To think we could live in London on £55k?

[Londonline1]

DH has been offered a job in London on a salary of around £55k. I'm mainly a SAHM; I do some pt work from home earning around 4k a year or so, but we're about to have baby #2 and I've no idea if I'll get back into it / if the work will have dried up etc.

We currently live in the North East and survive comfortably on an income of around £50k (including my earnings and CB). We have a fairly modest lifestyle and put most of our money into our mortgages which we were hoping to pay off early - we don't do holidays other than to visit family elsewhere in the UK; we live in a small house in a cheap area, and we have a flat we rent out in another city (income from that adds towards paying off the mortgage so it's effectively building up a savings pot but I haven't included that in the £50k above).

My question is whether we could realistically relocate to London with a £55k budget. Would expect to have to downsize and rent. Would prefer not a crazy commute for DH (to Battersea). Don't need to live anywhere fancy, but would like to feel safe and have some green space nearby for kids.

Please feel free to tell me it's ludicrous. I genuinely have no idea.

I really want @LondonLine1 to come back

Have been following this thread with interest. I think what flavourflav says above is really good advice.

Hello, I am still here and reading with lots of interest - all very helpful thank you.

I'd shied away from giving tonnes of info in the OP - partly because the value of making a career move like this / choice between SAHPing or not / importance of progressing quickly on property ladder / comfort level of life generally is so subjective; something that might feel 'worth it' to DH and I could seem ludicrous to somebody else with a different set of priorities, iyswim? That said, hearing so many "it depends on X and Y..." perspectives has still been very helpful as we've been chewing it all over.

The question for us atm is really about the practicalities of living in London on that budget, with the safety of the area and length of commute being key considerations. Of course I know those things themselves are both so subjective!

I do think you would be mad to stretch yourself mortgage wise. The days of making 200k in a couple of years are pretty much over.

OP "something that might feel 'worth it' to DH and I could seem ludicrous to somebody else with a different set of priorities, iyswim?"

yes, completely understand.

one thing I'm curious about, hope you won't feel it's too nosey. Have you been to London and if so was it recent? I'm just thinking it's a very different decision if you've not visited recently - and by that I mean the sort of area you'd live in, not central London.