Moving to London?

damnyanks

I;ve accepted a job in London. The only time I've ever been to London was for the actual interviews for the job

Is there a huge difference in living expenses the further out you live? The salary itself is quite high given that its a student position . I would probably be seeking to share with some other people found web sites and so on for that. But are food prices generally the same? How much is a pint and so on Are gyms expensive...

Any advice on anything to do with living in London would be appreciated

babykiten

hiya moved here 2 months ago- depends on salary i got 30k(45 eur), and this is quite comfortable. pint prices i think differ- where wil u be living? if its outside central london then prob 2.80- 3 pound, 99p in supermarket- food seems cheaper and the parklife in summer kicks ass, its a great city - lots to do but u work ur ass off and get lonelyish sunmtimes, you can save money if u want to really. Near impossibility in eire. what job u get?

damnyanks

IT role at a large investment bank. The pay is 26 sterling but I would like to save money for my final year of college. Do ya know if those living / working in london books are worth getting? I don't want to end up renting in some place that could be considered dodgy (Like renting in Brixton ) I'd also want to join a gym and so on. Usuaully the more central the more expensive

Ideally I'd like to live in a built up area but not too central (or too expensive! ) Thats within 45 - 60 minutes travel by tube.

Lump

I live in London. I have a two bedroom flat in White city on an ex-council estate. The Rent is £220 Per week. Obviously I'm sharing with some one. Everything is more expensive. Pints can go up to £4 each in the centre. A lot of the clubs only sell bottles at £3.50 or Cocktails at £6.50. Vodka and orange is about £3.50.

The local bars to me sell pints at £2.80.

Food is alright I guess but you'll notice it costing slightly more.

If you live far out, fair enough, but you have to spend time and money to travel in. A tube travel ticket for a week is £20 for zones 1 + 2.

I can live on £16,000 ok.... obviously I'm not having mad parties everynight. I'm only a trainee, so you should find it easy to live on that money. It all depends what extras you expect to be able to do, and how much you want to save.

John

jonny68

I lived in London for a few years..26 grand sterling is very good indeed you should be able to live comfortably with that..id recomend Tooting or Wimbledon in South London not as expensive as other areas but (esp Tooting) you`ll feel like your living in India and not London :rolleyes:

damnyanks wrote:

IT role at a large investment bank. The pay is 26 sterling but I would like to save money for my final year of college. Do ya know if those living / working in london books are worth getting? I don't want to end up renting in some place that could be considered dodgy (Like renting in Brixton ) I'd also want to join a gym and so on. Usuaully the more central the more expensive

Ideally I'd like to live in a built up area but not too central (or too expensive! ) Thats within 45 - 60 minutes travel by tube.

The Sweeper

Whether or not you'll find stuff expensive depends on where you were living before.

Be warned; when you're house-sharing you'll have, on top of rent, a share of all usual bills, plus a water bill, which you may not be used to, and a council tax bill, which you probably won't be used to. When you're viewing property, ASK how much the council tax is and what your share will be.

There's no point finding a place that's £300 a month to rent, then has £45 council tax on top of that that you hadn't budgeted for.

Travel is also expensive. It's not a great idea to go to the limit of that 45 - 60 minute tube ride, because your ticket may cost you a lot of money every month.

The trick is to find a flat in the same zone as the one you work in, and which you don't have to pass through another zone to get to.

You need to balance the fact that central London food, grocery, rental and beer prices are higher, but at the same time, further out you go, more expensive your travel. I used to work in Hoxton and commute from Surrey, which took about 70 minutes door to door. My rent was cheaper, my living costs cheaper, and I can get four pints and a packet of crisps out of a tenner, but my travel card was £250 a month!

Let me know what area you're moving to and I can give you some tips on flat hunting, useful local areas etc.

dewsbury

Www.loot.com is the daily paper and online ads. magazine.

BY far the best place to look for accommodation etc. Thousands of ads.

damnyanks

I'd be working in zone 1. Probably not a good idea to live there . How much does council tax usually cost? I was talking to the person doing the interview and she told me she pays 2500 a year for a tube ticket.

