London's different. If the world economy falls apart I'd rather be in London than Dublin for job seeking purposes.
During this covid virus lockdown working remotely from home with a massive farm size garden growing fruit and veggies in rural Ireland has proven to be better for my mental/physical health than being locked into a tiny apartment in a city
Not hanging out with people as much and other similar things would’ve presumably been impacted the same in most places.
Anecdotally, I mostly know middle and upper middle class people. A few have moved or are going to move into bigger and farther away places from their current apt. But still within their current city limits.
I’m sure you enjoy your location and house size. It appears people who are enjoying larger and more rural living spaces always preferred them pre-corona too. Perhaps I am missing a trend of many people who can work remote now, moving out of cities. I know I see a lot of chatter on ‘trendy’ social sites, but it’s not always representative.
Like I said the fall of pound has been spectacular in last 4-5 years.
* Engineer Dublin 2015 - €100K ~£70K
* Engineer Dublin 2020 - €125K ~£112K (5K eur increases per year)
* Engineer London 2015 - £70K ~€100K
* Engineer London 2020 - £95K ~€105K (5K gbp increases per year)
Both engineers start at same pay 5 years ago, both of them think they are moving up in the world with reasonable pay increases per year. One of them is being screwed by falling value of pound against just about every major currency due to Brexit and all the uncertainty.
i.e. the same increase looks better if you live in London than if you work remotely from Dublin. But.. I don't think it's surprising that London salaries aren't optimised for remote workers in Dublin?
(This may well change of course! Will be interesting to see what happens if remote work gets significantly more widespread.)
Until the pandemic Dublin had become impossible to rent in due to reallocation to AirBnB.
I'm currently still comfortable in Edinburgh, where I get slightly less money than London but a much cheaper house. My current employer is not exposed to much Brexit risk, but Dublin is very high up on my exit strategy choices list.
It's really tempting. The thought of being a hour or so's drive from wilderness is very appealing. My main concern is being stuck up there if things really go to shit. That and the poorer weather!
Property is much cheaper in Fife than a comparable property in Edinburgh. We got a nice 5 bedroom house in a rural area with a large garden and fantastic views for about a third less than a 4 bedroom flat in Edinburgh.
- a garage in London
- a small flat in central Edinburgh
- a medium sized house in Edinburgh outskirts
- a large house in Edinburgh commuter belt
- a mansion if you're prepared to drive more than an hour
- or a small island in the middle of nowhere
As a EU citizen i would be horrified if any non EU company gets its hands on my personal data.
From our point of view UK is now in same league of "3rd countries" as Russia or India
If the word economy falls apart, cities that are disproportionately engaged in finance and especially international finance like London and New York are going to be the worst places to be for jobs in the short-term.
A little while after the initial chaos and collapse, they'll be great places for rebuilding jobs, though.
I guess, if you can live with the hundreds of thousands of desperate/jobless/starving/homeless people you'll be seeing every day.
I mean, FFS, you're talking the world economy falling apart, that very likely means 1800's London, quite a terrible place to live in.
The real benefit of living in London is that it'd be far easier to get another job if things truly went south.
Does it actually though? Genuine question having grown up here. I live with my partner, our monthly outgoings living on the zone 1/2 border are ~£800 each for mortgage, bills, car insurance, etc. Last year I earned ~£90k before tax. I don't think I would have earned anything like that amount working in another part in the UK. Even if my cost of living was halved I'd only be saving around £5k a year.
I'm relatively young I suppose and I don't love everything about London, but I see lots of benefits to living here outside of the income, too. I can also be in the (proper) countryside in an hour or so drive at the weekends if I want a change of scenery.
When did you buy? I get the distinct impression from friends that even well off techies are struggling to get a big deposit together for a London property nowadays.
The cost of living in Dublin is not much different from London though.
> there is almost no benefit to living in London unless you're young or work in finance.
What is the benefit to living in Dublin?