**Accommodation Thread (for housing related questions & answers look here)**

You're a bit early for accommodation really. A few people who moved to Carlow for college that I know have used daft.ie and said it was as easy as could be. I've used it myself when I moved to Dundalk for a while and got a bargin!
Best place really depends on each person. If you don't have a car, or don't want to bring you car to college, you'll want something within 10 or so mins. Thankfully, loads of the estates around the college are mainly student/rent houses. As far as I remember, you can actually select to search for shared housing on daft. You'll probably want a shared place, otherwise you're looking at a pretty pent.
If you do drive, and don't mind a few mins on the road, you *might* find a nicer or cheaper place.
From what people tell me, the regular going rate is around €60+ for a standard roof over your head + Internet/heating/etc - Although I know people paying well over that.
If I was you, I wouldn't worry about a place to live until the start of August. Being early is great and all, but you won't see any real student accom. until around then

@Seanie175 You're very early looking for accommodation alright! But no harm!

I just finished my first year at Carlow IT and if I can give you one piece of advice it's this:

STEER CLEAR OF CARRAIG ABHAINN

I stayed there all year and to be perfectly frank I was utterly miserable there.

Here are just some of the reasons not to stay in Carraig Abhainn:

1) Overpriced. It's 90/100 euro a week and the apartments are shabby and falling apart.

2) False advertising. The site claims that the rent covers bills but in reality all it covers is electricity and the use of a crappy heater stuck to your bedroom wall. It doesn't cover use of washing machine/dryer or internet. Washing and drying tokens cost €3 each, and there are only two washing machines and two dryers for public use out of a village with over 100 tenants. Internet costs €60 per laptop per term and it's one broadband box for the whole estate (as slow as dialup) and doesn't even work in some houses.

3) Awful management. The management is uncontactable. The "office hours" are a joke as the office rarely even opens on the scheduled times on Tuesday and Thursday. Furthermore, there are three contact numbers available for tenants. One is a landline, one is an employee's work mobile & the other is an emergency number. All three of these contact numbers are useless. (Yes, the emergency number is not answered.) Furthermore, you will receive threatening and accusatory letters via the mail over the course of the year from the management. Don't try and get their help on an issue. They will only personally contact you if you're late paying your rent. Otherwise they clearly do not care.

4) Tenants. My experience with the other students living there is that they're wild. I guess most young students are but they were insane. The estate was often left extremely vandalized and many students harass other students freely.


So whatever people will say (and people will always try and convince you to rent in Carraig Abhainn, which is why I've made such a point in advising against it) please don't go into Carraig Abhainn for you own good. Also, the pics on the website are false advertising and the rooms look in no way like that.

I feel a lot of first years (myself included) decide to go for Carraig Abhainn as it's often advertised as being a great place to make new friends. Well, I can't say so myself. In fact, I found it the opposite. Most people go renting there already in a group from secondary school and rent a house together and don't mingle.

I went to Carlow all on my ownio from Co. Roscommon and it was terrifying. I feel the year could've been so much better for me if I hadn't decided on Carraig Abhainn.

Now, for places I WOULD recommend:

College Green!

I've been there. A lot of the landlords have deals with rent where one payment covers rent, bins & internet. In general the rent in these houses are around €60 per week (decent enough.) The houses are quite big and most of them share with another 4/5 people. Way better value for your money compared to Carraig Abhainn and only a 5-10 minute walk from the IT. Obviously it can get a bit wild with house parties but you can expect that anywhere in a student town, so unless you share with professionals it's unavoidable.

Southern Gardens is also meant to be quite good and alongside the same price range as College Green as well as being the same distance from the IT.

If you're planning on going to college in St Pats I'm sorry but I really wouldn't know what to recommend for that!

What I'd also advise against is staying in digs. I stayed in digs last year when I was doing a PLC in Dublin and it's a very boring atmosphere. You feel isolated and you don't make friends. People will try to advise you towards digs but I honestly wouldn't go for it and I'm speaking from personal experience. If you can't cook for instance, and that is why you're considering digs, you'll pick up cooking in about 2 days or just shove something in the oven. Digs can be terribly lonely and also quite restrictive especially for bringing friends over and going out to the pub/nightclub at night. For me, I spent most of my time in my bedroom online and it was very unhealthy and lonely.

So yeah, go for College Green. Very cheap and meant to be the best! And yes, if you stay there you will more than likely be sharing with students!

You can check out with the landlord before a viewing what tenants are already considering the property.. If they tell you it's professionals I'd say steer clear because that too can be isolated and you won't make friends as easily as you would in a student place.

Good luck! Carlow is a grand spot sure.

Howaya ye,
Looking for any tips/advice for renting an apartment/house for a mature student couple.
Daft websites and such aren't coming up with much options.