If I was living far out I wouldnt really have a huge issue paying that considering it was 4 pounds return for a return ticket from zone 1 to zone 1 . Like London is a big place so I would imagine that I'd go check different area's out while I'm living there as well as wanting to get to the airport etc. (or as near as possible)

I eat a lot... I love food I'm considering giving up drink for the year or at least doing it very rarely which would probably be a good way for me to save. It was reccomended to me to just avoid the west side as there are more "dodgy" areas.

What sort of area's should I be looking for if I'm willing to pay 150ish a month for rent (in total) or is that being unrealistic ?

The Sweeper

£150 a month? All in? For rent?

...Wales?

Take a look at www.loot.com to see what your rent is likely to be...

Lump

Well if you read my post, you would have seen that I pay £476 not including bills.

John

damnyanks

Ah ok sorry

I've been going around some websites (Not loot) can't remember the names... but they are listing flat shares in London for 100 - 200 pounds. The odd one includes bills

I'll be coming home to Dublin in a few weeks will probably pop over to London and try and sort something out. Perhaps the prices I'm seeing are misleading

skipn_easy

The prices you are seeing are definitely misleading... ads for flatshares can specify rent per week or month or calendar month.

I live in West Kensington and pay around 500 pounds a month inclusive of all bills. It is good to ask around and get a feel for different places, and if you're not too fussy you'll have no problems finding something. 2 places I have used in the past to find rooms are:
Easy Roommate
Spare Room

Average room prices in areas like brixton, stockwell, streatham, clapham would be between 350 and 500 pounds a month. Areas that are fun and lively would be fulham, clapham, islington, camden, brixton. Basically in London you can find whatever you want.

damnyanks

Yeah thats the one easy room mate

Sorry I meant 100 - 200 per week not month (I'm not that naive)

The Sweeper

Right, that's much better. You should be able to find somewhere liveable for £400 a month, and somewhere somewhat lavish for £800.

It's an idea to try and find somewhere commutable by both bus and tube - tube strikes, delays, repairs and line closures aren't uncommon and you don't want to be left high and dry if the tube isn't running.

Black London cabs are expensive and should be avoided unless you plan to expense your travel in them to your company.

Cycling is something of a survival sport in London.

There are pub chains that do cheap beer - JD Wetherspoons being one. You'll find somewhere that does a happy hour to suit you in any part of London. Just be careful; if you're working in the financial district expect to pay investment banker prices for a pint in the local bars.

Any idea yet what your nearest Tube Station is going to be?

BossArky

I live in zone 1 and work in zone 1. I would recommend finding the nearest tube stop to where you will work and where you want to live... and try to adjust it so that you don't have to change(at least more than once) as it can get head wrecking. For myself, when I'm going to the office (which isn't too often) I can leave home, walk 5 mins, tube for 10 mins direct, and another 5 mins to work..... so 20 mins in total which is pretty handy.

Regarding tube prices, I suggest you get an Oyster card for the internal 3 zones which lasts one month. This costs 96 pounds and allows you to see pretty much everything worth seeing in the city. Obviously there are other places outside of zones 1 to 3, but if you get through all of the internal stuff first you'll be doing well. Oyster card also means that you can just stick your wallet against a sensor to open the tube barrier... instead of rooting around and buying a ticket each day / week.

London is very expensive. I must say the best thing about it though is that there are no English people in the city centre

damnyanks

BossArky wrote:

I live in zone 1 and work in zone 1. I would recommend finding the nearest tube stop to where you will work and where you want to live... and try to adjust it so that you don't have to change(at least more than once) as it can get head wrecking. For myself, when I'm going to the office (which isn't too often) I can leave home, walk 5 mins, tube for 10 mins direct, and another 5 mins to work..... so 20 mins in total which is pretty handy.

Regarding tube prices, I suggest you get an Oyster card for the internal 3 zones which lasts one month. This costs 96 pounds and allows you to see pretty much everything worth seeing in the city. Obviously there are other places outside of zones 1 to 3, but if you get through all of the internal stuff first you'll be doing well. Oyster card also means that you can just stick your wallet against a sensor to open the tube barrier... instead of rooting around and buying a ticket each day / week.

