How to split rent as a couple?

Scam said:
I do wonder that sometimes. You should try telling someone 50+ years old who's had a mortgage for 30 years how much rent is nowadays. They look at you like you've just stepped off a spaceship riding on the back of a little green alien. They can't fathom spending 40%+ of their wages to merely having a roof over your head. OH WAIT WE HAVE TO BECAUSE NOBODY ON GODS GREEN EARTH CAN AFFORD TO SAVE £40K FOR A DEPOSIT ON A POXY 2 BEDROOM FLAT WHILST WE'RE PAYING 40% OF OUR WAGES TO PAY OFF SOME OTHER ****S MORTGAGE BECAUSE HE WAS BORN IN THE 'RIGHT' YEAR! :(

*cough* sorry.. /rant
Click to expand...

FYI prices have gone up a bit - I needed more than £40k for a reasonable deposit on my 1 bed flat :(
 
Xire said:
Why are people so shocked by London rent prices? have you been living under a rock for the last 5 years?
Click to expand...

don't know but it happens almost every time there is a thread re: london property

people pipe up exclaiming - omg London is soooo expensive I don't know why people pay X I only pay Y for my family home in Bognor Regis

whilst ignoring the fact not many people actually want to live in Bognor Regis and people tend to earn more in London

the OP is actually paying quite a cheap rent for that area

a friend of mine rented in Lancaster Gate for a couple of years and spent over 100k in rent in that period
 
Dis86 said:
Not if you're spending so much on rent and expenses it leaves you with no money to enjoy!
Click to expand...

then you'd have to be a complete retard

but assuming you're not a retard and you can figure out whether your monthly salary minus monthly rent = plenty of money left over to spend on fun things then the point still stands

London job market = profit
 
I understand that London is expensive, but what I dont get, is that typically a house rent is 3x the price of none London areas, the average salary is nowhere near 3 x the amount of the rest of the UK.
 
Ace Modder said:
I understand that London is expensive, but what I dont get, is that typically a house rent is 3x the price of none London areas, the average salary is nowhere near 3 x the amount of the rest of the UK.
Click to expand...

depends where you live in London, typically people living in the very expensive areas will be earning rather more than 3* the average income.... or would be unemployed social housing tenants

average salary for a male working in Canary Wharf is approx 100k - that is more than 3 times the UK average

people in between tend to have to move away from the capital and commute in

obviously we can't expect social housing tenants to move though as it is too traumatic for them to be away from their 'communities' and 'support base' - moving house is just for middle income people with jobs. So places like Islington have vast quantities of council accommodation in among million pound+ town houses
 
Ace Modder said:
I understand that London is expensive, but what I dont get, is that typically a house rent is 3x the price of none London areas, the average salary is nowhere near 3 x the amount of the rest of the UK.
Click to expand...

A fair chunk is down to demand.

People want to live and work in London so people move from far away to do this. People don't tend to move to smaller places within the country for work, they tend to settle there because of other reasons (family, friends, uni, growing up there) so there isn't the same demand for property.
 
The rent isn't so bad with London wages and split between a few people. I share my flat with 2 mates and we have a combined salary of about £130k so £2300 a month isn't so bad in this case really.
 
Moses said:
What's the average salary in the rest of the UK? So, excluding London, obviously.
Click to expand...

Doing my job in London pays about 20 to 30% more than it does for me here. My expenses however would be significantly higher so much so that it's definitely not worth the move.
 
Dis86 said:
Doing my job in London pays about 20 to 30% more than it does for me here. My expenses however would be significantly higher so much so that it's definitely not worth the move.
Click to expand...

People do make this exact move though knowing they'll be worse off because they want to live in London, or see it as a long term career move.
 
other people have to move there because that is where they have the best chances for their industry

people wanting to work in the 'media'... advertising etc..etc..

aspiring dancers, actresses etc.. various 'creative' types... plenty of them flock to East London - they start out on low paid work and either carve out a career for themselves or they end up realising it isn't going to happen and moving away or they just stay there chasing the dream while doing low paid jobs
 
Moses said:
El oh el. So we're going with wild stabs in the dark? That's above the average including London, so is clearly wrong.
Click to expand...

I've based on on my friends with jobs that are not considered "entry level jobs" who I know rough what they earn.
Job roles are:

High school teacher (head of dept.)
Area manager for retail shop chain
Engineer for the rail network
Police officer (CID)
My wife who is a teaching assistant
and my job also.

Of course there are many lesser paid jobs out there, but I'm talking about semi-skilled / skilled jobs.

The thing is; if what you say is true the London average is < 30k then how the hell do people afford housing in London then!

I consider house sharing a last resort, and I would rather move to another area than house share.
And don't get me wrong, I only rent my house, because tbh I cannot afford to save for a deposit with me and my wife both working.
 
For the price I will always live on the outskirts of London even if I was well off. Better air bigger garden and commute is not that bad, not worth the extra money to rent in London.

House prices are stupid though. Even higher than they were last year. It seems the real estate agents are always pushing them to the point of unaffordability. Everyone treats the houses like a get rich quick scheme. If I have 10k and look for a 180k house I cant find any.even on 180k and 10k down its a £900 pcm mortgage. Ridiculous.
 
No matter which way you look at it, london is over priced and probably not worth it, the only reason people go there is because there is more work and more career progression available. They are not there to spend £3000 per year on train. or £13000 per year on rent.
 
dowie said:
FYI prices have gone up a bit - I needed more than £40k for a reasonable deposit on my 1 bed flat :(
Click to expand...
I was trying to play it down a bit to avoid having the non-Londoners spit their tea out all over their monitors. A 20% deposit on a £450k flat round here is more like £90k isn't it ;)

dowie said:
London job market = profit
Click to expand...
I think it's crystal clear from all the stories in the news about housing issues in London that this simply isn't the case. E.g. http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jun/28/london-the-city-that-ate-itself-rowan-moore

If you're on £100k+ in the City, then fine. But by law of averages most people are on A LOT less than that. The average salary in London is only £26,500, yet the average home now costs over £500,000. That's 20x, isn't it? So how does that work exactly. Answer, for your average joe it doesn't.

My girlfriend is from Leeds originally and whenever we'd moan about the cost of rent or not being able to buy a place, you could tell inside her friends were just dismissing our arguments because they thought we were automatically 'rich' because we lived in London. What they didn't realise that probably on a £25k job with a £300/month mortgage they'd probably have way more disposable income than us (*numbers picked out of thin air, probably not true*).

Oh, and people always say 'move further out'. Well I'd rather pay a fortune on rent and live relatively close to work, than pay a fortune to some crappy train company and lose 2.5hrs of my life every day. Swings and roundabouts, it's pouring money down the drain either way.
 
Last edited:
Peerzy said:
People do make this exact move though knowing they'll be worse off because they want to live in London, or see it as a long term career move.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I've seen people do it. By people I mean idiots. Lol.
I have a lifestyle here that most Londoners can only wish for. Five minute walk from my front door and I'm on a three mile long golden sanded beach.
Five minute drive and I'm in the country surrounded by nothing but fields, clean rivers and woods. Half an hour away I have a city with everything I need for entertainment or to buy.
Live in a good size house with nice views, plenty of land. Oh and it has multiple parking spots! Yeah baby!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom