To not understand the wealth in London?

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Posting this for traffic. I genuinely don’t understand how “normal people” in London are so wealthy. I went to university with some people who now at age 40 live in multi million pound houses. Send their children to £40k a year schools, and have amazing holidays, skiing, etc.

Lots of them became lawyers or consultants, I don’t understand how they seem to have so much dosh.

There are streets and streets and streets with houses and families like this.

It doesn’t have to Boris. I’ve been in london 5 years and have never paid over £650 all in for a house share. Currently share a flat with one friend and we pay under £500 each - that is a massive bargain but pretty easily found if you trawl spareroom dot com enough

Although ifailed i don’t think it’s commonplace for people in their 20s to be on £40k unless in one of the big-bucks careers mentioned earlier. Plenty of media, creative, public/civil service, NHS workers etc in London that aren’t on that

BorisBogtrotter
I agree there are assumptions - but I'm basing them on the people I used to work with, and a joint income of £80k for a professional couple in London is not well to do. There are over 4 million employees in London, 20% of them earn more than £40k per annum, or 800,000 people.

In a lot of cases it does though.

There are bargains out there to be had, but it depends on a whole load of things.

I found knowing someone who was moving out of a good place, and moving in quickly after them was quite good. Landlords couldn't be bothered to up the rent.

My parents thought being a teacher or a nurse was a top job.

I've done well being in IT, but I grew up in a time and place that made me oblivious to the finance sector. If I'd known in 1982 that there was (going to be?) such a thing as a finance quant, what the work entailed, and how much it paid, I'm fairly certain I would have chosen a different career and could have had peak earnings of several hundred thousands per year, or more.

I once met a woman who was a nurse, and all the woman she knew were nurses. She entered the job market in about 1970. Nothing wrong with being a nurse, but I bet there's a lot of much higher-paid jobs that didn't even cross the mind of a woman entering the job market then.

Your horizons can really be limited by when and where and to who you were born. People only imagine the jobs they see others doing in everyday life.

"There are over 4 million employees in London, 20% of them earn more than £40k per annum, or 800,000 people"

Yes and the vast majority of these will not be in their 20s, and an even larger amount will not be in a couple with someone who earns the same amount.

You've got to remember OP that most of these people in well paid jobs in London come from the 'right stock' and have trust funds and money from the BOMAD etc.

Without that 'leg up' in life, you'll be struggling unless you're are on benefits with a secure LA tenancy..

lolll

Yea coz all us Londoners are rolling in it ! NOT.
Go to some of the council estates .. You will see a very different London.

In my experience a lot of people in London have benefited massively from increased house prices, especially those who were of a certain age ( 40 +)

A friend bought a property in the borders of Crouch End and Hornsey in the early 2000s for about £300,000. Its now valued at £1.3 million. They've obviously paid of a very significant part of the mortgage, but are able to borrow money extremely cheaply on their house because the LTV ratio is ridiculous, borrowing an extra hundred thousand or more every time you remortgage is very easy when you expect to be able to cash in when you sell it.

As I said, I'm basing it on people I know - with roles like BA, junior PM, IT people, legal, financial, HR people etc. This was in the retail sector, head office, not known for it's high wages compared to the likes of finance.

On the other hand, there will be far more people struggling by on MW, having to rely on top-up benefits. 40% of Londoners pay a 'social' rent, ie in Council or HA properties.

I also know a lot of people whose first 'leg-up' on the housing ladder came when they bought their council flat at a discount, and then subsequently sold it for a large profit. They tended to be older, in their 40s, but now live in houses worth 100Ks, whilst still having modestly paying jobs with a joint income nearer 60k.

Lawyers and consultants are highly paid and in London both spouses are likely to be earning those salaries.

"As I said, I'm basing it on people I know "

Small pools of data tend not to produce accurate information for extrapolation.

"Lawyers and consultants are highly paid and in London both spouses are likely to be earning those salaries."

In my experience not, see, its all relative.