London is very expensive. I must say the best thing about it though is that there are no English people in the city centre

Noticed that when asking for directions (I got quite lost ) Mainly ozzies or new zealenders

tHE vAGGABOND

if you are looking for a house share the best website in the world is the GumTree: http://www.gumtree.com/

Pepe LeFrits

Yep, I found my houseshare last year on Gumtree.

I live in Stratford in Zone 3 though it's only 12 mins on the tube to where I work (Bank - Zone 1). Rent is £380 pm including all bills - water, gas, electricity, toilet roll, tea, cleaning appliances. Okay, so they aren't all bills, but I don't have to pay for them anyway! We get a cleaner in occasionally, so mostly the only chores I have to do are emptying the bin and dishwasher once a week every 5 weeks. Sweet deal.

Travelcard's to Zone 1 cost me £100 a month, although it'd probably be marginally cheaper if i ever got off my arse to buy an oyster card.

I find most stuff is pretty cheap in London, bar taxis and booze in fancy clubs. My regular bar off Oxford Street charge £2.50-£3 for a pint (though anything else in there costs like 7-8 quid...), which is pretty good considering where it is.

Oh, I'm a member of Cannons gym - full membership is £81 a month. Expensive, but worth it. I can use any of the branches throughout the country, though I only use the Cannon street one. It's great, 2 pools, jacuzzi, sauna, steam room, a load of different gyms, 120+ classes a week, personal planners, yada yada yada...

yossarin

I live in zone 1 in london bridge.
Theres three of us in a ex-council 2 bed flat in a tower block. rent is (£800-ish pcm + 90 council tax + bills)/3.

regarding gyms - the council ones are great. they cost about half what the private ones do and you're not continually hassled by trainers wanted you to sign up for personal training.

iguana

I've just moved to Seven Sisters, near Tottenham, depending where in zone 1 you are working I'd recommend it. My rent, split with my bf, is £160 a week in a really nice 1bed place on a private development. It is in zone 3 but only 3 stops from kings cross (victoria line), about 10 mins travel. It's a great value area if you want to live by yourself

Have you thought about buying though? If you think you will be here for a few years it could be worth it. You could get a one bed private build or a 2bed ex-la for about £125k. The mortgage payments on a 100% loan would be could be less than rent payments and if you had 2 bed you can rent a room tax free afaik. (Just an idea).

Either way findaproperty.com is pretty good.

Lump

£160 a week for a one bed apartment.... you're getting shafted, especially if it's in zone 3, hang on is it actually £320 a week? You're really being shafted! Also I'd love to see what kind of a flat you'd get for £125K. Maybe a box apartment.

John

mycroft

Lump wrote:

£160 a week for a one bed apartment.... you're getting shafted, especially if it's in zone 3, hang on is it actually £320 a week? You're really being shafted! Also I'd love to see what kind of a flat you'd get for £125K. Maybe a box apartment.

John

No we're not lump, it's a pleasant airy flat, 2 minutes to the tube, and works out as 80quid a week for each of us or about the same as you're paying. I'm too bloody old to flatshare.

And if you check any halfway decent property website you'll see plenty of decent apartments in the area of 125k, if you want to go out past zone two, and they're near the tube. If you work out how much you're spending on rent, if you plan to be in london for over 5 years buying makes more sense, mortgages are cheaper than rent.

ps iguana is my g/f.

Lump

Ah right, I see.... £160 a week total. You're paying less then me in that case

John

iguana

For £80 each a week, if we worked our money that way, we get a large double room, a similar sized living room, a kitchen-diner, a bathroom with a bath and power-shower and communal gardens. The place also comes with a wide-screen tv, video, stereo and several pictures of cats. It is only a few years old and everything is decorated nicely and has wooden floors. And one of the apartments on this estate is for sale for £125k. If I hadn't my heart set on a house I'd snap it up. As it is there are quite a few 3bed period houses in the area for £195K to £250k .

It's not too hard to get good value (relative good value) if you do your research. Property websites will have council tax rates of areas in the local information section. You can also check out the local council web-sites for info on different charges.

And buy an A-Z, they are invaluable.

Lump

I have an A-Z and I need to be in west London..... onna have a good look around when I move, loot, gumtree and a few other property sites. Reaon I want to be in west london, is that I work 12 -13 hour days, and I can't be bothered with adding travel on top of that.

John