Cork, Dublin, Galway, Limerick: Which are Ireland’s cheapest and dearest cities?

Life in capital cities across the world tends to come with a hefty premium. If you want to settle in London you’ll pay more than if you live in Birmingham or Liverpool, while the day-to-day cost of Parisian living is considerably higher than in Marseilles or Strasbourg.But what about closer to home? It would be easy to assume our capital is a much more expensive place to put down roots than other cities around the State, and while dear old Dublin does live up to the moniker in some respects, Galway, in particular, runs it far closer than you might expect. When it comes to deciding where is the cheapest place of all, socialising, public transport, childcare and a host of other things have to be considered, as well as average wages. But there is one thing that stands alone: a home. The cost of putting a roof over your head is obviously the biggest drain – whether you are buying or renting. READ MOREWhile Dubin is – as you might expect – the dearest place to rent, Galway is within touching distance, although just how close it is depends on the measure you use. The most up to date data from daft.ie puts the average cost of renting a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin at a pretty eye-watering €2,634 a month. Galway city is in second place with monthly rent currently standing at €2,336 although it does fall to €1,559 across the county as a whole. Limerick is in the bronze medal position with a two-bedroom home in the city likely to cost around €2,244. The self-styled real capital, Cork, is the most accommodating when it comes to accommodation, with the monthly rent averaging €2,168. Across the county as a whole, rents were a more modest €1,700. Eyre Square in Galway. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times For our purposes we will confine ourselves to city living and if we were to look at the average annual costs, a person renting a two-bed apartment in Dublin will spend a sobering €31,608. The annual cost in Galway comes in at €28,032 while in Limerick it is €26,928 and in Cork it falls to €26,016, according to the daft.ie figures, a full €5,592 less than in Dublin. And at the risk of stating the obvious, for many people that will be an after-tax figure, which means someone living in Dublin will have to earn in excess of €10,000 a year more than their Cork counterpart just to be in the same place financially.But of course not everyone wants to rent so we should also look at the cost of buying and, just as it did with renting, Galway City runs Dublin closer than you might think.The average price of a three-bedroom semidetached house in the capital is €635,000, according to daft.ie, while the average price in our rainiest, most western city is €618,000. Cork city is a long way off the pace, with prices said to be averaging €431,000, while Limerick was further back on €376,000.The average price of a three-bedroom semi-detached house in Dublin is €635,000, according to daft.ie. Photographer: Aidan Crawley/Bloomberg But the daft figures are not the only measure and other sources suggest a degree of conflict. The Central Statistics Office (CSO), for example, estimates the average price paid for a similar property in Dublin in the 12 months to August was €598,677 while MyHome.ie, which is owned by The Irish Times, puts the median price in Dublin at €585,132. It also puts the median price in Galway – covering both city and county − at €375,000, with the price in Cork €360,000 and in Limerick €290,000.But while different sources reveal different prices, the rankings are the same, with Dublin and Galway considerably ahead of the rest.Outside of housing, many of the costs people have to pay are the same no matter where in the State they live. Generally speaking, the Lidls in the west charge the same for groceries and blow torches as they do in the east and the south, while milk and bread in Dunnes in Dublin are the same price as in a Dunnes in Limerick. There is also no premium paid for electricity supplied to homes in Dublin when compared with homes in Dingle – although many rural homes – 700,000 of them, in fact – are expected to rely on home heating oil, which has soared in price over the past 10 months. But that is a whole other story. Health insurance is also the same no matter where you live.But there are discrepancies in other areas. Numbeo is a price-conscious website that describes itself as “the world’s largest cost-of-living and quality-of-life database, combining millions of crowdsourced reports with automated market-data collection and statistical validation to produce reliable global benchmarks”. It says it covers “cost of living, housing, crime, healthcare, transport, and other key indicators used by individuals, researchers, and organisations worldwide”.