Accommodation

football girl

Living in halls this year and it has been just perfect. I know I won't be able to stay there next year so I was wondering if anybody had any other recommendations for accommodation? Halls has been so handy in terms of having bills etc included. Does anyone have any experience with nci or anything else?
Thanks in advance

Siobhan6

You can actually re-apply to halls for second year if you really want to live there again.

Personally though, I would recommend teaming up with a few people and getting an apartment/house or renting a spare room in a house that already has tenants.

Living independently in private accommodation offers much more freedom than halls; you can have people around whenever you want etc. Of course, it can be more difficult to live with people when there are fewer ground rules, but personally I think it teaches a lot of good life lessons and is a great real world experience!

Of course it's up to you, what I will say though is that there are places available for rent in Dublin where bills are included, and if not, you can normally get a good estimate just by asking the people who live there or the land lord.

ravingitup

I would agree with what Siobhan said, especially regarding re-applying for Halls for a second year if you are willing to put up with the incoming first years in September. I lived in Halls for two years, and whilst it wasn't conducive to Schols study, they were the best two years of college.

Specifically as regards NCI, I lived there in 3rd year and it is a fantastic place to live. It's a great walk into college, about ten minutes or so and the area is nice, even if there aren't many large shops nearby to do a big shopping in. There is a Mace and a cool M&S but it's just food and isn't the cheapest. Rooms in NCI are large, with plenty of space and the kitchen area is huge - especially if you choose to live in an apartment of six people. Like every accomodation, it has its cons though. Two things to note - it's expensive. It's dearer than Halls by quite a margin. So research before you choose there. Secondly, the electricity is controlled by cards that you have to buy at reception, and whilst the cards themselves are pretty cheap, over the course of a year it can be very expensive.

However, NCI is very close to Trinity and so it cuts out the transport costs that was the main disadvantage of Halls. There are some great pubs nearby and it's so close to everything in town - so overall I loved living there! Just beware of the initial price tag!

Evan93

ravingitup wrote: »

Like every accomodation, it has its cons though. Two things to note - it's expensive. It's dearer than Halls by quite a margin. So research before you choose there. Secondly, the electricity is controlled by cards that you have to buy at reception, and whilst the cards themselves are pretty cheap, over the course of a year it can be very expensive.

I don't think it's dearer than Halls by quite a margin. The entire years fees are 5460 and Halls are 5247. Bearing in mind that Halls is a bit out I suppose it depends how long you like to commute. Though yes you do need to pay the electricity cards which amounts to about 200 euro more for the year. Also, bearing in mind that the occupation time is longer in NCI it's probably around the same value. Obviously, you can't avail of a shared bedroom and get a significant reduction.

I think NCI is great, it can be restrictive only in the sense that if you want to have someone stay over you must sign them in. Everything else, if there are any utility problems etc. are taken care of straight away. Especially if you don't want the hassle of having to deal with landlords and so on. It's close, expensive as anywhere else but you pay for what you get.