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11. Living in Dublin

Dublin at a Glance

Living in Dublin

Colorful Georgian doors like these can be found in Dublin's southside.

If you have any hobbies and interests outside of work (and we hope you do!), living in Dublin will rarely be dull. Ireland’s capital has long been a haven for both high-brow culture and subculture alike, turning life in Dublin into a rich, multi-faceted experience. Taking a look into the city’s event calendars can boggle the mind, and you will have to choose your cultural activities wisely so as not to exhaust yourself too much while living in Dublin. After all, you are going to be an expat making a living in Dublin, not a tourist!

Living in Dublin: The Cultural Heart of the Nation

Dublin boasts a wide variety of museums as well as daily concerts featuring both contemporary and traditional music. While living in Dublin, you’ll get to see enough theater performances, exhibitions and other cultural events to satisfy any aficionado of the fine arts. Literature buffs will be delighted exploring the settings of all the great works detailing life in Dublin. If you are interested in history, you can spend a good deal of time finding out about the city’s 1000-year history.

If going out is more up your alley, you are in more than capable and good hands in the city’s thriving bar and club scene – the entertainment district Temple Bar is often nearly synonymous with life in Dublin. In terms of nightlife and subculture, living in Dublin leaves little to be desired. One reason is probably that Dublin’s population in general is remarkably young: Half the inhabitants living in Dublin’s Greater area are less than 39 years old.

Life in Dublin: Cost of Living

Living in Dublin has long been somewhat infamous around Ireland and Europe for the high living expenses. This was not without reason: Both quality and cost of life in Dublin ranked close to the top in global comparisons. Times have changed, though, for better or for worse. The global economic crisis has caused a significant price drop.

The drop mainly affected the price of living in Dublin’s many readily available housing units. The construction boom and peak of interest in real estate before the crisis led to skyrocketing property and housing prices. People bought real estate like hotcakes – not necessarily for living in Dublin, but rather as an investment. For a while, this was a nice way of making a living in Dublin. With economic and housing boom coinciding, prices kept climbing.

However, many of the newly built apartments have been empty for quite some time while owners waited for their investment to increase in value. The eventual burst of the property bubble ruined many homeowners, who were unable to sell their property due to lack of interest. This put the price of living in Dublin and its metropolitan area into a near free fall. At the time of writing, prices were continuing to decline.