Moving to Galway from New Zealand

djturkington

Hi everyone,

I am a New Zealander moving to Galway with my young family in March 2014. I am being sent by my company to establish a small office.
Having been to Galway only once, I definitely took a shine to the Western side of the city, and I've seen enough posts to understand that I should try and base the office on the same side of the river as my house!

I have a million questions, but I would really appreciate any Galwegian (have I got that right? ) advice on the following:

1. Good area to find a nice 3 bedroom house west of the city, but within 10-20 minutes walk? Budget is around EU1,000 per month, but could stretch a little more. Needs 2 parking spaces.
2. Good area for young families - my kids will be 3 1/2 and 1 1/2, not quite school age but active so need close parks, beach etc. Salthill seemed nice?
3. Good area for small office - only 5 people, probably 1000 sq feet is plenty, plus at least 2 parks... are there any good business estates?
4. Best real estate firms to contact (while still in NZ) to help me find house and office?

Really REALLY appreciate any advice guys, and please feel free to wade in on anything else you think we might need to consider.

Thanks so much!

Mrs OBumble

djturkington wrote: »

1. Good area to find a nice 3 bedroom house west of the city, but within 10-20 minutes walk?

...

3. Good area for small office - only 5 people, probably 1000 sq feet is plenty, plus at least 2 parks... are there any good business estates?

.... please feel free to wade in on anything else you think we might need to consider.

Thanks so much!

Areas within 10-20 minutes walk of what? If you mean the city centre, then that's pretty much Salthill, Shantalla, Newcastle. Some parts of the latter two are very student-ish (think Dunedin student neighbourhoods with their annual couch-burnings, not the more civlised Auckland / Wellington ones).


House rental - you'll be stretching to get a nice 3brm for that, I think. Very few houses are being sold at the moment, so the rental market is tight and prices are high.


Business estates in the west of the city are the IDA park in Dangan (ie Newcastle), and Knocknacarra Business park. I'm not sure who handles leasing them, but the IDA would be a good start for the former. (Map of all industrial estate and major workplace locations: http://www.galwaytransport.info/2008/12/industrial-estates-business-parks-and.html).

There's one in Westside / Rahoon too, but I'd leave that for the locals

There is some office space in Salthill, but not much, and parking can be a pain, even with allocated spaces.

One other option to consider would be starting in a serviced office complex. I know some companies opening here have done that, because it simplifies getting started. (But AFAIK all the serviced offices are on the east of the city )


I guess your partner is coming with you, so you don't need to worry about booking childcare? If you do, then expect to be disappointed with the quality of centre-based options - Montessori is regarded as premium stuff here, while a person who's only done Montessori training isn't even regarded as qualified in NZ. And also book sooner rather than later.



And one last tip, if you eat Marmite, bring supplies. The closest you can get here is that English muck But the good news in that beer availability is a lot better than it was when I came six years ago.

beardybrewer

This is the site for the incubator in the Mervue Business Park near Wellpark:
http://www.gtc.ie/

biko

A few links for places to find office space and houses.
There are estate agents in there too, and you're right - it's probably easiest to have one of them find you both a house and an office.

http://www.daft.ie/galway/commercial_to_let/
http://www.property.ie/commercial-property/galway/galway-city-centre/type_office/
http://www.myhome.ie/rentals/estate-agents/galway-city

Oh and don't sign up for anything long-term. Once you're here you may want to change things after a few months/get a better deal.

djturkington

Thanks so much everyone.

2rkehij30qtza5

Mrs O'Bumble pretty much said all I was going to say.

You will find getting a house a hard job...the rental market is tough. There are very few decent houses at the moment and for every house you view, there will be numerous other couples the same as you also viewing...the agents and landlords will literally have loads of couples to pick from to rent their house out to! Basically you will need to come over and start viewing places ASAP. Daft.ie will become your best friend. You may get a short-term holiday apartment in Salthill in the meantime.

Office-wise....IDA park in Newcastle/Dangan. Lots of office space in Kingston near Joyce's supermarket (nice area)...try Salthill too, nice area.

Schools-wise...you need to start sending off application forms ASAP.

Childcare is also difficult to get. Are you going to go down the crèche route? There are some good places in Knocknacarra. They will be expensive but are good.

If you need any info just pm me. I'm a local and know the city very well and would be happy to help you if I can.

djturkington

Thanks Galwaygirlee,

I'm going to get my company to pay for some temporary accommodation for 3 months when we first arrive - hopefully this will give us enough time to find something we like.
I've been to the IDA park in Dangan, and I think it looks ideal. We only need something big enough for 5 people - not sure if it's possible to get something that small there?
With regards to school, my oldest will be 3 and a half when we arrive... are you saying we should start applying for schools straight away?

