To ask you to help me plan my new life?

[WendyDarling123]

NC for this as I know I have a few colleagues who lurk on here..!

Me and my DH are planning to move from Manchester to London. Not applied for jobs there yet but we've looked and plenty of jobs going in our respective areas in central london.

What I wanted help on was which areas are good to live in?

We have a house up here which we will rent out while we're gone, and we would look to rent a 1 bedroom flat in London.

Helpful details!:
We're in our mid to late 20s, looking to further our careers for a few years before having kids, we want somewhere broadly commutable to the city centre, somewhere where there's a fair bit going on bar/restaurant wise but not interested in clubs or staying out till 4am anymore. The other thing is somewhere that feels pretty safe, I think this is the 1 thing that slightly worries me being from up north! Potential household income/combined salaries would be absolute minimum 65k up to 75k.

Although we have visited london loads of times we've only ever done touristy things so not got many ideas on areas at all! Have heard friends mention that clapham is very nice and I do like the look of it but have read that getting the tube from there can be a nightmare?

Any help or pointers on areas to look into would be much appreciated!

Anyone?

I live near Twickenham which is a nice area although expensive. Have a look at Twickenham, Kingston, Hampton. Commutable into london, nice bars and restaurants and safe

What’s your monthly rental budget? And how much on top of that can you afford for travel?

Thanks Shoxfordian I'll have a look at those areas!

Smellyrose - that's the thing, I'm not too sure! We dont have any debt or cars on finance etc so not really any outgoings other than the mortgage and utilities for our house up here. We'd rent our house out which would hopefully cover all that. Yesterday I looked at rough income after tax and we'd be looking at an income of about 4k a month and tbh I'm not sure how much is appropriate to spend on rent with that amount coming in as I'm not 100% sur of the day to day cost of living.

For reference some of the 1 bed flats in clapham I've been browsing online are 1500 a month and I have no idea if this is a lot or not as 1500 up here would get me a 5 bed house probably!

Rental budget is essential, Wimbledon is nice and an easy commute.

Youknowme - great thanks I'll have a look there! Still not sure on budget tbh, not sure of the day to day costs of living in London so dont know how much we'd need to live on after bills.

Maybe around 1500 a month on rent but I dont know if this will even get us anything tbh!

Hahaha nc fail, oh well

you need to either start with the chicken or the egg! Either work out rough finances and set a rental budget then look or look first and see what prices are roughly and work back from there.

go onto rightmove and click on the rentals part. put in a few postcodes and have a play around with areas, sorts of property etc.

when I moved to London I took a short term let first (6 months) it wasn't in a great place or a good price but because I was living there "on the ground " as it were I could then start to travel around and see what areas I liked and could afford. it gave me a bit of breathing space and also meant that when a potential rental came up, I was first over to look around it and got what I wanted.

Yeah I've been looking on rightmove but the only area I've heard good things about is clapham so thats the only area I looked at. Nice 1 bed flats for 1500 on there, but i didn't just want to only look at the 1 area I'd heard about iyswim so i wanted to ask advice on other areas too from the the comments above I'm going to carry on looking in the SW of London I think!

I think this is a bit more the other way around: do you know whereabouts in central London you might be working? If you have a few areas in mind, it's worth working out the travel journey back to places you'd like to live in.

With London travel, it's not always how far out you live that is the problem, but the number of different types of transport that creates issues. So a bus/train journey of 45-60 minutes near the start of the route sounds horrendous but can can actually be smoother than a journey which involves a bus to the train station, then a train, then a tube.

No, not sure yet - lots of jobs going which is great but not quite in a position to apply for them yet as got some things in the immediate future that need to be out of the way first

Agree, think about where in London you will be working. If you both work in the west (whether West End/Paddington/Shepherd's Bush etc) you may prefer to life W London. If you will be in the City you may prefer E. What sort of work/industry do you both work in?

A lot of it can be the feel of a place.

I live in Shoreditch and love it, lots of free and nearly free things to do, the schools are also very good. Personally I can’t see myself moving out of Shoreditch.

You need to know where you will be working as from there you can look at good places to commute to work from.
There are loads of nice areas Greenwich, west Hampstead, Islington, but without knowing where you'll be working it's a bit like a needle in a haystack

I work in marketing, he works in IT.

I havent looked at shoreditch, not sure I'm cool enough to live there haha

Have a look at Dulwich/ Forest Hill/Camberwell and surrounding areas.

Inforapenny - thank you! I will do.

Balham, clapham, Twickenham, Richmond, Wimbledon are all areas I'd love to live in again.
No idea about north London I'm afraid.

I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised by travel costs! Yearly travel seems to be £1200-1400 in the places above I've researched so far.

Up here we live in a town very near Manchester and commuting costs to the city centre are just shy of £2400 a year!

Thanks so much Queenfreak really appreciate it. All the places so far look great and all in south London so may just carry on looking there!

Friend loved East Dulwich, easy commute to the City (Liverpool St station)

If you had to be cool to live in Shoreditch then I wouldn’t be living here 😂

Clapham area is good, for the tube your best bet is to be at the north end (near stockwell) or further south (clapham south or closer to Balham), it's the middle of clapham where you will struggle to get onto the tube.

It really depends where you work, to be honest I would say most of zone 2 is reasonable.

I would say Clapham, Peckham Rye/Nunhead, East Dulwich, West Kensington / Hammersmith areas, West Hampstead/Kilburn/Willesden Green (I think towards Willesden Junction is less nice), Angel/Caledonian Road/Islington, are all nice!

I’m a south Londoner as well born and raised so must admit I don’t know much about north London, but agree with PP when they say it’s best to know where you’ll be working to know how a certain commute is likely to look. Although totally appreciate you just want to have a browse and see your options! If you end up working in the city (Bank/Cannon street/Liverpool st/London bridge etc) then it’s not essential to live on a tube line, which south London does lack the further out you get. There’s plenty of places with decent rental prices in areas without tubes, as long as you work relatively near to one of the mainline stations you can take the overground for 30 mins direct. Clapham is closer to London but rather considerably more expensive than other options further out. Have a look at Streatham? Lots of bars and restaurants and decent travel links.
It may also be useful for you to consider London in “zones” with zone 1 being very expensive in terms of property prices but cheaper on commuting travel costs as you’re already in the centre, with rental prices declining but travel increasing (although not nearly at the same rate) the further out you get. Eg living in zone 3 will give you much cheaper rent but not necessarily much more expensive travel. Lots of things to consider but if you want somewhere safe and a bit more suburban then you’re in a good position as you can look a little further out where you get a lot more from your money. As long as you don’t mind a small commute.

Thank you so much everyone, really helpful