OK, so a bit more of the meat and bones of the trip. The where, why and how etc.

In a nutshell and as mentioned in my previous post, I am about to embark on an adventure, moving from England to the Republic of Ireland.

Now, why on earth would you want to do that I hear you ask? All that upheaval and change! Well, I shall go right back to the beginning and explain from the start, exactly how I lost my mind, arrived at this crazy decision and felt it would be worth the effort.

There are numerous reasons which together have culminated in this shift in thinking, but the first reason was arrived at (like all the best ideas) after a few beers. You see, I still live with my parents and I’m nearly 30. Yes, I know. Keep reading……

I was doing my usual nightly “becoming frustrated at the astronomical property prices near where I live” episode after searching on Rightmove.co.uk for the umpteenth time.

(Up until just over a year ago, I was a professional photographer, doing well enough, with my own studio. I enjoyed my job for the most part, but money was irregular due to the aspects of being self-employed. I was also keeping an eye out for a new challenge, possibly in a slightly different line of work because of this).

To move out of my parent’s house, I felt I would need a more steady income before committing, regardless of whether I wanted to rent or buy. (I wanted to buy because I felt renting wouldn’t be the most sensible use of my money).

So, to remedy this, I eventually got a new job as a full-time, employed Content Editor to provide me with the required steady income.

With the confidence of this new regular income of £18,500, I skipped merrily on down to my local independent financial advisor’s office, looking forward to hearing the long list of lenders willing to hand over a mortgage to yours truly.

I am a first-time buyer. I’m single. No dependants. No outstanding debts. Good amount of savings.

The best I could do after an hour or so of chatting to the lovely lady, was to come away with a piece of paper called a “Decision In Principle” that said the Woolwich (Barclays) would be willing to lend me £72k.

Now, if you know anything about property prices around Bath and Bristol, you’ll know that £72k won’t get you very far. It may get as far as a small, one bedroom flat above a take-away, but not much more. Call me picky, but I decided to find out if there is anywhere else, further afield which would be able to offer a bit more in terms of choice and bang for my buck.

I was hoping for, at the very least:

• Affordable (ie. around the £72k mark plus say, £10k deposit = £80k).
• A house as opposed to a flat.
• Job opportunities available within approximately an hours drive.
• Nice scenery relatively close-by for walking and cycling, which I require to stay sane.
• And all other basic stuff like re-sell potential, adequate neighbourhood, blah blah.

I narrowed it down to the Welsh Valleys and the Scottish Highlands. It transpired that the main reasons these locations are cheap is because they are either in the middle of no-where, or there is no local work, or both! Which, I suppose is not much of a surprise.

But, necessity is the mother of invention!

Which leads me back to beer!

On one particular evening when beer fought my sensibilities and won, I clicked on an “overseas” property tab on Rightmove which amongst many sun-kissed, exotic locations, such as Spain, France, Portugal and Italy, it also listed Ireland.

At this point I had never been to Ireland, had only heard a little about it and had actually at one point fancied going to Dublin for a weekend break, buying the Lonely Planet guide book. I certainly didn’t know enough to be forming any solid conclusions about spending £80k over there.

But, what struck me after glancing at a handful of the properties shown in the search results, was that you could get an awful lot of property for £80k. Maybe there was a glimmer of hope after all!

I thanked the beer gods for their help that evening and went to bed feeling more positive.

Read the next post here.