I've decided to board the train and become part of what most people describe as not a city, but rather a village. I prefer to describe it as a University campus, because the city's average age I think is somewhere around 35, and everybody looks fresh and hip and busy :)
Due to all things mentioned above, the first major challenge you are going to face is finding rent in Dublin, especially if you want to stay in the center of the city. What you need to know is that Dublin has 24 postal districts. So, the first thing you want to do is look at a map and figure out where you would like to stay.
After doing that, there are several renting websites you could use to search for a home. The one I used and liked most, and actually found my apartment through is Daft.ie (they also have an app, so it was easier for me to search and send e-mails with it).
When you're there you need to know:
1. the area you want to stay in;
2. how many bedrooms/ bathrooms you want it to have (2 bedrooms means 3 rooms basically, as all houses have a living room as well, but a studio is a studio);
3. central or electric heating - central is gas heating and is ideal because it's cheaper...but not very easy to find;
4. all the other stuff like: furnished or not, with parking space...etc.
Now, to actually get the house you need to apply for the viewing (the agent will tell you the day and hour when that takes place), and have a small chat with the agent about your background and other details.
After that you will need to send a couple of things by e-mail, if you are really interested:
1. letter of recommendation from your employer;
2. letter of recommendation from you previous landlord (as it was the first time I was renting a place in Dublin, I asked my home landlord for a letter - if you own a property you need to bring a proof of that);
3. PPS number (this is the citizen number in Dublin);
4. ...and ideally a utility bill which proves that you are a good citizen :) (I obviously didn't have that either and they accepted my application without it).
If you're lucky to get picked from the other at least 10 people who have seen the same apartment as you did, you will become the lucky payer of a rent of between 1400 - 1800 (even 2000) euro for a 2 bedroom apartment close to the city center. If you get here when all the university students are coming you will only get something decent for at least 1600.
Additionally you need to pay: electricity (the bill comes every two months - I don't know how much yet, but I heard it's around 300 euro), internet (around 60 euro/ month), cable if you have a TV (not so popular here, so you would probably need to consider buying one) + depending on the house, garbage company. Now the nice thing is that in Ireland water is free...because they just have so much of it :)) They're considering a tax on water starting next year, but fingers crossed that it doesn't actually happen.
What you also need to know is that all houses have boilers. That's how you heat the water...and you kinnda need to know how to use them if you want to be efficient. I didn't reach that level of savviness in boiler usage, but I hope mine is set ok. Now, the water pressure is not great here...so everybody has a device attached to the shower (basically a pump that looks like this). Our house owner didn't tell us what that was for, so it kinnda took us two days to realize how to use it...and when we discovered it was life changing.
