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.

Not sure about £850, I think plus bills and travel. It’s only big things like holidays, gym fees or new glasses we help with generally, not every month.

I'm NW and live alone on (varies) between min wage and 25k
I have a mortgage though which makes the difference as it's only £385pm, it would rent for £550-600

Well, £30k is low for London - it's an average starting salary for many typical grad jobs (excluding things like law which skew the average). You'd expect a flat share from several zones out or to commute from a non-London postcode.

There's no way you could buy in London on your own with that kind of salary.

I don't think being single necessarily impacts you negatively - my ex used to waste our joint income and was shit at saving. I was better off when we broke up, because there was no one to complain about me going for a promotion at work, and I could actually save money.

It's not that you're single that's affecting your spending choices, it's how much you're earning. Do you have the potential to increase your income, or are you at the ceiling for what you do? If so, what's more important to you: keeping that kind of job, or earning enough money to achieve the expensive London things you want?

You may need to consider retraining if living in London proper is what you want the most. Everyone has different priorities.

When I moved to London in 2004 I was on £28k and couldn’t have afforded to live alone even then. So 16 years later, absolutely no way on £30k. My only debt then was my student loan repayments. I shared a nice 2 bed in a good bit of zone 2, it was £1350 a month I think from memory so £675 each rent. Council tax and other bills were on top so I think total rent in bills was about £1850 a month for the whole flat. One beds weren’t much cheaper, from 2006 I rented a 1 bed on zone 1/2 borders with now DH and our starting rent was £1150 a month so with bills more like £1600 a month, so nearly £20k a year. Would have been cheaper further out but if not affordable in early 2000s on that wage then absolutely no chance now I’m afraid.

Assuming you are paying student loan, then your take home is around £1900 a month?

Definitely not enough to rent your own place. You could get a house share for around £1000-£1200 a month including bills. It all depends of what life style you want.

Renting in a house share in London was a financial nightmare, and the novelty wore off as my friends settled down with partners. In the end I moved home, saved a deposit, bought a 2 bed flat and got a lodger to help with the bills.

You can afford it. You’ll just need to move into a house or flstshare, which is what everyone else does. The fact that this isn’t apparent to you is a bit weird.

for a single person on £30K?

When I was teaching in London I lived in a house share - five of us, all teachers. Renting a place to myself was way out of reach. After ten years, I moved back to my home town as I could not afford to buy my own home as a single person in London. You’re right that it’s hard financially to live as a single person.

The 1 beds in my block (zone 1 rent for £2000- £2200). Many of them are inhabited by 2 people with the living room as a 2nd bed.

I lived in London about 6 years ago on £38k, had a house share in Tooting which was about £700/month without bills.

I don’t think it’s possible to live alone on £30k in London unfortunately.

No way would your salary cover something decent. I know someone renting in the Bethnal Green area for 1,700pcm but it's pokey and not very nice. I'd assume you're looking at 2,000+ for anything worth going for.

10 years ago when me and (now) DH were quite young, we lived in the London outskirts and at the time had a combined salary of at least 40k (at our lowest salaries), we couldn't afford anything decent back then either.

Plus, living on your own in London, if you're paying the rent yourself which is likely to be a massive chunk of your income then there's no one else to take the hit of unexpected costs.

Why not move somewhere close to London on your own and continue the commute? Or there's other places you can commute from in under an hour.

I earn around 20k more than that and wouldn't be able to afford to live on my own here!

That wage is low for London. What is it you do?

I earnt about £13k in 1999 and lived in a studio flat in zone 6. I must say I didn’t eat very well!

It is sad that that income doesn’t enable a decent standard of living in London now.

Rent around here is about £8-900pm for anything that I would consider livable, rent prices in the area have sky rocketed since 2020. I would probably just about manage, but struggle a lot by myself.

Why do you ask? Not everyone in London works in high paid sectors

I've worked in London for 25 years and never earned over 30k.
Teachers, nurses, retail staff, childcare, cleaners, hospitality, care home staff, etc are all still needed in London.

Also confused about this! DC on 42k and needs financial support?

I'm on 39k and pay that much in rent without help.

Exactly. Do people just think everyone in London is on a high salary? As you say London is full of workers atall ends of the spectrum, it’s not easy to live in london unless you’re on a decent wage, housing is very expensive and just getting worse. I’m on 59k but can’t afford to buy in London. Back where I grew up that’s a great salary, but doesn’t stretch as far in London, not on your own with 2 kids and one at Uni too

Because I can't imagine any job in London worth commuting for that payday 30k. People keep mentioning teachers- I've never ever met a teacher on 30k or less? Isn't the start wage 28k outside London now for teachers? Assume there must be some London weighting on top? I dunno. But I live in Hampshire and earn £55k and it's just enough to live decently so 30k in London seems crazy to me.

When I was earning about the same I got a studio in Reigate, couldn't afford any closer!

Unlikely I house shared for years at 800pm Inc all bills till I me my partner and we rent a 2 bed now for 1200 pm which is about affordable before bills

Bloody hell people, I earn 55k and sometimes SHOCK my mum still pays for a weekend away, new expensive boots for me etc etc. It's called being a nice parent.

In todays market? Not a chance.

When I was on 41k 2 years ago I could only afford my own flat if I lived in a dinky one bed in croydon.

My parents treat me too! I'm not trying to be rude about anyone who supports their children if they can afford to,

I'm just suprised that someone on 42k and paying £850 in rent specifically needs financial support, rather than be treated by mum and dad (which is lovely and apologies if appeared otherwise)