When Lottie Ryan, the 2FM presenter and podcaster, bought her first home – a two-bed apartment close to the sea on Dublin‘s northside – about six years ago, she was surprised at the reaction.
“We had been renting for about eight years, and we were living in a place within a rent pressure zone. We were at the point that if we moved, we wouldn’t be able to afford the rent. A mortgage would be cheaper,” she explains. With her husband Fabio Aprile, she had been saving for a number of years and made use of the Help to Buy scheme to buy a newbuild.
“The timing was right for us,” she says. “We were ready. Based on word-of-mouth and on the developer’s previous work, we took a leap of faith. We bought off plans.”
The couple bought with their dog Boo, a miniature Yorkshire terrier, in mind, before their three-and-a-half-year-old son Wolf came along.
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But when she bought, she was amazed by other people’s perceptions of her choice, as they offered unsolicited remarks such as, ‘I’m sure it’s fine for now but surely it’s not your forever home.’
Wolf has friends here. There are loads of families with kids his age in the creche and they play together in the garden, football or on their scooters
“It is very likely our forever home, and we appreciate that we have one. It is wild that people assume you couldn’t possibly call it a forever home, that the poor kid has no garden,” she says.
She feels this is an out-of-date way of thinking. “There’s still a big attachment to having your own land,” she says. “It’s important for people to try and change their view on how families are raised. Every other major city in the world has families living in apartments. Times have changed. It’s not that easy to get a home. If you want to live in the kind of house your parents lived in, you have to move out of Dublin. We both wanted to be close to our mothers and our families.”
Apartment living affords Lottie and her family this luxury as the development is situated close to one of Dublin’s biggest parks, St Anne’s. Its location also means she can walk the seafront, just as she did as a child when her family home – where she grew up with dad RTÉ presenter Gerry and the rest of her family – was on Castle Avenue in nearby Clontarf.
[ Is the answer to Ireland’s housing crisis more apartments?Opens in new window ]
She also loves the sense of privacy that comes with apartment living.
While they don’t have a garden, they enjoy the use of a communal roof terrace on the top floor of the building. It has an artificial grass covering and bench seating, and on hot summer days it’s where residents go to soak up the sun, and they have enjoyed family picnics there. Whenever she goes up to the terrace, there are always two or three other kids for Wolf to play with.
“Wolf has friends here,” she says. “There are loads of families with kids his age in the creche and they play together in the garden, football or on their scooters.”
Other amenities include a bike shed and a community centre. “For me one of the biggest things is the bins,” she says. “I don’t have to put my bins out.”
The development also has an underground car park, which means she no longer has to get up earlier in winter and defrost the windscreen before going to work.
She is also able to hear all the summer gigs in St Anne’s Park for free if the wind is blowing in the right direction.
Life with a cherry on top
Saman Shadab, a digital product designer, lives with her husband and teenagers – Rayan (18) and daughter Rania (14) – in a built-to-let development in Cherrywood, Dublin 18. The family, from Karachi in Pakistan and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has experience of living in both houses and apartments in Dublin.
We have our own wifi log-in and can be connected anywhere. There are routers throughout. There are no dead spots
“I love living here,” she says of their three-bedroom, three-bathroom rental. “It is bright and airy with good balcony sizes and smartly created storage in every nook and cranny. There is a laundry nook, enough space to stack a washing machine and dryer with space for a hamper.” Crucially, the laundry space comes with a door you can close.
“That said, there still isn’t enough space for our suitcases,” she says. These have been banished to the balcony off her son Rayan’s bedroom where they have been covered with a tarpaulin.
As one of the first tenants to move into the A-rated rental units, they were able to negotiate with the property management company to bring some of their own furniture and furnishings with them.
They were able to rent their apartment unfurnished as not all the units had been kitted out at the time, but this is not usually an option for renters here.
The family pays rent of €3,250 a month for their home. This has increased slightly from €3,150 since they moved in in December 2022. The sum includes several additional payments such a €25 per month pet charge, as they have a cat.
“Housing with pets is already hard to find, so it takes care of anything the pet spoils and you don’t have to worry about it. Parking is €50 per month, and you can request an electric charging spot, for which there is no additional cost.”
A plus is that the family’s wifi is included in the rent – a monthly saving of €75 on previous payments when living in a house. “We have our own log-in and can be connected anywhere. There are routers throughout. There are no dead spots.”
The building includes office cubicles downstairs, which, she says, negates the need for a second desk in their home. There is also a meeting room, and a gym that has a treadmill, rower, stationary bike, chest press and dumbbells – something her son likes to use. It also means they don’t have to pay a gym membership for him. There’s also an infrared sauna, as well as party rooms.
The development is right in front of the Luas stop. “The connectivity is fantastic,” she says.
When the family first arrived, they rented a three-bedroom house in Kilmacud that was built in the 1940s, but had a B1 Ber rating. “Still, there were corners that would get mould,” she says. Having experienced the dry heat of Karachi and Dubai in the UAE “it didn’t feel normal”.
From there they moved into a four-bedroom house in Foxrock, which they loved, but it was put up for sale. “They gave us good notice that they were putting it on the market,” she says, but it was still stressful. “It took me four months to find this place.”
Co-parenting in Drimnagh
Recently separated father of one Niall Harrington moved into a two-bedroom apartment in Dublin 12 last November.
“It was hugely important to create a space that felt like home for my own wellbeing and for that of my daughter Aedín,” he says. “We had been renting so we didn’t own a couch or bed. Being able to move into a furnished apartment had that turnkey advantage.”
Trying to find a place was “a bit of a nightmare”, he recalls. He looked at a mix of houses and apartments.
“Childcare was a central part of my search,” he explains. Like a lot of people, he started off with a certain budget in mind. “But being on the clock and its proximity to childcare” meant he paid a bit more to move into Brickfield Square, a private rental scheme, just off the Crumlin Road in D12.
“My daughter’s childminder lives nearby, and it was a brilliant plus to know that in addition to being settled, it’s just a short walk to do drop-offs and pick-ups.”
While the unit was furnished, he had to buy a cot and a changing station for his toddler daughter’s room. He brought a rocking chair with him from the family apartment to “create a sense of consistency” for his daughter when reading bedtime stories to her.
In Ireland, growing up living in a house was a measure of success and we remain predisposed to that idea. But a house also comes with overheads
The development includes two playgrounds, and post and online shopping deliveries are managed by a concierge service. Additionally, there are at least five full-time staff on the grounds Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, he says. “There’s someone on security 24/7 and there’s a huge peace of mind that comes with that.”
Maintenance requests are all made through an app. “If the toilet is broken you can raise the issue, and in an emergency a plumber will come out immediately. It makes dealing with all of that very easy.”
Having lived in London and the US, he says the large institutional landlords here try to create a sense of community. “There are monthly socials, with coffee and doughnuts and a chance to meet the neighbours. It’s an environment that fosters a sense of home, so it feels less segregated that you might be living in a house.
“In Ireland, growing up living in a house was a measure of success and we remain predisposed to that idea. But a house also comes with overheads. A lot of work and cost goes into apartment shared spaces, so we don’t have to deal with that on an individual basis.”
There is a cost for these additional services. He pays a monthly rent of €2,730, which includes an amenities charge.
“It is an unfortunate truth that both my former partner and I are paying quite high levels of rent, so neither of us can really save to buy a place.”
