Young foreign nationals are shocked to discover that £400 a month will not get them a plush two-bed apartment in Temple Bar, according to Sara Wallace of Colliers Corporate Relocations. Temple Bar is high on the wish list of many young European executives arriving in Dublin on one or two year contracts. "When we pick them up at the airport all that many of them know of Dublin is Temple Bar, Zanzibar pub on the quays and shopping on Grafton Street. The younger ones, particularly, want to stay in the city centre where it's all happening, even if they have to commute to work on the outskirts. In the case of Temple Bar, not only is it expensive but availability is not huge."

Hopes of living the high life on Dublin's left bank are often dashed when they discover that rents for a two-bed apartment in Temple Bar can be as high as £1,200 a month.

For those prepared to pay top dollar, Custom House Docks, Corn Exchange and Temple Bar are popular locations. However, the maximum people are usually prepared to pay is £500 per person for a two-bed apartment. If they have a budget of £300, house-sharing in the suburbs makes more sense. The north side of the city tends to be less expensive, but according to Ms Wallace "the standard of accommodation on the northside and southside is much of a muchness".

Colliers, set up in 1997, is a division of Jackson-Stops. Ms Wallace is keen to stress that it is not a letting agency but is employed by businesses to find accommodation for employees moving here from abroad. The aim is to facilitate a stress-free transition to an unfamiliar country and to troubleshoot problems that may arise along the way.

The company has 30 clients, including IT call centres, financial institutions and European headquarters like Citibank, Oracle, IBM and Lotus. The cost to the client company depends on the service it requires for employees: that often depends on seniority and on whether the company is dealing with young executives or families.

Young executives tend to be European, aged between 24 and 30 and seeking two-bedroom apartments. The clients also relocate mainly IT and financial sector workers from America, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Chile and Russia, as well as Irish people returning home.

It takes about four weeks to relocate a person or family. So far this year, Colliers Corporate Relocations has found homes for 700 people. There are some "dream landlords" out there, says Ms Wallace. "Like the one who brought his tenants out to dinner when the oven broke and had it fixed the next day, or the ones who have the place sparkling for the tenants when they move in and leave food in the fridge and fruit on the kitchen table."

The other side of the coin is the "greedy landlord syndrome". She has encountered gazumping, racism, apathy and "incomprehensible rudeness" from landlords.

Colliers recently received a call from a letting agent who was instructed by a landlord to ask the colour of a prospective tenant. "When we told him, the landlord pulled out. We have come across a good few incidents of racism and we have to be careful where we place people."

Gazumping is also rife as the pressure on rental stock intensifies with investors no longer buying apartments to rent. Effectively, in the current climate, the landlord can play God. "Some will have one property, give it to seven or eight letting agents and sit back and wait for the best price." In some cases a landlord will accept an offer from one prospective tenant only to renege on it when a better offer comes through.

Colliers checks a property thoroughly before the tenants move in. "We go in and if it's dirty we will ask the landlord to clean it. Sometimes you can encounter a little bit of resistance but we are very persuasive."

Some foreign nationals come here with a rose-tinted view of Dublin, she says. "We advise them on security. Many of them think Dublin is a safe place. We advise them to insure the contents of their apartments, and tell them that if they leave the window wide open on a ground floor property the chances are they'll be burgled."

Ms Wallace's job will become more difficult unless the rental accommodation crisis is addressed. "Another problem is that people are not moving out of apartments because they don't want to have to pay higher rents, so the amount coming back on to the market has slowed. Something will have to be done."