„Es ist einfach ein Kinderspiel“ – Mieter tauschen die Republik gegen günstigere Häuser in Belfast

Not for much longer. 

As in the prices will soon go up. 

>“The dream scenario is the southern wage and the northern rent,” she says.

There’s the rub…

Hope they enjoy it. Couldn’t be putting up with that Northern weather personally.

I live in Belfast. Bought up here a few years ago. Got a foreign currency mortgage with Progressive Building society. Had been living at home and saving for a place in Galway, but felt like i was being had on by estate agents. Viewed a place in Galway was told it had been listed for 6 months and no bid had come in on it. Bid 5k under asking and estate agent said seller would accept the listed price, so i agreed to meet that, was getting the paperwork ready and suddenly another offer had come in, so I walked. I was single at the time and the place in Galway i bid for, which had extortionate management fees and storage heaters was around 180k. The monthly payments were coming in at around 800 per month.

Worked in IT so was fully remote at the time, stumbled upon Belfast one day and found a few apartments which needed some work but were lovely. Got a letter from my employer stating i was to be based from our dublin office and that i was currently fully remote. Got onto progressive and got my mortgage application going. I had to pay 30% of the deposit. Exempt from Stamp duty, as i was a first time buyer. Solicitor fees were ~600. Shopped around and went for a solicitor who was based in Fermanagh. As i found themselves and west tyrone based firms were quoting me the cheapest prices.

The apartment I wanted was listed for 95k , and I bought it for 92.5k. It’s in a nice Cul de Sac. It has a nice sized bathroom with a bath/shower. Two double beds, hall, open plan kitchen / living room area and its ground floor. Its around 15 mins walk to the city centre but there’s a glider right outside the door. It’s in the West of the city which is the nationalist side, but as a nationalist that didn’t bother me. I’ve had plenty of interactions with everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and everyone has been sound. I love it up here, my mrs is based in Dublin and we rotate between our houses but she just can’t get over the value you get up here.

As i had to pay my 30% deposit it meant my actual mortgage loan was around 64,000£. I started off on variable but at the time the Bank of England was raising rates , so i went from paying 204£ per month to paying 275 a month. I switched to a fix rate at that time. I got lucky and my parents sold up our house to move to somewhere smaller. So they gave us some
inheritance up front, which worked out around €20,000 euro. With the low mortgage rate and not having any other loans etc,, i’ve been frugal
with my money. I rented out a room to a couple and with the inheritance and regular savings i’ve managed to pay down the mortgage balance to 12000£ , which has reduced my monthly payments to 66£ per month. It’s just me and the mrs in my place now.

I work in IT , my salary is around €65,000. With the return to office I work twice a week in Dublin and then 3 days from Belfast. I have to do two tax returns each year. One in the Republic and one in the UK. The Dublin commute is manageable but does take getting used to.

I’m a firm believer that one day we’ll see Irish reunification, and if that happens Belfast will be the second largest city in the new state. Which i assume will see property values in Belfast increase substantially. Not sure what is next for us but living life in Belfast, if anyone has any questions you can let me know, and i’ll do my best to answer them.

I noticed there were loads of southern reg plates up here these days and wondered. They’re also in areas you’d least expect, which can only be a good thing. I hope it means there are people from down south/Donegal living unbothered in traditionally “loyalist” areas.