How is London affordable now?

[FL630]

Sorry this is a mini rant/moan.

I got some great news from my work the other day, I've been moved work base to London (I grew up in Essex/Cambridgeshire but spent most of my time in London for the past 5 years) from Edinburgh where I've lived for the last year due to work. Edinburgh is a great city but home is home and that is where I'd like to return to.

However, how do people genuinely afford London these days? I'm not even talking central London, I'm talking about the outskirts! I'd say my job is relatively well paid, I'd say about average for a London resident. I'm 28, I have done my time living in big households and my job doesn't lend itself to living with others (too many 4am starts!), so I'd prefer to live on my own.

But seriously, how do people do it nowadays? Rent is so prohibitive! Even with a good income, to give over a minimum of £1000+ per month for nothing more than a tiny box to store myself in, it's crazy! If you leave the M25 things become better, but then you have a long traffic filled commute, or end up spending insane amounts on public transport.

I love London as a city, it's my home, it's where my friends are and my family are close, but the idea of such insane costs really scares the hell out of me.

Any Londoners here, how do you manage to get by?

 

[grudas]

Paying silly rent or move to a bad area like Croydon and spend a bit less

 

[dowie]

It isn't really crazy if you're earning an 'average' salary, you're basically going to be paying approx half your net pay in rent.

I lived in a flat share initially then bought my own place, my mortgage is rather cheap and now only covers a small % of the value of my flat.

 

[Rroff]

It is kind of crazy but you can still find some reasonably decent flats (sort of) for your £1000/m that are in not entirely bad areas but it does require knowing the area a bit helps if you are on a reasonable "London" wage rather than a job that is paying out more like average for the rest of the UK though.

What does kind of suck though is a lot of jobs are still paying about the same - I think went up by about 3% on average or something as when I lived there 10+ years ago while rent has pretty much doubled in the time that has past.

 

[Caged]

The thing to remember about London income is that any job role that publishes pay scales and has a "London weighting" is massively off in their calculation of the living cost differences.

 

[Rroff]

The thing to remember about London income is that any job role that publishes pay scales and has a "London weighting" is massively off in their calculation of the living cost differences.

From a quick look most of the kind of roles I was looking at still have the same level of "London weighting" type allowance as when I was there years and years ago :s back then it was fairly close to the difference you'd expect.

 

[FL630]

The thing to remember about London income is that any job role that publishes pay scales and has a "London weighting" is massively off in their calculation of the living cost differences.

Correct, we get £1,900 extra a year I believe, I'm not sure what that'll achieve once you take tax off!

It is kind of crazy but you can still find some reasonably decent flats (sort of) for your £1000/m that are in not entirely bad areas but it does require knowing the area a bit helps if you are on a reasonable "London" wage rather than a job that is paying out more like average for the rest of the UK though.

What does kind of suck though is a lot of jobs are still paying about the same - I think went up by about 3% on average or something as when I lived there 10+ years ago while rent has pretty much doubled in the time that has past.

Wage is what I would call above national average by quite some margin, probably average for London given what a quick google search tells me. I'd like to budget £800 a month, which is affordable, but I really think that's going to be impossible.

It isn't really crazy if you're earning an 'average' salary, you're basically going to be paying approx half your net pay in rent.

I lived in a flat share initially then bought my own place, my mortgage is rather cheap and now only covers a small % of the value of my flat.

I did quote a mortgage, it's certainly a buyers market right now if you have a deposit, it makes it affordable even with just 5-10%.

Paying silly rent or move to a bad area like Croydon and spend a bit less

Sound advice, but I want to be north of the river as I don't want to deal with blackwall tunnel, it's too high a risk given the consequences of being late for work.

I work from City Airport so access to there is crucial. Ideally 20 minutes commute but would take a bit more. I know the areas around Redbridge/Leytonstone/Woodford and north up through Chigwell very well, outside of these areas I'm not so knowledgeable. So long as I can lock my doors and feel safe, and my car doesn't get stolen after 5 minutes, the area doesn't bother me too much.

 

[Caged]

Yeah unfortunately Crossrail has broken the house prices Barking/Dagenham way

 

[Rroff]

I work from City Airport so access to there is crucial. Ideally 20 minutes commute but would take a bit more. I know the areas around Redbridge/Leytonstone/Woodford and north up through Chigwell very well, outside of these areas I'm not so knowledgeable. So long as I can lock my doors and feel safe, and my car doesn't get stolen after 5 minutes, the area doesn't bother me too much.

My commiserations - for some reason at the back of my mind I'd assumed you were working more central or north of central - that area is kind of screwed for reasonable prices (even by London standards) at the moment even if you were ok with being south of there most of the immediate areas south of there with direct access are **** holes and the better places a little further out are more directly routed into the city.

 

[FL630]

My commiserations - for some reason at the back of my mind I'd assumed you were working more central or north of central - that area is kind of screwed for reasonable prices (even by London standards) at the moment even if you were ok with being south of there most of the immediate areas south of there with direct access are **** holes and the better places a little further out are more directly routed into the city.

I think working in the city makes life easier, lots of trains and tube lines gives a lot of options to come from any direction, when you're working in East London, you can really only live in East London. It's a tricky situation, not helped as mentioned by @Caged by Crossrail!

 

[dowie]

What does kind of suck though is a lot of jobs are still paying about the same - I think went up by about 3% on average or something as when I lived there 10+ years ago while rent has pretty much doubled in the time that has past.

That is true, I know that a former employer is offering the same 30-something-k to new grads in 2017 as it was back in 2007...

 

[Rotty]

It isn't really crazy if you're earning an 'average' salary, you're basically going to be paying approx half your net pay in rent.

.

I would class paying half your net income in rent as very crazy

 

[hurfdurf]

I would class paying half your net income in rent as very crazy

 

[Cleisthenes]

I just paid £10.50 for a single whiskey and coke, I'm furious.

So no, London is not affordable now.

 

[Rroff]

I just paid £10.50 for a single whiskey and coke, I'm furious.

So no, London is not affordable now.

Not at this time of year but I pay almost that at Christmas here in Somerset. One of the nice things when I was living in London was that my sister did a lot of promotional stuff, etc. for some of the nightclubs so I could get concessions or VIP and reduced prices on drinks at quite a few places

 

[Baron C]

To be a newcomer in London generally means living in an 'up and coming' area. Code for your neighbor is a junkie till they are pushed out by the tidal wave of gentrification.

 

[Sudden]

I just paid £10.50 for a single whiskey and coke, I'm furious.

So no, London is not affordable now.

Stop ordering fancy scotch! for a black label with soda, I would normally expect under a fiver. 5.50 at some slightly fancier places. This is at pubs. Bars etc. It might be more.

 

[Freakbro]

I would class paying half your net income in rent as very crazy

 

[Freakbro]

I just paid £10.50 for a single whiskey and coke, I'm furious.

So no, London is not affordable now.

Triple jack Daniels and coke for a fiver at one of my locals

 

[grudas]

North will be difficult in many ways, I lived in Greenlanes and then Tottenham which is a cheaper area and it wasn't great but you your shops,gyms etc. I'd say expect around £800 for a single room in a shared property. Studio flats etc will go up massively.