[ Grocery price inflation hits nearly 5%, latest data showsOpens in new window ]It is entirely unofficial but still a useful resource when working out where is the cheapest of them all. It puts the estimated monthly expenditure for a family of four in Dublin at €3,864, excluding rent, while the estimated monthly costs for a single person in the city are said to be €1,088, again excluding rent.In Cork, the monthly costs for the notional family of four are €3,654 or €210 less than in Dublin. The estimated monthly costs for a single person are €1,025, a modest saving of €63 on the capital.Excluding housing, the estimated monthly costs for a family of four in Galway are €3,618 with a single person likely to spend €1,015. Limerick is the cheapest of them all and the estimated monthly costs for a family of four there is €3,437, with a single person able to get by on €943.The site has a whole lot of granular detail about the cost of things. A meal for two in a Dublin restaurant is put at €90 while a one-way bus, tram or train ticket is €2 with a pint said to cost €7 – it’s actually 500ml, according to Numbeo, but we will round up. It also puts the monthly cost of private childcare at €1,136 for one child. Eating out in Cork, meanwhile, is priced at €80, with a pint costing €6.50. A single journey on local transport is said to cost €1.45, while a month in private childcare for one child is said to be €963.The cost of eating out in Galway averages a fairly hefty €100 with a pint “of local beer” priced €7 and a local bus journey averaging €1.90. Childcare costs €900. Spread out over the course of a year, then, Numbeo’s figures suggest that a person living in Dublin will spend €13,056, with someone in Cork likely to need €12,300 and a person living in Galway set to spend €12,180. Someone living in Limerick, meanwhile, will manage to get by on €11,316 or €1,740 less than a Dublin resident. In Cork the median salary is €796 per week, which, when annualised, amounts to a salary of €41,832. Photograph: iStock And again, that is an after-tax figure, which means a Dublin person will need to earn around €3,500 more than someone living in Limerick to be in the same financial position.Which takes us to salaries. The CSO has county-level earnings and its most recent tranche of data, published on October 6th, suggests that the median salary for people living in Dublin is €848 per week, which, when annualised, amounts to a salary of €44,099. The comparable figure for Cork is €796, while in Galway it is €765 and in Limerick it is €773. The annualised figures are €41,832, €39,758 and €40,197.So, if someone in Dublin earns €44,099 and someone in Galway earns €39,758, the former is €4,341 better off each year. They do spend €948 more on day-to-day living each year, according to Numbeo, which closes the gap to €3,376.If the Dublin resident is paying for half of an apartment in the city, their monthly rent is €1,317, which works out at €15,804 over the course of a year. The Galway renter, paying for half an apartment, will have to fork out €14,016 over the course of a year, €1,788 less, which closes the gap still further to €1,588.[ There’s no cost-of-living crisis for Ireland’s quietly prosperous class. Who are they?Opens in new window ]Relying on all the averages and medians and crowdsourced prices, then the Dublin resident is left with an additional €132 a month when compared with someone living in Galway city. But numbers only tell one part of the story and away from statistics are the experiences of real people. Niamh Delmer is in her late 20s and lived and worked in Dublin for several years before returning to her home place of Galway. How does she think the two places compare from a cost of living perspective? “Day to day, Galway is definitely not a cheaper place to live,” she says. “The cost of coffee, the cost of lunch, the cost of public transport and the cost of going out at weekends are all very much in line with Dublin.”There is one area where she makes savings – rent. “We are a couple and renting a two bed apartment in Oranmore. It is about €300 less a month than what we were paying in Dublin for a two bed, so it is not a huge amount but you are saving a bit.”When it comes to working and socialising, she says she spends most of her time in the city and it is not cheap. “I was out on Saturday and paid €8.10 for a pint in a popular place on Eyre Square that is full of Galway people,” she says. “The night out between food, drinks and transport to and from her home cost her around €150. “If I did that all the time I’d be smashed but even if I were to go for a few pints it would be around €60.Galway city centre: 'I lived in Dublin I did not have a car and I tried to live without one in Galway. I lasted eight months.' Photograph: