Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

Big Shlong

Im just looking for construction work when I make the move next month and looking at gumtree there seems to be plenty of it in London. The thing worrying me is accommodation , can anyone help me with this and how did you go about getting your own place?Heard London is quite expensive and hard to find a good and cheap place. Il be going over by myself so will be just looking for a cheap room for myself 200 pound tops a week.

BrokenArrows

Big Shlong wrote: »

Im just looking for construction work when I make the move next month and looking at gumtree there seems to be plenty of it in London. The thing worrying me is accommodation , can anyone help me with this and how did you go about getting your own place?Heard London is quite expensive and hard to find a good and cheap place. Il be going over by myself so will be just looking for a cheap room for myself 200 pound tops a week.

200 a week is plenty to find a very nice room in most places in London.

Maybe give us some detail about what you want from the area you live.

Big Shlong

BrokenArrows wrote: »

200 a week is plenty to find a very nice room in most places in London.

Maybe give us some detail about what you want from the area you live.

Thanks for the reply. Id be looking for somewhere close to the city centre as this is where all the work seems to be. Wouldnt care where exactly as long as the rent isnt too dear.

rainbow kirby

No harm in staying a little further out (zone 2-3) and saving some money on rent - the public transport is very good compared to anything in Ireland.

Harps

Big Shlong wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Id be looking for somewhere close to the city centre as this is where all the work seems to be. Wouldnt care where exactly as long as the rent isnt too dear.

Not really if you're looking for construction work, there's plenty in pretty much every corner of the city. Stay further out and save a fortune on rent, you'd be hard pressed to construction work that'll let you afford £800 a month on rent and still have a bit of a life

theteal

Big Shlong wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Id be looking for somewhere close to the city centre as this is where all the work seems to be. Wouldnt care where exactly as long as the rent isnt too dear.

Just as a ballpark reference, 1 of the lads last week had a double room going just beside Redbridge station for £530pm + bills (I thought that was a little steep tbh). That's about 15-20 mins from Liverpool Street. Monthly tube ticket for zone 1-4 would be £177.10.

enda1

I'd stay as close to the centre as you can if you can afford it.

freeze4real

Does anyone know any good recruiters in the London area in the financial services sector ( risk analyst/investment banking) ? I'm considering of moving to London after my masters.

Playboy

freeze4real wrote: »

Does anyone know any good recruiters in the London area in the financial services sector ( risk analyst/investment banking) ? I'm considering of moving to London after my masters.

Investigo, Michael Page, Hays

sashafierce

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BrokenArrows

sashafierce wrote: »

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Its a bit of both.
Depends on what work you're looking for and the size of the company who is recruiting. A lot of the larger companies leave it up to the agencies as its just less hassle for them.

chancer12

My DS got a job via Linkedin. He targetted the recruiters of firms in his sector and 'linked' to them. Got a number of telephone interviews and the process began from there for the company he was eventually employed by. Best of luck

sashafierce

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dice3344

Hi everyone,

Looking for your help again! Been here 6 weeks now, loving the pace of the city and am lucky enough to have found a great job. My partner and I are staying with his family at the moment but it's proving difficult for us to find a room for ourselves nearer my work. I'd love to get my commute down to an hour.

I work in Denham which is 25 mins west of London from Marylebone, so would ideally like to find something there, or on the Bakerloo or Jubilee line.. Anybody out there have a double room to let? Our budget is 900 including bills which I thought would be reasonable but it's proving tricky!

We've exhausted Sparerooms, any recommendations for other rental sites? Gumtree doesn't seem great..

Thanks!

exiledelbows

It's pretty much agents only so has it's own problems (credit checks and fees) but rightmove might be worth a look.

claus_irl

dice3344 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Looking for your help again! Been here 6 weeks now, loving the pace of the city and am lucky enough to have found a great job. My partner and I are staying with his family at the moment but it's proving difficult for us to find a room for ourselves nearer my work. I'd love to get my commute down to an hour.

I work in Denham which is 25 mins west of London from Marylebone, so would ideally like to find something there, or on the Bakerloo or Jubilee line.. Anybody out there have a double room to let? Our budget is 900 including bills which I thought would be reasonable but it's proving tricky!

We've exhausted Sparerooms, any recommendations for other rental sites? Gumtree doesn't seem great..

Thanks!

90% of the accommodation in the UK is obtained through an agency, thus involving credit checks, employment checks, previous rental checks and admin fees which are quite costly compared to Ireland (I had a shock when I moved here and saw that I had to cough up £300 for me & the wife, while in Ireland it was just €40.

If you have no job, you'll have to either pay 6 months rent in advance, most agencies will request that or will require you to supply a guarantor living in the UK already, if you can't provide either then you will be forced to share with others !

dice3344

Thanks Claus_irl!

The deposit and references are fine, it's just that we're not having luck hearing back from the rooms we want. Would you recommend us registering with an agency?

Louche Lad

dice3344 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Looking for your help again! Been here 6 weeks now, loving the pace of the city and am lucky enough to have found a great job. My partner and I are staying with his family at the moment but it's proving difficult for us to find a room for ourselves nearer my work. I'd love to get my commute down to an hour.

I work in Denham which is 25 mins west of London from Marylebone, so would ideally like to find something there, or on the Bakerloo or Jubilee line.. Anybody out there have a double room to let? Our budget is 900 including bills which I thought would be reasonable but it's proving tricky!

