To think on £30,000/year I should be able to afford to live on my own in London?

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I earn £30,000, which I know isn't high by any means but I think it's decent. But I still can't afford to rent my own place in London. Lots of my colleagues who must earn around the same amount somehow rent flats in London and I don't get how. The only ones I understand are those who live with partners as there's two incomes to pool together for rent and bills.

I really don't see myself ever getting into a relationship, and feel like because I'm single I'll never be able to give myself the kind of home and lifestyle I want. I never really realised before how much being single negatively impacts you financially.

I used to earn around 40k/year. I also had 6 buy to lets. Zone 3, so nothing central or even trendy. On 40k before tax I could barely afford to rent even the cheapest of my own BTLs. Seriously, don’t expect to rent a flat in London and have any kind of life beyond paying bills and buying essentials if you have less than 60k, whether that is two of you earning 30k each or a 60k-earning single.

Similar salary , I’m in the process of buying a 1 bed flat in south Croydon, with lots of space and a garage and my mortgage payments are just under £700 a month and I feel very lucky! I grew up In West Norwood, South East London and I couldn’t afford to live there now. It’s just so hard, I don’t know how the youngsters starting out are going to manage.

I’m not sure how old you are. In my 20s, I shared flats in London but had to live on the outskirts. A flat to yourself is waaaay not in your ballpark.

however again if in 20s, your salary should increase fairly steeply at first.

I managed to live alone in London on £22k a few years ago, I rented a studio flat in a very dodgy zone 3 neighbourhood and had £100 per month from family towards the rent. Had to be extremely frugal and still went into my overdraft every month 😬 I don't think it would be possible at all now with how much rent and bills have gone up.

House share. When I lived in London and was on a lower income and single I shared a house with another 4 single females. It was the only way we could afford to live there and we were still pretty far out on the tube line. The upside was that we got a nicer house than we could otherwise afford and I had great friends. My husband when he was single bought a 2 bed flat in London and rented one of the rooms out as that was the only way he could afford it. We are now married and can afford a lot more but we are also much older and in much much higher paid jobs. You do what you need to at different stages in life. I still look back on those house sharing days as being so much fun though. I did it for 10 years - in London and other cities

My daughter been living in London for two years on a 23k salary . Her and her friend share a two bed flat . They have to budget carefully but still manage to go on holidays and go and see stuff

30k and single, I don't see it working. It will only work as a flat share, or rent a room, in a larger property.

DD earns about that. We live in London and she cannot afford to rent unless she gets a small room in shared accommodation. She’s been living in the flat in our loft for years. She was thinking of moving out but then she was furloughed. When I was a school governor we knew that once a teacher got married they would be leaving in a few years because they couldn’t afford to buy a family sized property.

£30k a year is £2k a month after tax and that’s if you’re not paying anything into a pension. I’m renting a two bed In zone 5 and just the rent and council tax alone come to over £1,700. Add in utilities and that’s your budget gone already. Sad fact of the matter is that unless you’re on about £70k or above it’s pretty much impossible to live in London and have any kind of quality of life unless you’re sharing accommodation.

I would suggest you move to Luton, Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage or another commuter town. Maybe you could work from home some days, if your job allows, to save on train fares. London is just ridiculously expensive. Alternatively go down the flatmate route as others have suggested. It's not unreasonable because you earn a decent wage but London is just crazy in terms of rent now. My single friend lives in Luton and earnt less than 30K when she bought a flat there but that was in 2007 and she saved and lived with her parents for 5 years. My sister rented in Brighton when she was single back in 2011 but usually had studio flats. She now rents a two bed flat with her partner. I feel sorry for younger people now as it was easier back when me and my partner got a mortgage in 2007. God knows what it will be like when my 10 year old is in her twenties.

You're right about how being single negatively impacts you and I don't think this is something spoken about enough in society.

