Enjoying
long-term rental in northern Europe
By Steenie Harvey
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 A
Survivor’s Guide To Living In Ireland - The
Honest Report On Moving To Ireland - Don't move to Ireland without
reading this report. What are the real facts about moving to
Ireland and living in Ireland? Will you be looking out the window of your
own thatched-roof cottage enjoying the view of rolling green hills, quiet
country lanes, and neatly trimmed hedgerows? Or is that just a overly
poetic rose colored fantasy? Will you be buying a cottage in the country
side for $15,000, or are those prices long gone? If you've been thinking
about moving to Ireland then you should know the facts and this report
has the real facts, not poetic nonsense. Written by an American who
has lived in Ireland for over twenty years this report will provide you
with the proper information so you will know exactly what to expect. He
is not in real estate, he has nothing to sell you. But he can tell you
about real estate and the reality of the $15,000 thatched roof cottage.
(He did buy a house for around that price...) Can you buy one for
that price today? The author, Tom Richards wouldn't leave Ireland
on a bet. ...and you can be sure that when you read this report that
you'll learn the real facts that you are going to need before moving to
Ireland. Written without any punches pulled. If you've everthought about
moving to Ireland, this is the report to read. |
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Although I
love living in Ireland, I have a bad case of wanderlust and a taste for
foreign foods. I love to poke around markets when I travel, particularly
if I have the use of a kitchen where I can cook local dishes. Renting is
a good option, and I've always found that it ends up being much cheaper
than a lengthy hotel stay. (Besides, I've yet to find a hotel that looks
kindly on guests keeping fresh lobsters in the bath.)
Most countries
give you a 90-day, hassle-free entrance visa—some are even lengthier—and
that means you can stay for a full summer or winter without the hassle
of getting residency visas and such (a very problematic task for Americans
in such countries as Greece and the United Kingdom).
Plus, renting
allows you to test-drive a place, to become part of a neighborhood and
decide it you like it before you move there permanently.
You can find
affordable rentals in most European countries, though you'll obviously
pay more in sought-after cities than at the back of the rural beyond. Just
as with property ownership, the same “location, location, location” rule
applies.
A few Paris
bargains
US$1 equals
FFr6.02
Henry Miller
was right. The city of singing streets really does drip with history, glory
and romance. It’s the world's favorite travel destination, yet not all
Parisian rents are exorbitantly expensive. Well, not unless you're set
on having a to-die-for view in an extremely fashionable residential neighborhood.
Prices in the swanky 16th arrondissement on the right bank of the Seine,
as well as the 6th and 7th arrondissements on the left bank, are very high.
You’ll pay anywhere from FFr20,000 to FFr50,000 here a month, depending
on the size of the apartment.
Elsewhere in
the city, however, monthly rents are more realistic. One-room apartments
cost an average of FFr5,000 to FFr7,500, two-room ones FFr5,400 to FFr12,000,
and three-room ones FFr8,000 to FFr13,000.
Sleeping two,
a bijou apartment on Rue Pondicherry, close to the Champ de Mars and the
Eiffel Tower, is available through Locaflat for FFr8,970 a month if you
rent it for a six-month period. The same agency quotes FFr8,043 a month
for a small apartment in the Latin Quarter, next to St. Sulpice Church
and close to the Odeon metro and Jardin de Luxembourg.
Paris abounds
in property-rental agencies. De Circourt has around 6,000 properties on
its books; France Lodge quotes for longer rentals as well as short-term
holiday rentals.
Locaflat, 63 Av. de la Motte Picquet, 75015 Paris; tel. (33)1-43-06-78-79
De Circourt Associates, 11 Rue Royale, 75008 Paris; tel. (33)1-43-12-98-00
France Lodge Vacations, 41 Rue Lafayette, 75009 Paris; tel. (33)1-53-20-09-09
London isn’t
cheap
US$1 equals
£0.61
Twenty-odd
years ago, a Greek landlord rented me a tiny, furnished studio in the working-class
streets of northern London's Tufnell Park district for £40 a month.
Nowadays, monthly rents in that same area average a mind-boggling £720.
Yet, that's cheap as compared to prices in central London. It costs a minimum
of £1,200 a month for a poky place with a single bed in such choice
districts as Westminster, Kensington, and Holland Park. An apartment that
accommodates two people is likely to rent for £1,700 a month, minimum.
My advice
is to avoid districts where tourists congregate. London's most affordable
addresses are in the outer boroughs: in neighborhoods like Newnham and
Catford in the east and beyond Fulham in the west. In these rather unfashionable
quarters, one- and two-bedroom apartments rent for, on the average, £360
and £580 a month respectively. Fancy early morning walks on Hampstead
Heath? If northern London suits your needs, Admiral Properties has a studio
apartment in the heart of Hampstead village for £760 a month.
In the west
part of London, furnished single studios rent from £360 a month;
a two-bed, split-level flat above a shop near the Shepherd's Bush tube
station is available for £1,040. (Both of these are offered through
Global Village Estates.) If you insist on a more upmarket address, Albert
Hall Lettings is asking £920 for a place with a double bed in a Chelsea
mansion block. It’s pricey, but not quite as pricey as a brand-new, two-bedroom
apartment in Chelsea's Ratcliffe Gardens, quoted at £2,200 a month.
Although it’s expensive, you do get a marble bathroom with a power shower
and a fully fitted kitchen. I never enjoyed those kinds of luxuries in
Tufnell Park.