We've exhausted Sparerooms, any recommendations for other rental sites? Gumtree doesn't seem great..

Thanks!

dice3344 wrote: »

Thanks Claus_irl!

The deposit and references are fine, it's just that we're not having luck hearing back from the rooms we want. Would you recommend us registering with an agency?

Have you been only replying to ads on Sparerooms? I did that originally and got nowhere. But when I put my own "wanted" ad in, I got somewhere I wanted (as well as a lot of spam, but it was worth it).

wbt

Hey guys,

Wondering can anyone help me out here. I'm currently renting a room in London, but the landlord has put up the rent by £20 and it's become unaffordable now...I was barely making the rent as it was. I've been looking into other options and everywhere seems to be really expensive. I've looked into property guardian schemes but they are all very insecure and I need Wi fi at home as I work freelance. Any idea where I could find a room for rent at under 500 pcm, in an area which isn't completely awful? Short term is fine, as I may have an option from June onwards.

cashback

wbt wrote: »

Hey guys,

Wondering can anyone help me out here. I'm currently renting a room in London, but the landlord has put up the rent by £20 and it's become unaffordable now...I was barely making the rent as it was. I've been looking into other options and everywhere seems to be really expensive. I've looked into property guardian schemes but they are all very insecure and I need Wi fi at home as I work freelance. Any idea where I could find a room for rent at under 500 pcm, in an area which isn't completely awful? Short term is fine, as I may have an option from June onwards.

Hi wbt.

I used to live in Streatham but moved to Hackney last month. I miss it a bit to be honest. Myself and my GF were renting a room in a house including bills for £590 altogether. Just had a look on spareroom and there is lots going there for less than £500, including bills sometimes.
It's not on the tube line but there's three train stations, nice pubs and restaurants, lovely parks and it's not pretentious at all.Very close to Clapham, Balham and Tooting, Brixton just down the hill. We only moved because of my GF's job.
Have a look here: https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/london/streatham

ioc

London 3 months for the summer!

Hi all just touching base here..looking to get away from limerick for a couple of months..myself and my twin brother were both currently students and want to experience living abroad for the summer:-)...so to throw out a few questions basically looking to go around June/July/August...noting solid yet sorted over but were looking to rent a 1 bedroom apartment if possible or room share in a house if that can be..what are the best area's to look in at 225 a week preferably??...i don't mind living outside a bit as i have heard the cheaper it can be.. but not too far from the center of things.. would be nice about 30/40 mins tube/train wise would be fine.. but would like to live in a borough that has summer working opportunities cafe/bar work etc..perhaps good old London nightlife safe/vibrant/buzzing area( preference)

any info/help would be really appreciated guys/gals cheers

ioc

bump..........

sashafierce

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83ste

sashafierce wrote: »

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The minimum wage in London is the same as it is everywhere else in the UK – £6.50ph. There is something called the 'London Living Wage', which is £9.15ph, but it's entirely up to employers if they want to pay that. It's strongly encouraged, but not a legal obligation.

sashafierce

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83ste

sashafierce wrote: »

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As I said, it's entirely up to the individual agency or employer.

Monkey61

ioc wrote: »

London 3 months for the summer!

Hi all just touching base here..looking to get away from limerick for a couple of months..myself and my twin brother were both currently students and want to experience living abroad for the summer:-)...so to throw out a few questions basically looking to go around June/July/August...noting solid yet sorted over but were looking to rent a 1 bedroom apartment if possible or room share in a house if that can be..what are the best area's to look in at 225 a week preferably??...i don't mind living outside a bit as i have heard the cheaper it can be.. but not too far from the center of things.. would be nice about 30/40 mins tube/train wise would be fine.. but would like to live in a borough that has summer working opportunities cafe/bar work etc..perhaps good old London nightlife safe/vibrant/buzzing area( preference)

any info/help would be really appreciated guys/gals cheers

Have you had a look at Rightmove or SpareRoom.co.uk or Gumtree even? It will give you an idea of what you can expect from your budget and then you can come back and ask about the areas that you can afford. It might be an easier way to get specific advice. I'm not too sure how easy short term rentals are to get. Also if you don't both already have jobs lined up, finding accomodation might be difficult without paying for the whole 3 months up front. Consider as well that it might take a little while to find a job once you get over here.

Also is that £225/week each or both of you together?

breadmonkey

sashafierce wrote: »

If you are to get work through an agency would they pay the 9?

I ask because we moved to Canada last year and majority of jobs and agency jobs pay 11-12 dollars, before tax about 7euro an hour and its very hard to live on. Don't want to fall into the same trap when we move to London this summer. Realistically would like to be getting a decent wage(Obv )

Working a full time job at minimum wage is a gross salary of about £14k per annum. You could subsist on this in London but not much more. You really really need money to enjoy the city. It's not like you have beaches, lakes, mountains etc on your doorstep. Even if both of you got the London living wage (about £20k pa each) you would not be well off. In my opinion (and I've said this on here before), a person would need at least £30k to have a nice place, a decent social life and be able to save a small amount each month. Think carefully before you make the move!

sashafierce

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dice3344

Hey, this mightn't be the right place but...

We have a room to rent in our flat, anyone know someone who'd like to live in West Hampstead for 800 per month? I have an ad on sparerooms for it, but thought if anyone knew someone here it'd be as good as a referral