I don't see why there is such a stigma on single people when actually it's not a sign of failure at all - it shows you can stand on your own two feet. Many people in London stay in unhappy relationships so they can continue to have their own flat as opposed to a flatshare. When I earned 30,000 and below I had to flatshare, it's annoying as I believe people over a certain age shouldn't have to flatshare.

If you're able to ask your colleagues how much thier rent is that might be helpful, because I know some people who have somehow managed to get relatively cheap rent for one-bedroom flats and are paying for eg. £900 to live in zone 3. Don't assume everyone is paying the going rate!

You sound like lovely parents! :)

Sadly I can see why you're struggling in London. I was earning around that amount 20 years ago, when I lived there. The only way I could afford to rent by myself was to move to zone 5 /6.

£30k salary less 30% in deductions (tax, NI, pension) gets you down to about £20k.
Food cheaply might be £200 a month if you include a couple of lunches out/takeaways so you're down to £18.5k.
Set aside £1k for a holiday. £17.5k
So maybe you can afford £1k max a month so that you have something left over for heat, light, water, phone, broadband, transport to work, clothes.

I don't live in London and it is hard to find something pleasant for that price.

£30k in London, alone? No way.

Yes although the flipside of this is that you can generally find a 2-bed flat for £1500 to £1700 in many parts of zone 2, South East London. There isn't the discount for being in an outer zone that people might expect. I suppose the difference is that the zone 2 flats will have scores of people competing with them, though. And yes I'd think £50k+ would be the minimum salary a landlord or estate agent would be looking for, whether that was from one or two tenants.

Shared ownership? Council? Housing association? Co-Operatives, housing trusts, Crown estate, Ayr Estate.
There are some real hidden gems in London. I know people in A stunning council house in Chiswick, housing association flats overlooking Hampstead ponds, Mansion flats in Victorian buildings in Belsize Park, shared ownership flats by the canal in Maida Vale, Ayr estate townhouses in St. John’s Wood, purpose built block of 6 flats in the Kings road - council, crown estate flats overlooking Regent’s Park. Lots of little associations who help essential workers. Just need to do a lot of research.
beautiful properties.

Just to give another side to the story...

My first job in London I earned £21k, ten years ago and lived on my own (bedsit).

I was also single and didn't want to share. I spent two weeks before my job started searching for a flat, literally spent all day looking at flats to get what I wanted. Found a bedsit for £700 including all bills and internet (had my own kitchen, shared brand-new bathroom with one other flat, cleaned daily by a cleaner--I could have had own bathroom + shared kitchen instead but I preferred it that way).

It was small but brand new: new kitchen, new flooring, new triple glazed windows, new furniture. After tax I got around £1400 so half my salary went to rent + bills, which I think is standard for London. It was in Zone 1, near Russell Square. Loved the area so much, stayed there 3 years even after salary went up a bit, until I could afford to rent 1 bed & moved out.

I had friends who earned similar and paid similar prices for studios (with their own bathroom + kitchen) in Zone 3/4 but I wanted to be central and prioritised that. So yes, it was possible (at least 10 years ago--not sure now with cost of living crisis).

Yes, London is expensive, but I found it possible and so did my friends. Good luck OP!!!

No...evenout of London in.may places you would struggle with 30k

You’re lumping together teachers and retail staff? A full time teacher in London earns well over £30k.

Are you expecting to rent on your own????? Suggest lowering expectations and find a house share. I lived for years in London earing much, much less and expected much less....but had an amazing life there. London is amazing and a great choice.

I've already conceded in a later post that maybe I was mistaken about teachers although I imagine nqts are possibly not on a lot more than that. The point was that there are plenty of people not earning the minimum (60 or 70k) that some people are claiming is needed to live in London.

Sadly true these days unless you are lucky. My elder son earns slightly more than that and can't find anywhere locally, even the rooms are almost the same price as a flat.

If you are earning £30k in London the question has to be why? There are so many easily accessible roles with flexible working which pay more.

Son shares nice ex-LA flat with three others in zone 3. £2,400 a month between them. He earns about £25k. It’s tight but do-able if you’re prepared to share and keep a tight hold on spending.