2rkehij30qtza5

djturkington wrote: »

Thanks Galwaygirlee,

I'm going to get my company to pay for some temporary accommodation for 3 months when we first arrive - hopefully this will give us enough time to find something we like.
I've been to the IDA park in Dangan, and I think it looks ideal. We only need something big enough for 5 people - not sure if it's possible to get something that small there?
With regards to school, my oldest will be 3 and a half when we arrive... are you saying we should start applying for schools straight away?

Your daughter won't get in to some schools. She would have needed to have had her name down since she was an infant (yep, madness I know!). Galway is notorious for 'lists' for schools....i put my children's names down when they were only a few months old and even then my daughter only got into our school of choice after a few rounds of offers! You need to get her name down now. Seriously.

Start googling the schools and download application forms and send them ASAP. Scoil Íde, Scoil Róis, Bushypark, Boleybeg, Knocknacarra Primary School...there are other ones which teach through the medium of the Irish language..you may not be interested in those though and they are usually completely full up years in advance anyway!

With regards to the IDA park, yeah I'm sure you'd get something small there. There are lots of small companies in there.

You could also look around the Newcastle area near the university...there are a lot of old 'houses' that are now converted into offices....dentists surgeries and the likes. You'd be sure to get somewhere in that area. I'd say contact the estate agents to find out (again, daft.ie is where all the agents advertise and you will get their numbers from there).

Bushypark school is near the IDA park and your daughter would definitely get in there. It's an excellent school. I know a few people teaching there. Lovely area too but you haven't a snowballs chance in hell of getting a house for around €1,000 a month there.

Dangan/Newcastle would be the immediate area that the IDA park is in...very studenty area but if you don't mind that then it's fine! But again, can't see you getting anything around there for €1,000 pm.

ValerieR

Welcome to Galway.
The West side of the city is great indeed. There might however be one little consideration you might want to keep in mind.
If your new office required customers to physically drop in from further afield than Galway City, the Eastern side of the city might be more accessible to them, making it quicker and easier to come and visit. There are few routes from the East to the West in Galway and they are often congested.
Best of luck in your endeavour.
V

Mrs OBumble

Yes, if there's a chance that you will be staying here for long enough for your kids to start school, then you will have to get their names down soon - but this is something that can and should wait 'til you arrive here (no one pre-enrol you without a PPS number and an Irish address, AFAIK). In Ireland, there is no zoning, and your kids have no automatic right to enrol in the nearest school. They do have a right to enrol in a school - but there are very few mechanisms to help if the ones in your neighbourhood cannot take them.

But while we're on the topic of schools though, something else to be aware of: until very recently, the Irish government paid teacher salaries, but did not own or manage any national (aka primary) schools. The churches did that. Even now, the vast majority of schools, including all the ones listed before, are under the patronage of the Roman Catholic church, with one in Galway city centre under the Church of Ireland (aka Anglican - but don't call 'em that here!). Recently this has started to change, there is a non-religious group called Educate Together who are running a small number of schools one in Newcastle, near-ish to Dangan. I have no idea what the waiting list for it is like. But they have also been granted patronage of a new school to be opened in Knocknacarra in 2014 - details here: http://www.educatetogether.ie/knocknacarra

Of course if you are Catholic, or don't mind your kids going to Catholic schools, this won't be an issue. (If you are, then bring a copy of the kids baptismal certs with you, it will make things easier later on.) There's no non-preference quota to worry about here, so if the school has a place, them not being Catholic isn't an issue (but AFAIK, there's no way to get the kids out of religion lessons).

Back to PPS numbers and bank accounts - this may be something that your company has experience with helping people do in new countries. But if not, you'll need to figure out this process on your own. Getting your temporary address is the first step. Then register for a PPS with Welfare. Keep the envelope that they send you, and use this to open a bank account. Some info in this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=75833090 One tip is to bring a long-form birth certificate with you (ring Internal Affairs for this).

Spring Onion

IDA Business Park in Dangan. Loads of office space and you might get some government grants.

Then easy access to Knocknacarra/Salthill/Newcastle estates. Some great schools around those areas.

West is best when it comes to Galway.

Banneret

Mrs OBumble knows her stuff

Seaneh

There is actually a LOT of office space for let in the city centre at the minute so finding somewhere walking distance from Lower Salthill/cladagh area will be fairly easy.

And that's the best area of town to live in.

If you can, aim for the Fr. Burke and Fr. Griffin Road areas in Cladagh, 2 minutes walk to the bridge, right beside a super market, close to primary and secondary schools (like 2 minutes walk to either) and in the middle of the best restaurants and pubs in the city.

The Whest is the Bhest.

Mrs OBumble

Seaneh wrote: »

The Whest is the Bhest.

Except for the speech defects that people tend to develop

thesandeman

^^^
I think he just misses us since he moved on.

Mrs OBumble

thesandeman wrote: »

^^^
I think he just misses us since he moved on.

Sez the lad from the east side of town!