To spend half of my wages on rent? Silly idea?

Find a cheap shared house just to get you out of where you are and make a start. you will need a guarantor and it will get you back into the habit of budgeting for yourself again. it will also be a clear sign to your parents that you are standing on your own two feet and that you are who you are.

don't even think about subletting - that is what airbnb is, its subletting. you will not only get thrown out for it but it will invalidate your contents insurance so if someone steals from you or there is a fire you are up the creek.

best advice - don't run before you can walk. take a first easy and cheap step and then progress on.

theunsure
That’s a higher threshold than letting agents.

Personally I wouldn’t do it unless it wasn’t that much more than the multilet. You may need that money one day. Half your income is clearly a lot. Add it up over how many years before you have access to the cash you’re talking about?

I think it would be doable if you are careful. Up until recently my mortgage has always cost half my wages, it depends how much it means to you. The best thing to do is visit 'money advice service budget planner,' it takes into account all your other possible outgoings, e.g. Birthdays, Christmas, bank fees, haircuts, nights out etc. If possible I would go for it and start living your life and being yourself x

And don't move in with a landlord would be my advice

You could rent out your bedroom and sleep on the sofa.

Just rent the room in the shared house.

Sppapp it’s based on salary, not net earnings. As we don’t know OP’s background, we don’t know how much tax/student loan/pension she’s paying.

I would house share.

In sure you'd be able to find house sharing for less than 600pcm. They may not be 'young professionals' but its better than living with parents. Some are just live in landlords renting out a spare room.
House sharing includes bills so nothing on top of that.

The affordability check I do for my tenants is that their salary (each if joint) must be at least 30 x the monthly rent. Do you earn that? e.g. if the rent is £500pcm the annual income of each tenant must be £15k.

If I found out any of my tenants was subletting on air BnB they'd be out on their ear as it is a breach of contract.

The current affordability rules are quite new (2015 I think?) so all the people posting how they did it "way back when" wouldn't be able to do it now.

X post, I see you have water already. Budget £25-30 pm until you know whether or not you have a meter etc.

It’d be worth checking if the letting agents would accept your godfather as a guarantor - some have salary restrictions, so savings wouldn’t count.

Personally I’d struggle on £450 a month. Would you need to buy furnishings too?

BecomingAdultly - don't forget water bill and insurance (contents / car if that's not covered by your company's contribution). Also consider how much you'd plan to spend on food, toiletries, presents for birthdays, haircuts etc.

As to the original question - If having your own space is that important to your happiness, do it. However I still think it's a good idea to make hay while the sun shines and save as much money as you can now - you mentioned you have a deposit put aside but do you need to build an emergency fund for car breakdowns, boiler failure, etc etc?

Where I live, you have to earn 2.5-3 times the annual rent, or have a guarantor, for it to be deemed affordable.

I'm not sure what rules my EA used, but when I took on a tenancy at £925 (cheap in my area) they just wanted someone who earns over £32k per year.

I was on £39k and they let me rent it. My take home on that was £2200 so the rent was 42% of my income

I did not come across any EA who said my income wasn't high enough.

if you are thinking of subletting then you become the kind of tenant no decent landlord wants.

This is one of the reason for affordability checks, to reduce the odds of this kind of thing. As a tenant can move in and then pay nothing, sitting there until the bailiffs come, landlords need to do checks.

Can I also suggest that you read the how to rent guide on gov.uk to understand your rights and obligations.

@becomingadulty
There are water rates, I pay 21 per month, But i have seen others at closer to £100 per month.
Contents insurance, I pay £10 but again it varies.

So then you need to save for

• holidays

• car bills above what is covered by the £200 a month (will depend on what tax / mot / insurance / tyres cost on your car, cost it out)

You will need to think of these things, you cannot just say you aren't going to buy clothes, you will need tights / knickers / shoes sometimes at least. You will randomly get sick or go to the dentist and spend money.

Food £30 a week? so £280 on everything else.

At uni my Godfather was my guarantor. My mum flat out refused as she didn't want me living away. He's self employed, doesn't work that much anymore but has a fair amount of savings.

Forgot water- online it says £20pm, can't for the life of me remember how much we paid at uni.

Still gives me well over £450 a month to live on. I'll be working 6 days a week so not a lot of time to play.

If someone wouldn't mind helping me work out how much bills would cost-
Rent- £695
£80 a month on electric and gas? (Only lived in a shared uni house before, i'm used to being cold and i'll be out most of the time).
£90 - Council Tax - Band A.
£32 - mobile contract.
£24 - internet.
I never missed having a tv at uni, so no need for sky/tv licence.
My company pays me £200 a month towards my car plus millage so I don't have to worry about travel.

£921 total. Still gives me well over £400 a month to play with.

I can't remember how much I lived on at uni but it was a lot less than that, and I was still able to party, eat well and I was clothed (most of the time!)

This depends on how high your salary is though. If you only earn 1000 and you are paying 500 rent, bills are going to be a min of 200,plus another 200 for food which only leaves 100 for rent.

If you're earning 2000 things are dramatically different. Rent will be higher, but bills and living costs will not be proportionately higher. Eg. Rent will be 1000 but bills likely only 350, food still 200 leaving you with 450 a month left over.

Working out your rent based on a percentage just doesn't work.

You need to first work out how much you'll spend on food and essentials, how much do you have left after that? For rent and bills? Then knock of another 100 for emergencies.

Eg. You earn 1200. 200 a month on food. 100 on car costs. 100 broadband/mobile phone. That leaves you with 800 - then halve THAT number.

So (unless you have a guarantor) you might find you can’t rent it anyway, OP

To all the people saying do it, how was that even allowed by the letting agents? Did you have guarantors?

Where I live, you have to earn 2.5-3 times the annual rent, or have a guarantor, for it to be deemed affordable.

I did it.

When I first moved to London I earned 1600 after tax and paid out 1000 on rent (bills included). Still managed to save a hundred or so each month too!

Sit down and work out all your costs, and then you'll know if its feasible. If it's tight, its up to you to decided if it'll be worth it or not. Good luck!

I would go on the side of half your salary being too much! And yes the air bnb idea is probably against the contract near me all landlords have a clause against it.

Wish I only paid half