Cost of living in London

[BratinghamPalace]

Sorry to put this here and I know this has been done before BUT..... we may be moving to London, 3 dcs, 6,4,2. Barnes seems good for schools and distance to office. Desperately need help on cost of living in London? We will earn in dollars but spend in Sterling so I need to figure out if we can afford to move. Any help much appreciated. Time is critical!

London is not a chep city to live in but is great fun and the public transport is terrific (apart from certain train companies!)

I've assumed you are moving from abroad but I could be wrong so you may know some of this.

To get an idea of how much housing will cost have a look at Rightmove When I lived there a three bedroomed house cost between £1800-£2000 per month
Council tax rates vary (and can be found on the local council website) but you can bank on a minimum about £2000 per year, to be paid in 10 installments. Rightmove should tell you what the band is for a property.
Water rates - we were paying about £400 per year, but will obviously depend on whether you have a meter (we didn't) so could be more.

If you are planning on using public transport have a look at Transport for London for information on fares. Getting an Oystercard will save money. If you have a car and travel into the city you have to pay the Congestion Charge (the last time I looked it was £10 per day) I really wouldn't have a car - just hire one if you need to go somewhere outside London and get your shopping delivered.

I don't think food is significantly more expensive in London, but to get an idea have a look at the websites for Sainsbuty, Ocado, Tesco and Asda.

Gas and electricity - we paid about £1200 per year.

Beer - around £4 per pint

Museums - free

Hope that helps a little.

It does. Thank you. We would be moving from Los Angeles. Is it very expensive to heat a house for example?

Heating our three bed semi to 18 degrees costs around £1400 per year. Flats are cheaper, because you benefit from other peoples heat!
Council tax is £1200 a year for us,
All in, utilities (water, electricity, gas, C tax, broad band etc, home insurance ) probably comes to around £4000 annually. Rents really depend on the area.
Car insurance is high too, think £700 for a couple with no claims. Although if your licence is US, you'll have to sit a driving test here, so may not bother(especially when you see the price of petrol! £5.90 per gallon) Annual travel cards for public transport into central london are well into four figures.
So, yeah. Not cheap. But good though, if your wage covers it.

I lived in Barnes, we paid £1400 for a 2 bed ground floor flat in a mansion block, with garden. Gas and electricity were around £100 a month with nobody at home during the day. Also, don't forget the cost of parking permits, if you drive as everywhere is zoned.

Supermarket prices were fine, eating out cost a bit but the few pubs in Barnes, The Bridge and the Castellnau esp are nice for the evening and have gardens etc.

Travel isn't that cheap either, I'm not sure what a travel cards cost but employers usually do interest free loans for annual passes and you can get the cost deducted monthly from your wages.

Barnes is a lovely area but not the cheapest you could choose. Richmond, Sheen, Putney, Clapham are great, but that whole area is not cheap, if it makes any difference to you, it may not of course.

Take a look at the comparison on website below. It seems to indicate cost of living is 40% higher in London compared to LA.

www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=United+Kingdom&city1=Los+Angeles%2C+CA&city2=London

you can check some things yourself.
Cost of public transport:
www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

For food shopping look on:
www.waitrose.com/
Or
www.tesco.com/

If you're worried about money seriously think about becoming car-less. Car is obviously essential in LA, but less so in London. Tfl has a journey planner on their website that could give an idea of distances into work etc.

Also, all the big supermarkets do online shopping with home delivery. Another reason not to need a car!

Agree, you don't need a car in London. Public transport is great. We only use our car for driving out of London to see family.

Just a note on council tax-you can now opt to pay over 12 months rather than 10 in most boroughs. Doesn't make much of a difference but it is an option.

Rent has gone up significantly in the past couple of years so I'd say you'd be looking to pay a bit more than pp have suggested, especially in Barnes. We paid £1700/month for a nice 2 bed in Putney last year and which isn't high relatively speaking. That's compared to £1400/month that we were paying for a similar flat a couple of years prior.

Definitely agree right move will give you a good idea of what you can get for your money. Also it's worth noting that council tax varies quite a lot between boroughs, the Wandsworth borough (covers Putney, Clapham, Wandsworth etc) has the cheapest council tax in the country and is a good few hundred £ cheaper a year than surrounding areas.

The other big cost is childcare. A full time nursry place for under 2s in central London is about £1200 a month. Probably a lot cheaper for over 2s outside central. Not an issue if someone will be at home with them, but a serious point for the budget if not.

Just had a look on RightMove and 4 bed houses are around 3,500 pounds a month.

Wow, thank you very much indeed. Massive help. Interesting idea to not have a car. I suppose it would depend how far from the school we live. I think all round it will cost a good bit more than here. Winter clothing alone will put a dent in a budget! Here they have one cardi each and a mid weight coat! I grew up in Ireland so I know that the children will not know what hit them on a cold blustery wet morning!
If you rent who pays council tax, the Landlord or the tenant? Again, many thanks for all this.

The tenant

tenant usually.
you really can manage well without a car, one of the reasons I did not pass my driving test for years and years was living in London.

Um, just to warn you, the supermarket "Waitrose" linked to above is lovely, but the most expensive of all the UK supermarkets!

If you're looking for cheap, try www.asda.com/ - it's
Walmart, basically.

Food is one thing which can be significantly cheaper in London if you shop wisely. Try markets for fruit & veg, and if you're into any "ethnic" foods, you'll find them much cheaper in the capital than elsewhere. (Loads of Turkish and Vietnamese shops near where I grew up for example, with nice, interesting ingredients very reasonably priced).

I would suggest considering not running a car at all in London. Driving in London is not a fun experience, in fact much of it is actually designed to make car driving a pain, to encourage people onto public transport. There's a big zone in the middle which you have to pay £10b just to drive into. Why not ditch the car and hire one when you need it? There are schemes you can join to simply pick up a car from the street, such as www.zipcar.co.uk/

Where is your work btw? transport can be a massive cost (and pain!) and getting this right can make a massive difference.

London rocks, but it is expensive.

I'd agree with the rent comments. They are pretty extortionate now as so few people are buying. So expect to pay £1400 PCM at the very, very least. We pay less, but we live in a scruffier area, so it comes with the territory.

Barnes is pricey, so you're more likely to get a bit more bang for your buck in Sheen, TBH. Is VERY family orientated there, and vey middle class, with lots of good schools. And lots of ex- pat American families, too. There are also little terraced houses to rent for minimum £1400 pcm, which is a bit nicer than a flat. Council tax is about £160 pcm.

Childcare in that part of London is around £1400 per month full time for under 2s. And if your kids are older, expect to pay £10 an hour for babysitting/school pick up.

Even though I don't drive, a car is useful. We use ours at the weekends, and it is very handy when carting all the child crap. So maybe join a car club if you do opt for no car?

I'd buy the winter clothes in the States, tbh, as they are most probably cheaper.

DH will be the office bound one and that will be Hammersmith.

Thats why I also put tesco aufaniae. For comparison.

Auf - couldn't agree more with ethnic food shops and markets to bring food bills down. We save about £20 a week getting our fruit and veg from the local stalls.

12.44am here. Will check in again in the morning. Thank you everybody. It is a great help.

If you are considering Barnes, then you might want to look at Chiswick. Same kind of price range, but more London- feeling than Barnes.

Walk to school, it won't be far. The traffic in rush hour in London is horrendous, especially around the south circular.