Would £150k support a family of four moving to London?

[Milliedxb]

Hi everyone,
We’re a family of four (2-year-old + newborn) thinking about moving to London from Dubai. My husband has been offered £150k a year before taxes. I’m a stay-at-home mum at the moment and plan to stay home for the next few years.
I know London is more expensive than Dubai, especially for rent and childcare, so I’m trying to get a sense of whether this salary would be enough for us to live comfortably.
A few things I’m wondering about:

• Where to live: We’d need a 2-bedroom apartment in a family-friendly area, ideally no more than 30 minutes by train to central London. Any recommendations?
• Nursery/childcare: What’s a typical price for part-time nursery? What’s considered reasonable?
• Groceries: We cook at home most of the time and eat healthy (lots of veggies, fruits, fish, and meat). Roughly how much would a family of four spend per month?

Any advice or tips would be really appreciated!

This is probably a really stupid question, but what's an 'inner London experience?'.

@Makemineacosmo I can’t speak for the person who said that but I moved from zone 2 to zone 3/4 borders and feel I have lost the “inner London experience” - essentially central London and so a lot of buzzy cafes/restaurants/pubs and arts venues within walking or short cycling distance. Obviously I can still access those things now but I don’t do so nearly as much - other than work I tend to stick to my local area. As a result my life (and my kids’ childhood) isn’t too dissimilar to my childhood growing up in a tiny U.K. city - so I do question whether it’s worth paying the absolutely ginormous premium to be in London in these circumstances.

Exactly as @JumpinJellyfish says.

If you are living in Kensington or Notting Hill, Marylebone or Angel etc - you are going to have a very different experience to living in Bromley or Surbiton. The latter could be suburban corners of anywhere in Britain - just with very convenient access to London.

Bromley and Surbiton are very different.

And you’re comparing central London with outer London. Inner London has plenty of leafy suburbs - Chiswick, Wandsworth, Clapham etc.,

As others have said, if you aren't educating privately or needing childcare it is doable but not luxurious living.- although I definitely felt like the 'poor relation' when we were in SW London with similar circs, and that was over 10 yrs ago!

Where did you get Nanny from?

It's doable, apart from the childcare.

In your shoes as a SAHM in a new city, I would prioritise finding the right area ie one with other SAHMs, family friendly, leafy, well-connected. This obviously comes with a cost attached, but I think this will be money well spent (and a much nicer experience than living somewhere cheap in order afford some childcare). A flat somewhere like Highgate (which ticks all these boxes but is at the more expensive end) could be £3500/month (cheaper if you're happy with somewhere smaller). Whether that's affordable really depends on how much is normal for you to spend on other things- holidays, clothes etc. You definitely won't be splashing the cash though. It's a question of priorities and, in your shoes, I'd prioritise location. I would also choose not to run a car.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/ I have always found the spreadsheet here very useful for budget planning.

If you're happy with something compact then a flat like this https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/171462632#/?channel=RES_LET would be very affordable, 2 mins from the tube, a short walk into both Highgate village and Crouch End (both full of SAHMs and lots of activities for children), loads of green space on your doorstep but also buzzy cafes, arts venues etc. But it is small, and I still think you'd need to do without regular childcare.

So that would leave 30K? Not a chance