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

[kjhgfdfhj]

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.

You will not be able to afford London or the south east commuter areas on 30k. Start looking when your earning 70k plus as you won’t pass a credit check for a place on that salary or afford the bills.

Unless the daughter also has a fair bit of debt (student loans can take a fair chunk out of your salary) and/or expensive tastes, I’m not sure why a single person on 42k requires support from parents.
I live in London and rent so know

What more do need as a single person. This would be great place. Bills included is huge!

@CluelessAtClothing those things you mention are called gifts.
the PP said their daughter actually requires their support.
different things.

Having a house or flat to yourself is a bit of a luxury. Most people in the early stages of their careers don't live on their own, but if you want to, you may have to move out of London.

Agh is it though?

I don't think it's unreasonable to not want to live with strangers in a houseshare when you're out of university.

Yeah being single definitely has a massive financial impact. I’m married now but have spent the best part of my life as a single person on a low wage. I managed to buy a terraced house but only because I moved out of London and bought somewhere in a cheap area.

It is if you live in an expensive city. 🤷‍♀️

OP can’t afford that, though. Her net monthly income is about £1,930.

According to data from Numbeo and Expatisan, the average cost of living in London per month in 2022 is £918 for a single person–excluding rent. So, bills, her Zone 1-3 travel card, council tax, food.

Assuming she managed to get that very reasonably priced flat, she’d have £62 left at the end of the month. Zero savings and absolutely no buffer for any eventualities or frivolity.

If she wants to live in London, have an actual life, and save for the future, she needs to live in a houseshare. She can find something decent in Zone 3 for circa £600.

In London, it really is. There are people who earn twice as much as OP who live in flatshares here. It’s just the reality of the city. In London, a flat to oneself is a massive luxury and not one that most people in the early stages of their careers can afford.

@strupel The above was meant for you. Apologies @saltinesandcoffeecups , I quoted the wrong post.

Of course there are jobs in London with a salary of £30k or less. The people doing those jobs tend to live in house shares, often far, far away from central London. Or sometimes they live with family - if you have enough generations here, you might have a family home in zone one without being 'rich'.

Some people live as property guardians, so they have central addresses in cool places, but very little security of tenure as they occupy under a licence rather than a tenancy agreement.

The thing is, for most people, if you have a £30k salary, you have to accept you'll be living with other people or living far away. It's the compromise you make to be in London. It's normal in this city to be living in a house share in your 40s, whereas in most other cities, that would raise an eyebrow. It's just how we do things here.

And of course it's possible to buy in London as a single person without family help. It's just not possible on a salary of £30k.

I know plenty of people who managed to buy in London on a single salary (and I'm not talking in ye olden days either) but the point is, they were high earners, and they accepted they had to live in house shares for many years until they had built up a substantial cash deposit.

The single people who rent whole flats are the ones who can never afford to buy, because their entire salary goes on housing costs. The single people who accept they have to live in a house share for what would be an undignified length of time outside of London are the ones who do end up buying.

No worries especially since agreed with me 😉

Some live in social housing, but the majority of low paid workers in London live in houseshares and flatshares (in some cases roomshares) in the outer zones of London or they live outside London and commute in.

😁

Back in the late 90s I lived and worked in London after university. It was generally reckoned you needed £20K per annum for any kind of life at all - I earned that then as a director of finance for a small tech company. I always lived in shared accommodation and so did everyone I knew except the people whose rich parents had bought them a flat. That was 25 years ago when you could get a loaf of bread and a tin of beans from Kwiksave for 39p in total, and a bag of chips from the chippy for 50p, for perspective.
I don't know how anyone could make it in London now on £30, be self-sufficient and have any kind of life to enjoy what London has to offer.

I earnt less than that in 1995 but managed to rent a studio flat on my own. It was £320 pcm! It was a dive though. Most nicer places were £650pcm.

No, you won’t be able to live alone on that now but people are way overestimating how much you need to earn to live in London. I think what they really mean is “I can’t afford to live where I want in London and don’t want to compromise on location/size etc”.

I’ve lived in London for a decade. When I first moved I was on 15k and in a house share paying 500pm. I never paid more than 600 all in for shared houses because I specifically searched out less expensive ones. By 2019 I was on 39k and rented a one bed in Tooting Broadway for 950pm. Prior to this, thanks to cheap rent and the fact I didn’t spend frivolously in the intervening 7 years I’d managed to save about 20k. I then got another pay rise to 45k and bought a one bed alone (no partner or parental help) in south east London last year.

I know rental prices have gone mad in the last few months but I’d be surprised if you can’t still find a shared room for around 6-700. I didn’t live in crap areas when I shared either, I lived in Muswell Hill, Maida Vale and Hackney over the years all for 600 or less in shared properties.

Flat prices for sale in my area aren’t really increasing either, there are still plenty for sale under 250k and they’re not shit.

You might not be able to do it on 30k but people who say they can’t afford to live in London on 50k are talking nonsense.

Lol. It's like you don't even know youre subsidising her coke habit....

£30k is a flat share only wage in London.

Why would you want to live on your own anyway? Sounds boring.

@Winterisblooming

''Start looking when your earning 70k plus as you won’t pass a credit check for a place on that salary or afford the bills.''

This is getting beyond silly now. Even in London the average salary is around £41,000 in 2022.

I work for a charity in London where the average wage is £30. I earn less. Most of my colleagues have masters, although not a requirement. The younger and/ or single colleagues tend to house share although there are a few who have chosen that living alone is their priority so spend most of their wages on that. Mainly east London, including zone 2 but not particularly salubrious areas, and often renting ex council flats. Some might have some family support, but most don't - they generally don't go on holidays etc. it's just about what you chose to prioritise surely?

Always baffles me on MN when people talk about not being able to live in London unless you earn £50k/ £70k/ £100k. Millions of people do it everyday, just not in the way everyone wants to

I think i possibly put teachers in my list, so I was mistaken but there are loads of other jobs in London where 30k would be either a good (or even unobtainable) salary.

As PP have said, people with 'normal' jobs undoubtedly bought years ago. House prices are ludicrous now.

In 1995 I bought a little 1.5 bed maisonette in Twickenham for £90,000 on my own. In those days you could borrow upto 3x your salary.

Those maisonettes are now selling for £500,000. Under the same terms you'd need to be earning about £165,000 a year to afford it. Utterly bonkers.