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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask how you afford to live in London?

505 replies

seekinglondonlife · 26/12/2021 20:32

Name changed regular as my family are on MN and I don't want my posting history linked.
We decided to do Christmas in London this year, we've had a crap year and just wanted to get away. We're staying in a fairly central hotel, have been travelling around and exploring by bus everyday and I feel like I really want to move here. The diversity, having shops open on a Sunday past 5pm, the atmosphere, the ability to choose 5 or 6 different ethnic restaurants on the same street. The public transport is fantastic.

I've been looking in so many estate agents windows and cannot get over the cost of rent/to buy a property. How do 'normal' people live here? I've been friendly with a few of the hotel staff, they've lived and worked in London for 20+ years and have raised their families here, but they are on NMW jobs, so how do they do it? Does everyone get housing benefit?

If you feel inclined please say roughly where you live and how much you pay for rent/mortgage. Also what are the downsides? (Apart from the cost of housing!)

TIA

OP posts:
Londonr · 26/12/2021 23:01

@Mufasa1118

I think that London looks quite cheap! I just saw a studio flat online in zone 3 for 550 pounds a month.

That's cheap for a place for yourself

550 are you sure it was not a room with a fridge and a microwave. Find it difficult to believe their would not be something wrong with it.
Embracelife · 26/12/2021 23:01

@Mufasa1118

I think that London looks quite cheap! I just saw a studio flat online in zone 3 for 550 pounds a month.

That's cheap for a place for yourself

Must be really dodgy / tiny / odd if 550 a month for full studio
onlychildhamster · 26/12/2021 23:01

@Onelittleone but london is only number 8 on the list of least affordable cities, www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-most-least-affordable-cities-b1900245.html

There are 7 other cities on that list which are far more unaffordable than london. OK I know on that list, there are several places which are fairly commutable from London but still not everyone in those areas would have a london job...

I really feel sorry for the people of Truro in Cornwall. Miles away from the economic heart of the UK, London and priced out of their homes by pesky londoners and holiday let landlords who treat their city like a giant hotel.

HideRanger · 26/12/2021 23:02

These right to buy council housing stories, particularly where they’re then rapidly sold on or rented out, are the main reason the London market is so expensive. There’s no bottom rung on the ladder, it was virtually given away by the Tories in the 1990s.

gettingto · 26/12/2021 23:02

And no inheritance as well. No 6 figure salaries. Just lived at home and saved 70k and got a big mortgage on a 2 bed flat in zone 3

But you would have struggled to save that whilst paying normal rental prices so it's still a leg up.

Keke94LND · 26/12/2021 23:02

By not living in central and still treating going out for days/nights out as a treat, I.e I don't do it constantly. Lived her for 6 years, 3 years in stockwell in a flat share and 3 years in streatham with my bf.. some people may not want to live in those places, but I like them! Soon to be buying a place in streatham too!

Mufasa1118 · 26/12/2021 23:04

@londonr but studio flats are meant to be just one room (with small kitchen in the room) and a bathroom. I have seen similiar studio flats in Barcelona and in Madrid.

The studio flats online in zone 3 look quite nice.

gettingto · 26/12/2021 23:04

If I bought now I couldn't afford it or would want to commit so much money. Wish I could have bought earlier though before prices went crazy but I wasn't a adult

RoyalMush · 26/12/2021 23:05

Also hearing of FTBers not buying in London with the options there are now for WFH. We need to redistribute work and wealth across the country so I do hope that pattern will sustain.

hownowpurplecow · 26/12/2021 23:06

We moved to zone 3, paid £1350 for a 3 bed terrace and accepted we wouldn’t be able to save for a mortgage on top of rent and childcare - we have a reasonably high household income too. Then moved to Scotland and can now afford to buy a proper lovely family home and it’s amazing - but my heart will always be in London and I honestly wish we’d sorted ourselves out and saved for a mortgage pre kids so we could have stayed.

RoyalMush · 26/12/2021 23:06

Agree HideRanger

Embracelife · 26/12/2021 23:06

[quote Mufasa1118]@londonr but studio flats are meant to be just one room (with small kitchen in the room) and a bathroom. I have seen similiar studio flats in Barcelona and in Madrid.

The studio flats online in zone 3 look quite nice.[/quote]
Can you share the link?
This is 900 znd horrible
www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/117093836?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=lettings&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_LET

onlychildhamster · 26/12/2021 23:07

@gettingto its true, its a leg up. but its something that you don't necessarily need to have rich parents to get. OP was asking how 'ordinary people' manage to buy in London. Well some of these ordinary people might have ordinary parents who bought houses in the 1990s in London.

ohfook · 26/12/2021 23:08

Thanks for starting this. I've often wondered how people on 'normal' wages live in London. Like say you're a plumber with a partner who works in a call centre and you have two kids; how do you afford to live.

gettingto · 26/12/2021 23:09

As PP said, gang crime takes place between people in gangs, not people who are just living their lives

That's not true, black children are caught up in gang crime despite not being in gangs. I hate that narrative.

FangsForTheMemory · 26/12/2021 23:09

I had a shared ownership flat in zone 2 until I sold it 18 months ago. My outgoings were about £1200 a month - rent, mortgage, council tax, fuel bills, insurance, plus another £300 servicing debts. That left me with about £700 a month for everything else. I was lucky because I bought just before prices went insane, else I wouldn't have been able to. Even so, I was broke all the time. It's particularly hard if you're single.

