Non-Londoners, what sort of a salary increase would convince you to relocate there?

[artemisdubois]

As per the thread title, how much more would you need to be paid in order to convince you to relocate to London (Central)?

Of course the main reason I'm asking is that I'm in this situation at the moment of considering two different jobs. I'm early-thirties, engaged to a man who can run his company from anywhere with good internet and would be amenable to the move. We don't have strong family ties to our current home city, though we'd be a lot further from them if we moved to London.

Taking into account the massively-increased cost of living, commuting time and costs, busier lifestyle and other probably basic differences I'm yet to consider, it's quite complex. I'd love to hear opinions and what your price might be - I'm sure for a lot of people no amount of money would be enough.

Housing costs eat up salary. It could work well if you fancy enjoying the city, rent your current property out and downsize. And have no DC.

At your age with no children/ties, I would have gone for it (and did), just for the experience and to broaden my horizons, especially from a career perspective.

It was great at the time and certainly helped my career.

Now my circumstances are very much different and I prefer the space of a larger property in a nice suburb with good schools back home, something that would have had me recoiling in horror at your age!

I'm from London. I couldn't wait to finally leave when I went to uni. Haven't looked back. Best thing I ever did. My mum persuaded me to move back when I was pregnant, to be near my family. So I did. But as I expected I hated being back and couldn't wait to leave there and come home (home to me being the city I went to uni in, 250 miles away).
So nothing would ever make me move back there. I hate it.

Salary is one thing but for me the killer would be (and always was, which is why we left years ago) house prices. A quick look on Rightmove has just confirmed that I'd be lucky to get a bedsit in Croydon for what my lovely airy flat in rural Scotland is worth. So I'd need a salary bump - probably double - but more importantly a massive lump sum to enable me to maintain my current very modest standard of living.

What’s your gut instinct OP?

You don’t move for the money. You move to be at the centre of the world in almost every facet.

Don’t be scared of change as it’s not irreversible.

I moved and got a £15k increase which was about £10k if location and !5k of new role off a northern £35k.

£50k was very comfortable to have a fucking cool time, live super central and save. But I was mid/late twenties and renting and just working and playing hard.

The only thing that is more expensive is rent and buying housing. Everything else seems cheaper.

I live in South London and work in the city, unless you're earning 6 figures and able to have kids go to private schools while living in one of the rich enclaves, do not relocate here!

London offers you a world of career opportunities. I wouldn't let the commentators with a negative experience or thoughts on London put you off.

We earn around £135k as a household and we are comfortable. We have one child and live in zone 3 which is a 35m journey into central London.

Yes London is noisy, dirty and cramped however on a decent salary you can live quite well in the outer London boroughs

Good luck

Everyone doesn't need to go to private school! My goodness, you'd think all London schools church put a bunch of thickos 🙄

*churn

It depends on what your current salary is. If you are earning 25k I would say 2.5 times more money isn’t enough but if you’re on 40k it might be.

Why does this ap not have an edit button 😡 *churn out

I deliberately moved out of London, so I wouldn't be jumping at the chance.

House prices there are at least 4x higher than they are here, so at least that salary increase... Which wouldn't happen!

I earn around £35k and can live comfortably (ish) on that in the North. I think need probably 3x that much to have a comparable lifestyle on London (renting a two bed house with drive and garden in a decent area would be most of the additional cost I imagine).

This thread is very silly. I am late twenties, single, live in London on 40k and have a fantastic life. I rent a flat by myself near a tube station in south London and have enough left over for some savings and luxuries/treats/holiday fund. Parks within a few tube stops, 45 mins to work in central, cute bars, shops and restaurants on my doorstep... my gas and electric is under £40 a month on fixed tariff so the person upthread who said to allow £300 is being ripped off

Yes, I could get a much bigger flat or house (and afford to buy) in other areas of the country. As it stands I’m looking into doing shared ownership here in a year or two. I love the vibrancy, the open-mindedness, the opportunities, the things to do. I wouldn’t trade any of this for a bigger house/owning a property somewhere else. You definitely don’t need to earn 6 figures to have a nice life!

You'd think differently if you had kids though, dodgeball

OK, so it doesn't appear that the OP does, but that inlfuences a lot of answers here. It's also a common theme on LLL. London couple with small children moving out to the home counties for a home that they ad the kids fit in without tripping over each other, no longer having a nightlife s a priority, as that is a long way behind them.

It would have to be well over £150k. DP would be rather reluctant and at the very least we would need to keep our current property at the seaside as well

How well do you know London? Do you actually mean central London or not as far as zone 3 or 4? I lived in London for years and used to be amused at questions by visitors e.g. do you drive to your work by Blackfriars Bridge, why don't you live on Oxford Street?

The vast majority of Londoners live here on average / ordinary incomes, not 6 figures.

You are not at risk: you own a property outright, :2.5x is a big increase on your current salary and could lead to higher. It will look good on your CV.

I don’t understand the need for private schools. Schools in London outperform schools nationally and it really isn’t hard to find areas where you get a genuine choice of good schools. I have 4 primaries that we could get places in and I would be more than happy with 3 of those. 3 dead cert secondaries, 2 being very good.

@dodgeballchamp wasn't just including gas/electric - was including council tax, Internet, phone, water - adding all of that together mine comes to £270 I just rounded up.

None, I work in London but live in the Southwest. I wouldn’t live in London. We’ve looked at the numbers and the costs are similar ish. You either pay extra for living or commuting. We like our quality of life in the countryside and having a big house and a garden. So I pay to commute. My dh can work anywhere as well.

I'm saying send to private schools because too many of the inner London schools are plagued with violence in and out of school! If you don't mind sending your kids to such schools then by all means but to side with caution I would say send to private schools here in London. At the end of the day with children, you need a six figure household salary to live comfortably here and having born and lived all my life here, there are a considerable amount of major red flag areas to stay away from! Lots of redevelopment in some of the areas, but still I would aim for an outer borough of you really wanted to move here.

Currently on 40k, would want at least 100k as I'd want to live in central London, can't be doing with a commute.

As it is I'm quite happy with my lot in NW

I'd probably get around £150k for my nice 4 bed house with big garden close to good schools in a quiet village with excellent community.

So whatever would get me a reasonable equivalent in central London!