iStock “I went for a flat white this morning and it was €4.20 and that is decent value. It was a lovely cup of coffee from an independent coffee shop. I bring in my lunch almost every day but if I am having lunch it is around €10 to €13 for a toastie or a salad bowl.” Delmer says she is “a bit older now so I am not going out as much as I used to when I lived in Dublin, and that means I am saving more and I am saving every single month. Do I have more disposable income? I don’t think so but I am putting more away. Life in Galway is a bit quieter so I am able to put more money away. I don’t go out for food or drinks as much.”She suggests that while day-to-day living is comparable “we don’t have the same facilities as Dublin. We don’t have the late buses and generally our public transport isn’t as good. For most of the four years I lived in Dublin I did not have a car and I tried to live without one in Galway. I lasted eight months. The bottom line is I am spending the same amount day to day but I am not benefiting from Dublin’s amenities.”Delmer says that, like many people, she has become “desensitised to how expensive things are because everything is so dear now” but moving back to Galway has changed one thing about her outlook. [ Ireland is richer and spending more than 30 years ago but is it making us happy?Opens in new window ]“When I lived in Dublin I felt that buying a house was so far out of reach but now, living in Galway, I am saving and it will still be three years away but I feel like it is something I can do. Galway city is out of the question, for sure. I won’t be able to buy a house in town but looking at Oranmore or Athenry it is definitely something that will be attainable. That is kind of why I moved out of Dublin. That is a goal I want to achieve and I don’t think it was possible in Dublin.Nollaig O’Sullivan is also in her 20s and, like Delmer, relocated from Dublin to her home place in Cork. “I think a couple of years ago there was a bigger difference in the cost of living in both places and there was this perception that Dublin was a lot more expensive than Cork and you would definitely notice it but now it is much of a muchness,” she says. Her rent in Cork is “pretty much the same: but she admits that “some of that is down to luck because when I was in Dublin I was paying €636 for a double room and I knew people who were paying upward of €1,000 for the same thing.”She says costs can be better managed by those who know where to get the best value. “If you’re starting out in Dublin and don’t have a good social network it can be a lot harder and a lot more expensive until you find your groove. When you know where to go for things like a coffee and a pastry you can pay €6 compared to a tenner in a place around the corner.”She says in both Cork and Dublin eating out is equally unaffordable. “A sit-down meal would be only on birthdays or special occasions and otherwise. If I go and meet a friend we’d be getting a slice of pizza and a pint because it’s extremely expensive to just go out for dinner.Like Delmer, O’Sullivan says that while the prices are the same, the infrastructure outside Dublin is not as good. “I live in Midleton and I’m lucky that I have the train that gets me up and down to the city in 20 minutes but there are rarely buses and even in the city itself the buses are very unreliable, If you go out for a night out the taxis are extortionate. The last bus leaves the city at 11pm and before that they only go once an hour so you really have to be co-ordinated or else have someone around who can give you a lift,” she says. [ Ireland is no country for young people. It will stay that way until houses are affordableOpens in new window ]And, like Delmer, she says one of the main reasons she has more disposable income now that she is living in Cork rather than in Dublin is as a result of limited options for spending. “When I was living in Dublin I was doing a lot more, I was going out more and that is because there’s more to do, more events happening on weekdays. In Cork I tend to meet my friends and go for a walk on the beach or for a coffee so I’m spending a lot less here.”Ultimately, it comes down value for money and on that score, Delmer has no doubts. “I definitely feel like Galway gives me my value for money. We have loads of really nice coffee shops, we have loads of lovely pubs and lovely restaurants. You are not going to be able to go out every weekend or go for dinner every week but when you do it is a real treat. And walking around Galway on a Saturday morning, I realise how lucky we are. It is beautiful, it is small and we have a good community so there are a lot of perks to being here. And what Galway is really special for is there are loads of local businesses and it is easier to support them.”