Londonr · 26/12/2021 23:10

[quote Mufasa1118]@londonr but studio flats are meant to be just one room (with small kitchen in the room) and a bathroom. I have seen similiar studio flats in Barcelona and in Madrid.

The studio flats online in zone 3 look quite nice.[/quote]
It depends there are different types. Some have the kitchen, living room and bedroom all within the one room. With a separate bathroom.

Another could be separate kitchen and bathroom . Then the living room doubles as the bedroom

But at 550. It does not sound like it would be either of the above.

VestaTilley · 26/12/2021 23:10

What do you and your partner earn? Can your jobs be moved? Do your jobs pay well? Would a move disrupt your children’s schooling?

If you’re not high earners then you’re in for a shock. You won’t be able to afford to live within a seven mile radius of the centre where you’re holidaying. Only millionaires can rent or buy in the centre of town.

If you have children and not much money you’ll end up in a tiny flat or terrace with no garden, in a rough area with a lot of pollution and poor schools.

The rent on our old house (3 bed with garden) was a steal at £1350 a month, but it was owned by an elderly couple who just wanted good tenants. It was zone 2, 6 miles from the centre of town. We moved to another part of the south east because our area was full of crime, the police were on our road All The Time, there were stabbings locally and it was polluted. Even with it being horrible the houses were selling for £850k +.

Unless you’re prepared to live in Croydon, Sidcup or Catford I’d forget it.

onlychildhamster · 26/12/2021 23:12

@ohfook my gas engineer lives in London albeit in outer suburbs! He has 2 kids and his wife works for him. He told me he bought a flat in enfield before buying a house in Waltham Forest. according to rightmove, he bought it 10 years ago for £315k.

For reference, my flat in zone 3 london cost me £400k in 2019. It is crazy how much things have gone up in the space of just 8 years.

Praminthehall · 26/12/2021 23:12

@onlychildhamster as a Londoner I can relate as many of my friends and family priced out of homes by overseas investors, many of whom own multiple properties that remain empty. I am not pro second home ownership either btw!

I’m in zone 3, have owned property over 20y. I am massively fortunate in many ways but there is no way that I earn enough to make the most of living here, or even a fraction of that.

OP, people who live in zone 1 areas are either minted or live in social housing. You can def forget the latter as there is a huge crisis and people often encouraged to move way way out of London to relieve the pressure. It won’t be long before most keyworkers won’t be able to afford to live here at all. I’m not sure how the hell this will work , some jobs you do need to live fairly near your workplace …

mrshoho · 26/12/2021 23:12

Plumbers round here are high earners!! And all the ones I know have v nice houses. People in retail, social care, hospital porters etc often rent and have some housing assistance.

LondonMummer · 26/12/2021 23:13

@onlychildhamster can you please be careful with your generalisations about the Jewish community. Your experience seems to be based on your husband's family friends but it's tropes like these which lead to casual anti-semitism.

"A lot of Jews have inheritance and help from family. ...Remember north london jews have parents who got on the property ladder when it was cheap to do so as well as grandparents. "

VestaTilley · 26/12/2021 23:16

@seekinglondonlife you wouldn’t ever qualify for social housing unless you’d really hit rock bottom, because you’re not local and you’d have no immediate need unless you’re homeless.

EnidSpyton · 26/12/2021 23:16

I live in zone 1 and wouldn’t live anywhere else. I can walk anywhere in central London in 30 mins and have everything on my doorstep. I have a view of St Paul’s from my lounge and live on a beautiful tree lined, quiet street that no one can ever believe is in central London when they visit - because it’s now in a traffic free zone, we get no noise whatsoever. It’s blissful.

I’ve always lived in London - born and bred - but I grew up very far out, in zone 5. I wouldn’t live anywhere outside of zone 2 myself because the hassle of getting into central London from the outer suburbs isn’t worth the inflated cost of living there. My family now live in the countryside in the Home Counties and with their fast train service from the local town, they’re in central London in half an hour. In some parts of zone 5 and 6 you’re paying London prices for what can be up to 45 minutes of slow stopping services into London itself. If I couldn’t afford to live in central London, honestly I wouldn’t bother at all, especially not with a family.

I’m a teacher by trade (currently having a career break) and I own my former council flat (in a smart period block) which I paid over £600k for a few years ago. I got a large inheritance that meant I could buy outright. I’m incredibly lucky and I recognise it and appreciate it every day. On my teaching salary I wouldn’t have had a hope in hell of ever buying anything in London. That being said I could and did rent centrally for years - it took a good chunk of my salary and I always had to share, but it was possible. Most of my friends who are my age (mid 30s) and who are still in London rent with partners or house share - but many of my former London friends have now left to buy elsewhere. The only people I know who own property in London got inheritances like me. For people with normal jobs who are my age, I think inheritance is the only way. London is insanely expensive. But it’s a fantastic place to live. I know I could have bought a mansion in other parts of the country for what I paid for my flat, but then I couldn’t take a short stroll to some of the world’s greatest cultural attractions whenever I wanted. Arts and culture are hugely important to me and I couldn’t live without them. That’s why London is where I want to be!

gettingto · 26/12/2021 23:17

My parents bought their house in the 80s for about 60k & it would sell for 2m now.