The cost of living crisis has been the go-to topic of conversation this past year. And while it’s common knowledge that housing is hard to afford in Dublin, emerging statistics are now telling us that the city's ever-increasing rent prices are starting to pull more young people away towards Belfast.
With many students currently looking for digs around Ireland ahead of most colleges' first term in September, Belfast Live spoke with Clare Lyons, one of the many native Dubliners who relocated to Belfast to study after leaving their home city due to the cost of renting.
“I would be lying if I said that my decision to choose Belfast wasn't massively influenced by how affordable it is to live here,” said Clare.
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“I reached the point where I realized there was no other way.”
As of 2023, the average monthly rent for a property in Belfast is around £799 per month. While this number has been inflated by the ongoing cost of living crisis, it is still nowhere near the massive €2,324 (£1,993) the average Dubliner is expected to pay for a city-based property per month.
It is strongly suspected the yearly spikes in rent costs have led to increasing numbers of young Dubliners relocating to other European cities to study, with many broadening their horizons to Belfast.
Key findings from Ireland’s Central Statistics Office detail how more people have emigrated out of Ireland than in previous years, showing us that 51% of those leaving the republic are of higher education age.
“All of my friends moved away from Dublin, some went to London, some went to Berlin, some went to Canada” continues Clare in response to these figures. “People might still study in Dublin, but where are they going to live?”.
The circumstances faced by those trying to find digs in Dublin city were starkly illustrated when RTÉ published a video in April showing the long queues for one city centre flat in Dublin 8 that received over 535 applicants in 24 hours. This followed protests in March which saw people taking to Dublin's streets in an attempt to extend Ireland's country-wide eviction ban.
“I heard there are nearly 10,000 entire-home rental properties on AirBnB in Dublin alone. How can there be a sustainable property market when that many homes have been taken away from us?” she explains frustratedly.
In addition to Belfast’s far cheaper rental situation, the city can boast an agreeable cost of living standard for students and young professionals. This is the main driving force pulling students away from Dublin city to the highly distinguished Queen's University Belfast, who shared data with Belfast Live showing students attending QUB from the Republic of Ireland have tripled since 2019.
“The gap in tuition fees has narrowed and ROI students still enjoy the advantage of the lower fees that used to apply to all EU students before Brexit. When you compare the relative costs of accommodation then the relative gap in costs has narrowed even more”, Tony Gallagher, professor of Social Sciences and Education at Queen's University told Belfast Live.
“Added to this is a huge growth in student accommodation places in Belfast, particularly in recent years, all of which seems to have made NI an increasingly attractive option for ROI students” He explains.
Earlier this month we also saw the Irish government announce a huge €44.5 million cross-border funding initiative in partnership with Ulster University. The announcement of the new island-wide funding will be used primarily to help fund a new teaching and student services building in Ulster University's Derry campus.
“The investment decisions made today under the Shared Island Initiative will further deepen the people to people links across this island, including in such important areas as health and education – things which impact so much on the day to day lives of us all.” commented Micheál Martin, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs when the funding was first announced.
As the housing situation in Dublin and its surrounding areas continues to get worse for renters and property hunters alike, it is expected Belfast will become more popular with young people over the next few years. Students and young people from greater Dublin like Clare - who have been pushed away from their homes by the unreasonable rental situation - share a common feeling of alienation towards Ireland’s lack of empathy for young renters.
“Dublin isn’t for people who are from there” exclaims Clare. “Anything special that made it different was turned into a hotel or bulldozed”.
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