Admiral Properties, 88 Belsize Lane, Hampstead, London NW3 5BE; tel. (44)171-431-1133
Global Village Estates, 95 Uxbridge Road, London W12 8NR; tel. (44)181-740-6666
? Albert Hall
Residential Lettings, 26 Gilstead Road, Fulham, London SW6 2LG; tel. (44)171-471-4847
Affordable
coastal Ireland
US$1 equals
I£0.72
Although the
sale prices for Dublin’s houses have gone through the roof, rents in Ireland’s
capital are still fairly affordable. A one-bedroom furnished apartment
starts at I£500 a month, and I£650 gets you a two-bedroom apartment
in Kilmainham's Manor Hall. Or, for about the same price, you could settle
for a while in an apartment in the seaside suburb of Bray—it comes complete
with telephone service, cable TV, and electric central heating. The city's
medieval Temple Bar quarter has cobbled streets, plentiful pubs, and a
lot of restaurants, and it's where the pulse of young Dublin beats loudest.
Rents here average around I£700 a month for a one-bedroom apartment
and I£850 a month for a two-bedroom place.
County Cork
is home to one of the country's prettiest harbor towns: Kinsale. Lots of
apartments are available: I£400 rents you a two-bedroom place in
The Belfry, on a treelined avenue just a five-minute walk from Kinsale's
town center. If your tastes are a tad more traditional, you may prefer
to pay I£400 for Nicholas Cottage, a two-bed furnished cottage near
the town's Rose Abbey. (Both are available through Sheehy Bros. of Kinsale.)
These prices are typical of monthly rents throughout provincial Ireland.
Lisney, 24 St. Stephen's Green, Dublin 2; tel. (353) 1-638-2700
Sheehy Residential Lettings, 120-122 Lower Kilmainham Road, Stillorgan,
County Dublin; tel. (353)1-278-4282
Sheehy Brothers, 10 Short Quay, Kinsale, County Cork; tel. (353)21-772-338
Added comfort
in Brussels
US$1 equals
BFr37.03
It may be
business, and not pleasure, that brings you to Brussels, the EU’s commercial
and political hub. At the heart of Euroland, this Belgian city teems with
beer, chocolates, and affordable rental properties. Along with legions
of career-minded Eurocrats, Brussels has a long-established expatriate
community, many residents of which work for multinational giants. Singles
tend to live in the city; families gravitate toward the leafy suburbs of
Uccle and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre's.
Rents for small,
city-center apartments start at around BFr30,000 a month, though top-quality
homes can fetch as much as BFr100,000 a month. Through Eurorent, a top-floor
city flat with a bathroom and a fully fitted kitchen is available for BFr32,000
a month. The same price rents you a two-bedroom villa apartment in Uccle.
Very popular
with businesspeople, serviced apartments offer the advantage of home-style
living but with the added comforts of a hotel. The UK company Euracom offers
such apartments in a number of European cities. In Brussels, they are at
Bois a Bruler, a five-minute walk from Grand Place, the Bourse, and Place
de Brouchere. For places that accommodate two, prices start at BFr2,850
per night.
Eurorent, 24 Rue Buchholtz, 1050 Brussels, Belgium; tel.(32)2-646-26-86
Euracom, 52-53 Margaret St., London W1N 7FF; tel. (44 )171-436-3201
Try medieval
Germany
US$1 equals
Dm1.79
Munich is
the perfect German city for a longer-term stay. Most people associate it
with the Oktoberfest and beer gardens, but it's a wonderful base for discovering
the castles of Mad King Ludwig, numerous fairy-tale towns, and the forests
and mountains of the Bavarian Alps. A student city, Munich also has stylish
districts like Schwabing and Nymphemburg where summer concerts and operas
are held on the grounds of the local castle.
Rental accommodation
is fairly easy to come by, as most Germans rent rather than own property.
You can expect a monthly rent of Dm750-1,100 for a one-room flat, Dm1,500-2,200
for a two-room apartment, Dm1,800-3,000 for a three-room place, and Dm4,000-5,000
for a house.
I'm not overly
keen on Berlin, but perhaps that's because on my last visit everywhere
resembled a building site. (And it cost a small fortune to stay in a really
sleazy hotel!) Like Munich, Berlin is an apartment city, and around 80
percent of housing stock is rented. Some districts are more fashionable
than others: Charlottenburg has always been chic, but now many sought-after
areas are in East Berlin. Prices are similar to those in Munich, though
much depends on the specific area. A three-room flat around Friedrichstrasse
or in Prenzlauer Berg can easily cost upward of Dm2,000 a month.
Agent Frieraum
offers apartments around the Kreuzberg district from Dm400 and rooms from
Dm350. This agency also has its own guesthouse and apartments if you're
only in Berlin for a short visit or if you want to take your time in viewing
properties. The price for couples is Dm70 nightly—I wish I’d known about
them when I was there.
One of the
nicest holiday properties I've ever rented was in Goslar, an ancient silver-mining
town of medieval houses and cobbled lanes just west of the Harz Mountains.
A sausage throw from the town's Marktplatz, the flat had a state-of-the-art
kitchen and great views of the mountains over Goslar's rooftops. The Schmitz
family rents a number of apartments if you, too, fancy exploring this bewitching
area. Rates for two people start at Dm75 per night.
Mr. Lodge Agentur, Kaulbachstrasse 61, 80539 München; tel. (49)89-340-8230
Wohn-Agentur Freiraum, Wiener Str. 14, 10999 Berlin; tel. (49)30-618-2008
Familie Schmitz, Kornstrasse 1, 38640 Goslar; tel. (49)53-212-3445
Look next month
for more of Steenie’s rental recommendations when she heads South to the
olive groves of Spain and Portugal, to Rome and Renaissance Italy, and
onto one of Europe's favorite retirement destinations: the island of Malta.. |
