cost of living london v dublin

juanveron45

I was wondering how does dublin compare to london for cost of living and how about other cities in england compared to dublin?

The Sweeper

London and Dublin:

Generally: rent in London and rent in Dublin are much the same. With a little patience, if you go further out through the zones in London you can get a better property than you would at the same distance in Dublin, for less money, and your transport links are better than Dublin.

Groceries are cheaper generally and you can eat out generally for less money and have better quality food (esp Indian and Chinese food). You can drink beer for a lot less money, depending where you drink it. (London does have more in the range of cheap n cheerful chain pubs than Dublin, and it also still has happy hour, hooray!)

Petrol is more expensive, as are cigarettes.

The two things that are far more expensive than Dublin are council tax (which doesn't exist in Dublin) and transport costs - depending how many zones you travel through to get to and from your job, your travel card can take a real bite out of your salary.

They're both capital cities, they're both expensive places to live. You may be able to achieve a higher salary in London than in Dublin, depending what you work at.

Other cities versus Dublin

Depends entirely on the city! A vague rule of thumb says the further north you go, the cheaper things get. However, in terms of cost of living and salary, it would be similar to comparing Galway or Cork to Dublin - big cities, cheaper rent, but you won't get the same salary for the same job if you move north in the UK as you'd get in London.



Do you have a job, place or purpose in mind?

r3nu4l

I live in Cambridge but used to commute to London every day.

As MAJD said you can get slightly cheaper housing further north and still within commuting distance of London...but the monthly train fare to London is about £340 (€~500).

Childcare is approx £750-850 (€~1100-1225) per month in Cambridge.

Council tax etc is a big one, also despite the tax bands here being wider and paying less income tax at the lower level...the gap still gets eaten up by National Insurance contributions.

When I first moved to the UK I imagined that the standard of living would be higher and costs would be much lower, thanks to Irish media reports of how much more expensive Ireland is.

Take haircuts for example. My gf has mentioned in the past that getting her hair done here is far more expensive than at home...typical man that I am, I thought this was exaggeration until my brothers gf (living in Dublin) came over for a visit and got here hair done one of the days and nearly ahd a heart-attack when she saw how expensive it was .

My overall impression (as MAJD said) is that eating and drinking out are cheaper but other things are more expensive. It probably pretty much evens out or dare I say it, perhaps London (and the commuter zone) is more expensive.

BossArky

All that is written above is good advice.

If you are coming to London then try to get as close as possible to the circle line. Failing that a tube line that will bring you to it, else you'll spend much of your days backwards and forward / on and off other buses/trains trying to get into the city if that is where you'll be working.

Not exactly related to the OP's original question... but after a while of tubing around I found it interesting to stay above ground i.e. walk between stations on foot, or cycle around the city. Some places are alot closer together than the tube may lead you to believe. Walking from Monument to Bank to change from Distrct/Circle to Central line always seems quicker overground.

Jimoslimos

The biggest factor will be where you end up working, staying in central London if your job is out in zone 6 probably isn't too cost effective (of course this could be complicated if you have a partner who works the other side of the city to you).
I'd also suggest perhaps looking for somewhere close to a national rail line within the greater london area. These can be a lot quicker to get to the city than a tube from similar distance plus they're also a bit cheaper. BossArky's point regarding walking between stations is very true - you'd be surprised how much time it takes to actually reach the platform on some underground lines.

iguana

I've found rent in London to be quite a bit dearer than in Dublin. I used to rent a 2 bed apt with a little garden in Ranelagh (fashionable area) for €900pm, then I moved to Tottenham (UNfashionable area) in London and was in a 1 bed apt with no outside space for €1100pm - equivalent. And most people thought we were getting a good deal. Plus we had an extra £100 a month for council tax and an extra £100 each for travel that we never had in Dublin. However when we bought our house we got a far better deal than we would have in Dublin. And the stamp duty is much lower at present.