What should be my renting upper limit? (1 bed - Ranelagh, Ballsbridge, Donnybrook)

runswithascript

I only work part time so I have a monthly income at the moment of about €1700 and I'm living in a tiny bedsit for €407 per month but I've had enough of no space, no view and no big windows etc.

Ideally by the end of July I'll have moved into a one bedroom apartment (not a flat - for the quiet, privacy and maybe a balcony or a walkout area or somewhere I could barbecue or stand out on in the evenings etc ) in Ranelagh, Donnybrook or Ballsbridge.

Initially I set my upper limit at €800 and even at that I thought it might be too big a part of my €1700 but from my extensive research on pricing over my first day looking through daft it seems if I really want to live where I want to live I'll have to raise my upper limit as high as €850 to €1000?

So basically what I'm asking is can I get the type of place I want for €800 or less or am I looking at €1000 or less and also is that too big a percentage of my monthly income of €1700 to spend on rent, what percent do you spend?

Rowley Birkin QC

I recently looked at a decent sized, newly renovated 1 bed in Ranelagh with big windows for €700 which was about 2 mins walk from the Luas stop. Bargain hard, landlords are scrambling for cash.

Raekwon

I agree with the last poster, you need to bargain with landlords these days. The only trouble is that you are looking to live in a prime location where there is going to be competition from others which could give the landlord the upper hand in negotiations and means the your chances of getting a nice place at a reasonable price are going to be pretty slim.

Oh and by the way and off topic, what part-time job do you do that pays out €1,700 per month??? That's a serious wad for part-time work! :eek:

runswithascript

bigkev49 wrote: »

I recently looked at a decent sized, newly renovated 1 bed in Ranelagh with big windows for €700 which was about 2 mins walk from the Luas stop. Bargain hard, landlords are scrambling for cash.

Raekwon wrote: »

I agree with the last poster, you need to bargain with landlords these days. The only trouble is that you are looking to live in a prime location where there is going to be competition from others which could give the landlord the upper hand in negotiations and means the your chances of getting a nice place at a reasonable price are going to be pretty slim.

Say I go for a place that's €800 and offer €700 might the landlord not turn around and say something like "why the hell did you come if you will only pay €700 and it's advertised as €800"?

Man if I could haggle down a landlord it would be great to have the extra cash but I'd also just be chuffed I did it

Raekwon wrote: »

Oh and by the way and off topic, what part-time job do you do that pays out €1,700 per month??? That's a serious wad for part-time work! :eek:

I work in IT which makes up the majority of my income but the rest is from student grants etc but not Rent Allowance because as far as I know you can only receive even a fraction of it once your monthly rent is less than about €550.

shoegirl

I was thinking the same, its a nice income for a part time job, a fair amount of people would be getting that for full time work.

Bear in mind that a bigger place will be a little more expensive to light and heat. I was earning about the same 7 years ago and paying 140 a week which averaged out at around 600 a month, my electricity was free for the first two years, but my landlord started to charge me for it, and unfortunately was charging me double the ESB rate, which was just too expensive, so I moved. I wasn't stuck but I didn't have a lot of cash to spare either. If you live a frugal lifestyle you'll be ok, depends what other outgoings you have.

RATM

OP I'd tend to say that if your rent is more than 25-30% of your income (before ESB, broadband, NTL, phone bills, weekly food shop etc) then you should look elsewhere.
If paying more than 30% you may well live in a nice area but you'll have little money left to socialise, buy clothes, go on holiday, drive a car, etc.

Maybe try somewhere in Harold's Cross, there might be better value to be had there and its not too far away. Or on the other side of Ballsbridge you have Ringsend and Irishtown, you should be able to get something down there for your price range.

Agree with other posters though, now is the time to haggle.

chupi

Hi OP,

It's hard to gauge what places are actually renting for but if you install firefox and then get an add on called property bee (www.property-bee.com) it's fantastic!

Property bee tracks property on daft and you can see how long a place has been up, have there been any price changes, etc.

Should help you find a nicer place!

Rowley Birkin QC

LA3G wrote: »

Say I go for a place that's €800 and offer €700 might the landlord not turn around and say something like "why the hell did you come if you will only pay €700 and it's advertised as €800"?

Man if I could haggle down a landlord it would be great to have the extra cash but I'd also just be chuffed I did it

Yeah, definitely. I was sending around e-mails saying that I was interested in places but that my budget was €800 max. Sent it by mistake to a landlord advertising a place for €1200 p/m. She e-mailed me back a few days later to know if I could stretch to €900 in order for us to do business.:eek:

Ring them and say what your budget is but that you are interested. In general the places I've looked at have reduced the asking price by €75-100 instantly, before the real haggling begins. Good luck with it.

runswithascript

shoegirl wrote: »

... but my landlord started to charge me for it, and unfortunately was charging me double the ESB rate, which was just too expensive, so I moved..

Is that even legal? Did you query them on it?

shoegirl wrote: »

I wasn't stuck but I didn't have a lot of cash to spare either. If you live a frugal lifestyle you'll be ok, depends what other outgoings you have.

I can be frugal but living where I am currently I've gotten away without doing so, it's not worth it at the price of living in a shoebox, maybe you can relate shoegirl?

RATM wrote: »

OP I'd tend to say that if your rent is more than 25-30% of your income (before ESB, broadband, NTL, phone bills, weekly food shop etc) then you should look elsewhere.
If paying more than 30% you may well live in a nice area but you'll have little money left to socialise, buy clothes, go on holiday, drive a car, etc.

Makes a lot of sense. €700 is just over 30% of my income so maybe I should stop torturing myself drooling all over places on daft.ie for €1000 or less and instead focus on properties for €800 less and only live where I've managed to haggle them down €100.

RATM wrote: »

Maybe try somewhere in Harold's Cross, there might be better value to be had there and its not too far away. Or on the other side of Ballsbridge you have Ringsend and Irishtown, you should be able to get something down there for your price range.

I can't bend on D4 or Ranelagh unfortunately, I love it here

RATM wrote: »

Agree with other posters though, now is the time to haggle.

bigkev49 wrote: »

Ring them and say what your budget is but that you are interested. In general the places I've looked at have reduced the asking price by €75-100 instantly, before the real haggling begins. Good luck with it.

So trying to get a reduction over the phone first is the best course of action? I was thinking maybe I could bring one month's deposit and rent minus €100 each and take the cash out and have it in my hand when explaining to the landlord what I was prepared to pay? I don't really want to arrange a viewing then explain I'm not prepared to pay the full amount to the landlord only to be asked something like "why did you bother coming when you knew the asking price".

chupi wrote: »

Hi OP,

It's hard to gauge what places are actually renting for but if you install firefox and then get an add on called property bee (www.property-bee.com) it's fantastic!

Property bee tracks property on daft and you can see how long a place has been up, have there been any price changes, etc.

Should help you find a nicer place!

I installed it but I'm having a lot of problems with the registration process, see my post Property Bee woes...