New research from bunq, Europe’s second-largest neobank, has confirmed what many remote workers in Dublin already feel in their bank balance: this city is now the second most expensive place in Europe to live and work remotely, “beaten” only by London.
According to the bunq Working Abroad Index 2026, a remote worker based in Dublin faces monthly costs of €2,804, rising to €3,124 once coworking space is factored in. Average rent alone sits at €2,043 a month, the second-highest in Europe. Add in the third-highest public transport costs on the continent, and a cost base that has climbed 6.6% in a single year, and the picture is clear: Dublin is pricing itself out of contention for the very talent Ireland is trying to attract. And that’s before you even factor in the housing and rental crisis Ireland is already grappling with.
Cities like Lisbon, Valencia, Malaga, Athens, Berlin and Amsterdam all now offer remote professionals a meaningfully cheaper base than Dublin. For a workforce that, by definition, doesn’t need to live near an office nor indeed in a specific country the index data is relevant. Remote workers can choose almost anywhere. Increasingly, the data suggests they might not be choosing Dublin.
Where this connects to our Pre-Budget Submission 2027
Two of our four pillars in our Pre-Budget Submission 2027, Consolidating Remote Work in Ireland’s Economic and Social Future speak directly to what the bunq data is showing us.
1. Ireland is not yet capturing the jobs it should be.
Our submission points out that up to 350,000 existing Irish jobs could be done remotely with the right supports, and that over 100,000 remote roles are advertised across the EEA every month. Ireland remains cost-competitive for employers hiring remote talent here. But if the only place those jobs are landing is Dublin, we are handing remote workers and employers a straightforward reason to look elsewhere in Europe instead, at exactly the moment competing cities are actively courting them on cost.
A National Remote Jobs Strategy, with a defined target for remote roles landed in Ireland and a mandate for enterprise agencies to pursue distributed employers the way they pursue FDI, needs to explicitly account for where in Ireland those jobs land, not just that they land here.
2. Remote work only delivers its regional and community benefits if people actually use it to leave expensive cities behind.
Our third pillar, Harnessing Remote Work for Our Local Communities, argues that remote work’s real dividend for Ireland is regional: easing pressure on Dublin’s housing and transport, sustaining spending and population in towns that have been losing both, and giving people a genuine, affordable alternative to city-centre living. We already know this shift is happening in part: 13.7% of Ireland’s remote workers have relocated within Ireland since the pandemic. But that number could behigher given the price gap now on record between Dublin and the rest of the country.
Many people don’t know this option exists, or don’t feel confident, empowered, or resourced enough to pursue remote work as a future career pathway. An upside of closing that gap isn’t just cheaper living for the individual who moves. It’s dispersed impact: every remote worker who builds a life in Ballina rather than Ballsbridge is spending locally rather than in an already-saturated capital, easing demand on Dublin’s housing and transport while sustaining shops, schools, and services in a town that needs them, and cutting the commuting emissions that come with concentrating jobs in one city. Regional remote work delivers social, economic, and environmental benefits together, and it only materialises if people actually know the option is there and feel supported enough to take it.
This is about keeping talent here, and bringing more of it in
Joe Wilson, bunq’s Chief Evangelist quote in the press release noted that remote work has changed the basic equation professionals use to choose where they live, so that lifestyle and financial opportunity now weigh as heavily as where an employer happens to be based. For Irish remote workers specifically, he pointed out that Dublin’s cost of living is now among the highest in Europe, and that having clear cost comparisons helps people make better-informed calls about where their money, and their life, can go furthest.
First, it’s a retention risk. Skilled Irish professionals in remote-capable roles are no longer choosing between Dublin and the rest of the country by default, they’re weighing Dublin against Lisbon, Valencia, or Berlin. Every one of those is now cheaper. If Ireland wants to keep that talent based here, contributing here, and paying tax here, regional Ireland has to be a genuinely visible, supported option before someone starts pricing flights to Portugal.
Second, it’s a competitiveness opportunity we’re currently underselling. Our submission notes that Ireland, thanks to low employer social insurance contributions and competitive salaries, is already one of the more cost-effective countries in Western Europe for employers hiring remote talent. But that pitch falls flat if the only place we’re offering people to actually live is our most expensive city. A National Remote Jobs Strategy that actively promotes regional Ireland, not just Ireland, gives us a genuinely compelling offer to both retain our own talent and attract international remote professionals: employer cost-competitiveness paired with a lifestyle and cost base well below Dublin’s.
Why this matters
Every remote-capable job that lands in Dublin rather than in regional Ireland adds to the exact cost pressures the bunq index just quantified: more demand on Dublin’s already-stretched rental stock, its transport network, its coworking space. Meanwhile, towns with the capacity to absorb that job, and the secondary spending that comes with it, see none of the benefit.
Ireland has the infrastructure, the broadband, the flexible working legislation, and the talent pool to make regional remote work the default rather than the exception. What’s missing, as we set out in the submission, is the coordinated national strategy to actively steer new remote employment there, and the funded community layer to make relocating feel supported rather than risky.
The bunq index and press release is relevant data regarding Dublin’s competitiveness for remote talent. It’s also further evidence for why Budget 2027 should back a national remote jobs strategy and drive positive social, economic and environmental change across the whole country.
Grow Remote is an Irish social enterprise working to unlock the economic, social, and environmental potential of remote work for individuals, employers, and communities across Ireland.
Read our full Pre-Budget Submission 2027, Consolidating Remote Work in Ireland’s Economic and Social Future.
Featured Image: Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash
