For Sorcha Jordan (27), the increasingly unsustainable cost of renting in Dublin was a “no brainer” when the option of moving to Belfast came up.
The same was true for Caoimhe O’Brien (18) when deciding where to study, as finding accommodation in Belfast was quicker and cheaper than in her home county Galway.
Jordan, now a full-time arts marketing professional, also working in theatre, having graduated from her postgraduate in 2020, is relocating to Belfast with her partner and two close friends, one of whom is starting a Masters degree at Queen’s University.
Cost of living is the reason for the move; Belfast is significantly cheaper. Jordan would even consider commuting back to Dublin from Belfast for work.
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“The dream scenario is the southern wage and the northern rent,” she says.
“The commute isn’t that long compared to the travel people do to go to work in other countries. We sometimes have a smaller island mentality in that way.
“The train is great, and we drive too. It is doable. I’d prefer to avoid it, or any remote jobs, because I want to work in person and meet people in Belfast.”
While living in Dublin, Jordan one day looked at an online calculator for cost of living and “fancied checking Belfast against Dublin”.
She found that while a lot of the costs of living such as the price of groceries or a night out might be similar to Dublin, Belfast was significantly cheaper to rent.
“Rent is, for most people, the biggest bill every month, so it’s just a no brainer. I don’t mind paying whatever the price of a drink is in either city, but with rent, we’re talking a huge difference,” she says.
With keys already secured for a new house in Belfast, Jordan’s move will take place this month after her work contract in Dublin ends.
She will be looking for work in Belfast, but she knows of “some people who are travelling one day a week to work in Dublin”.
Jordan is not the only one seeing value in Belfast.
A survey, published in August, showed the city is now the most affordable in the UK for students to live.
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Ulster Bank’s Student Living Index examined factors including how much they spend going out, income earned from part-time work and other household expenditures.
With lower monthly rent costs, at an average of £553 (€657) a month, Belfast came out on top as the most affordable for students.
For Jordan, renting in Dublin was a problem. A house she rented with her girlfriend for a long time was sold and she went from living with her brother to a box room in Glasnevin for €900 a month.
“It was very limited with space and we were waking up with sniffles and coughs every morning with the mould. We just said we can’t keep spending this kind of money on this,” she says.
For the same price, the couple are moving to Belfast to “literally the first house we applied for,” she says.
“We have our bedroom and a second double bedroom as a work from home space, with a pull-out couch for friends and family to stay.
“Two of our best friends are in it too, but with their own floor in the house,” Jordan says, adding: “It’s the same price but a world of difference”.
The “telling of how bad things have gotten” in the price of renting was when Jordan told her mother about her idea to move to Belfast, she said: “You’d be mad not to”.
“I think she’s really in touch with how tough it is right now for younger people. It’s a big decision to move but it’s the right one for us.”
Caoimhe O’Brien, originally from Galway, chose to apply to university in Belfast because of lower accommodation fees and the UK government’s tuition loan.
“For me, it was relatively easy to find accommodation as I was guaranteed by Queen’s University because I was travelling from the Republic, but my friends in Galway are a completely different story,” she says.
They have joined Facebook groups and university accommodation websites that offer a single room near universities in Dublin for €1,000 or more per month, O’Brien says.
The price is “astronomical considering many students work on minimum wage,” she says.
“Many people I went to school with have had to defer their course for a year in order to work to pay for accommodation in Dublin, or did not include colleges in Dublin on their CAO list at all this year,” O’Brien adds.
There was “no justification for a single room being this much money ... “Dublin is not on the same level as London or New York.”
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