‘I don’t have the option to move back home to save’
Jo Linehan, 28, is co-founder of
gaffinteriors.ie, a platform for people who are renting or buying
SITUATION: “I’m renting in Phibsborough, I have one flatmate who’s been with me for five years as well. We’re paying less than €1,500. It’s not cheap but it’s amazing for Dublin. It has gone up every year, incrementally.
“It was super hard to find somewhere. I was coming from Cork, so I didn’t know even know anyone up here. I had such notions about living in Rathmines, and it was just so bananas, even back then. We’re in a cottage in Phibsborough and we were so lucky to get it. Our landlord has been so, so good to us.
PROS: “It’s very flexible. It’s great to know if I did change my mind and I wanted to move, I could. I travel a lot with work; I was in New York last year for six months. It was no problem for me to go and sublet the room. So I suppose not having a mortgage and not having a tie is important. I would love to think about getting a mortgage but it’s not even close to being an option. I can’t actually imagine when it ever will be, I really don’t know if I will ever own a house.”
CONS: “The massive negative is that you’re spending all this money each month, plus bills and everything else, and, I hate the term ‘empty money’ because it’s not, but you kind of don’t have anything to show for it. I mean that money goes every month and I don’t ever see it again. And I suppose I’m at an age now, 28, where you are starting to think a little bit about mortgages and buying your own place.
“For someone like me, I don’t have the option to move back home and save. And I suppose you are always a little bit worried that you are at the whim of a landlord, and a letting agent, especially as I do see the area improving so much. Which is great in some aspects, but we’re really, really worried about the rent skyrocketing. And there’s very little protection for that.”