It's luck as well as earning power. As others have said, buying at the right time is crucial. Dh and I are the right age profile for megabucks, but faffed around renting in the 90s, so now live in a very modest property compared with a lot of our peers. We also bought in a place which has not enjoyed stratospheric house-price growth.

Inheritance is a big factor now. My friend has just inherited £1.5m as her mother had a house - just a 3-bed semi - in London. Another schoolfriend has just bought her two sons a flat each with the proceeds from her parents' house. Otoh some of us have either no parents (me) or ones lingering in a care home (dh) .

I read somewhere, ie on here grin that there are a lot of people in London earning a lot of money for doing not very difficult or demanding jobs. That might explain some of it.

The London inflation of wages doesn't even scratch the difference in costs of housing.
Those monied folk OP refers to may well have top whack jobs, but the real way to get cash in London has been property for the last few decades. 3 bed semis that went for £300k in the 80s now have £1.3m on their adverts. Quite the boon if your parents moved to the country and gave you some of the difference. Flipping a couple yourself - or turning the 3 bed semi into 2 flats at £800k a piece makes you the cash.

You see, this is why we need to discuss earnings more, so that people like the OP get to see that their situation and that of their friends and family isnt the only one. So many people think that everyone is the same and only a few have huge earnings and its just not true. The ONS figures are useless as they dont take into consideration untaxed earnings, the black market, procedes of crime and crafty accounting practice /shell company income etc. and thats before we consider wealth (inherited/obtained by nefarious means).

Your horizons can really be limited by when and where and to who you were born. People only imagine the jobs they see others doing in everyday life.

Absolutely this Firesuit. Although Zenia on here has taken a lot of stick over the years, I really admire her for ceaselessly championing the higher paid professions to her children and women on here. I do the same with my ds and my niece now, especially having mixed with some very high achievers. They are not any cleverer than us but were exposed to wider opportunities when young and had aspirational role models within their families/communities/schools. I have made it clear to my niece that there is no reason why she shouldn't be earning £100K + by the time she's 30 (and she'll need to do this in order to get on the property ladder as she won't get any inheritance or handouts due to her background).

I don't get it either. I live in another city and commute in. A friend is a very successful lawyer and her husband is a surgeon, both from pretty wealthy backgrounds, and they live in a tiny flat with 2 kids. It's a decent-ish location, but still.
But they are very lucky- Most of my London friends who (are in their 30s) are still in house shares. It's made for some very awkward situations with babies etc.
The only people I know who live actually comfortably in London are people who bought their properties some time ago of people from very (and I mean very wealthy) backgrounds.

Where I grew up (outer London) a 1970s terraced house with a garage in a block is now nearing £600K. Can you imagine working a million hours a week as a lawyer/doctor and that is all that is available to you ? If you don't have a lot of capital (inheritance/parental help) then people on large salaries are certainly not swanning around Clapham.

Also when I was young the neighbours did all sorts of jobs (well, the fathers did, anyway). Civil servants, teachers, a lot of BBC, journalists etc etc. Now the neighbourhood is almost exclusively people who work in finance. Very homogenous.

I wonder the same OP

Londoner but 2 up 2 down and don’t quite get it either

People work hard, save hard, invest well, inherite and get themselves in to debt (not all obviously).

This would make a fabulous article.

Where does that leave future generations?

As renters.
Some will inherit their parent's properties and be ok.
Perhaps there'll be an eventual collapse when the people of the generation that can actually afford property all shuffle off this mortal coil, leading to a glut of available midsize properties. I rather think these will be bought en-mass by investors to be restructured into rental bedsits though.

People in London don't work harder than people anywhere else. There are just jobs in London that pay a lot more - an obscene amount more.

There's a show on iplayer called Politics for Bitches. First episode is housing. Louisa looked at what £200k gets you in zone 1. Answers - a one room barge with a plastic bin for a toilet, or a parking space. Not a room the size of a parking space, but an actual space to park your car.

There are just jobs in London that pay a lot more - an obscene amount more.

A very tiny number of such jobs.

That's what I thought Adam, it turns out there are loads of such things if you are in the right field. I'm actually ashamed of what my DH is earning.