll try answer them for you.
I don´t mean to be the angel of doom and gloom but make sure and research that you´ll be able to find work once you get here, if you can do that.... we´ll then you´ll have a great old time.
For jobs try www.loadzajobs.ie or www.monster.ie
Zaksame

Good advice Zak.. Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe. I travel there a lot with work, been offered lots of work there but I pass every time. Few reason, Housing is expensive, traffic is nuts, O connell st is a dump with all the heroin addicts. The luas keeps trying to kill me and the liffey smells.. Other than that ist a great place to live.

Thank you both so much for your replies. Zak, this is wonderful advice and very useful information...I must confess that I have made up my mind and am unstoppable (even when warned by the angels of doom & gloom) *grin* BUT, I will take Cork and Galway into consideration as well. I never thought about those cities...I literally just closed my eyes and went with the first city that came to mind. Canada has been hit fairly hard with everything that is happening at the moment as well, so I can understand what you are saying about the economy. I am self employed as an Image Consultant, but I have fantastic computer skills and can fall back on administrative / executive assistant type work - which is always available. I remain positive that I can make this happen

Thanks again! I hope you don't mind another message from me later on if I have further questions.

For now, wishing you all the best!

Bibi

No problem Bibichic,
ask as many questions as you want, better to be fore-warned.

Hey Bibichic.

I pretty much did the exact same thing you are about to do. 6 months ago I packed up from Toronto (Originally from Sask) and moved over to Ireland. After traveling around a bit I decided Dublin was the place I wanted to settle in. I am now working full time and sharing a lovely house in South Dublin.

Yeah there is an economic downturn, but I don't think you will have too much trouble finding a position, lots of admin and temp office jobs to be had.

Here are my favorite website resources.

jobs.ie - a large jobs website, lots of agencies as

daft.ie - Ireland biggest rental and property website. This is where I found my place. Pretty much anyone who has a place to rent puts it on this site. I would look for places close to a luas stop or a bus route if you're not planning on driving.

Gumtree.ie - Kind of like Craigslist, the Dublin site is a little empty but still a good place to look for odds and ends (i.e. I found my gym membership on there for half price cause some guy was moving away).

Hope this helps.

p.s. Buy an umbrella and carry it with you everywhere you walk. It can be nice one minute and raining the next.

Why not Dublin? That's why it's so popular - everybody wants to come and who could blame them.
It would be great if you could secure a job before you came then like others have said you could concentrate on accommodation. Keep a close eye on your monies and don't start partying until you've got yourself well established.
You're going to love it here!

Dublin's alright, :P but I agree with Zaksame when I suggest Galway or Cork as well... I personally lived in Galway for four months, its much smaller and I find has a little more of a small-town feel, while still having the perks of a city! Also, anyone I've talked to whose lived in Cork has been absolutely head-over-heels about their city.... there's not much tourist-wise to see there, but there is apparently something about that city, according to the locals!

Also, I see someone has mentioned daft.ie, which I absolutely love... a word to the wise though. If you're using this site, don't start looking until you've got there. More often than not, you can catch a post an hour after it's been made, call the person up and have a viewing that evening. The site is wonderful but very last minute. So its kind of useless to look for accommodation beforehand with it.

Best of luck!! Ireland was the first time I moved abroad to... it is such a lovely country! Enjoy the craic!