Moving to London

[Italwayshappenstome]

I have copied this thread from the Lone parenting section, thought it would make sense to post in multiple areas:

Hi, I had no idea where else to post this topic so thought here would do.

I am a lone parent, have ds who has just turned one. I currently live in the north of England and work here. My salary is ok and I receive tax credits due to being SP.

I don't really enjoy my job and it feels like a daily grind and I can't see me wanting to stick it out any longer than I have to. There are no prospects for me at all.

I have seen a job advertised but it is in London. I need to find out what the salary would be (waiting on a call back plus loads of other Questions I'd like to ask them about the position).

My question is has anyone moved to a completely new area miles and miles away from friends and family as a lone parent and succeeded? Is the cost of living in London expensive and would it be worth my while since I am on my own with a baby. I am anxious about the cost of living and childcare more than anything else, plus being miles away from my family and friends.

Anyone have any advice?

Complete hijack alert-is the restaurant in CP called Mediterreanea (sp?) nice? A friend was telling me it was amazing....

Art you were saying you were trying to get a mortgage for £400000 for a 2 bed. Have you tried Stockwell, zone 2 20 mins Liverpool Street and 25mins Fulham b.way and under £299k and 3 beds.

As for the £600 per month I was referring to a studio in Crystal Palace for the op.

Mediterranea is lovely but A Torre a couple of doors up is even nicer!

Its a good thing that op has long-since decided not to apply for the London job because this thread has gone off on a totally bizarre tangent!

Annie, my point was that studios are more than £600pcm. On right move there is one grotty minuscule studio for £625 and the rest are all £800 and above. I thought my point was pretty clear and several others have said the same. Your situation is not relevant to OP. no more relevant than me saying my neighbour has a 3-bed semi in CP and pays peanuts for it cos they bought it 20 years ago. Lucky them. It's a different world now and getting worse, and the fact that it's some badge of honour to live in tiny overcrowded accommodation just to make it in the capital is sickening. God knows what our kids have to look forward to!

Wow Elfina. I wish I had the money to play the property game! That's more than I will earn in years and years of work....

Annie - If your income is around 40 grand how on earth did you get a mortgage for nearly 10 x income? We were in london on 30ish, offered 4 times income so at most that was 120 grand we could borrow.

It's all very well "making money" on your home but unless (like Annie seems to be doing) you move to a cheaper area or you downsize you never actually cash that in. We recently sold a flat and moved to a house - we 'made' £130k on the flat but in the same time frame the houses we wanted to buy (which had gone up at the same rate) had increased by more than £130k. So we'd have been better off if house prices hadn't increased at all. Getting excited about the increasing value of your home is generally about as useful as counting monopoly money.

Anything in a Stockwell that's 3 beds and £299,000 wouldn't be great I'd have thought. Most 2 beds that I've seen around there are over £400,000 now.

And YY to plateofcrumbs!

I know the OP has made the decision to rethink but I am at the idea that she might want to move away from her current life into a studio in a grotty bit of London just for the sake of being in the city.

Prices in SE London are going insane. In my bit the price of a three bed Victorian terrace with around 1100 sq ft and a tiny garden has gone from around £500,000 to £850,000 plus in under two years.

Five-thanks!

Who's getting excited? I'm worried we won't be able to get a house down here, so it might be point that sways us into moving to birmingham (where I'm from): £500K buys a bit more up there!

Thanks, but £299000 is very rare. I would be worried about area/ flat!
I need to be able to walk home at midnight after work without feeling threatened. Won't move to ' unfriendly' areas