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.

This one is reasonable. Only 1/2 mile to the tube, so about 8 mins walk and right on the edge of lovely countryside. Supermarket nearby.

It needs a bit of interior decor to make it look good, but it's in a pretty building. Less than 1k pcm

You tell yourself that

Gosh do you think her bank are in cahoots, conning us out of the odd few hundred by falsifying her statements? Modern technology, eh?

What is your fancy central London gym that’s £75 a month??

Nuffield health fulham! £74 for anytime, could even get it down to £60ish if you're happy to do off peak.

I was born and raised in London, still here as are all my friends. All our children are 18 + and most live at home. Some of the older ones have had to move 200 miles away when they wanted to buy/have families.

Sadly this seems way too low a salary to live alone not just in London but in many other places too.

Living alone (ie not house share) has always been beyond the budget of many people. It certainly was 30 years ago when I was in my 20s.

My time in London started in 1980. Initially in muck-in houses with friends, firstly in Fulham then in West Ken. A set of parents had bought both houses in Trust for the child living there.

I bought (with help) my first flat at the end of 1981. I was there for five years, always with a lodger, initially due to needing help with bills and to have any money at all. In 1986 I bought my first house and rented both the bedrooms to friends. DH spent an increasing amount of time there from about 1989 and first one, then the other lodger moved out.

DH and I moved to our family home in 1992, joined in the succeeding years by the DC and a variety of au-pairs.

DS and DD have welcomed girlfriends and boyfriends (not to live) over the years and DS has only recently moved out completely since getting married.

For nearly 30 years I have had fantasies about living aline in a small apartment with pale carpets and white furniture.

Appreciate I digress but even 40 odd years ago it was impossible to live in London in any solitude or style as a career entry professional without ££ behind you.

No I’d be surprised if you could afford to live alone, I’d expect you to house or flat share.

Why are you examining your adult daughter's bank statements?

(and I can heartily recommend Third Space for anybody who really fancies a froth about the price of Central London gyms )

Yeah I was wondering this too. How/why do you even see her bank statements?

My friend moved to London and she lived in a lovely house share which was in a decent area in a 6 bed house. She saved and saved still couldn't afford to buy in London.

You definitely need to live in a house share with more than one other person and consider leaving London.

It crazy in the 90's i lived just edge of london on about £18 k in a houseshare but prob looking back could of bought a 1 bed flat or rented one on my own in some areas
Wages for most in london hasn't gone up with house prices , my nan bought a 2 bed maisonette £65000 late 90's , now worth about £325000
Most people who live in london earn average uk wage , its only top bankers etc that put average wage up
Most are shopworkers, cleaners, nurses , teachers, admin etc

I moved to London in 1995 as a 25 year old. I definitely could not afford to live alone the first few years but I managed to get a 100% mortgage and bought a one bedroom flat in 1998 (possibly 1997). I was on £30k then, I cannot see how it would be feasible to live alone in London on that salary now.

You could live in this:

Don't be daft we don't 'examine them" but neither does she hide them. Sometimes she shown us to demonstrate a lsck of avafunds. She's seen ours too. Hardly state secrets.

Appreciate I digress but even 40 odd years ago it was impossible to live in London in any solitude or style as a career entry professional without ££ behind you.

That's not true, I know loads of people who bought in the 80s & 90s very cheaply & it was easier to borrow money. Many parts of London were not fashionable then.

True. I started working on buttons and has a teeny wee mews house in zone 1.

It was stupidly easy to get a mortgage in London in the late 90s. I got 100% mortgage as I couldn’t save the deposit to rent. I had NO money. New build flat so all white goods included. Only furniture was a futon mattress. Times were different.

Only way I could see is to get a two bed place and take in a lodger, or get a flat share to be honest. Really not fair but that's the reality.

I lived in London on £13,000 in the 90’s, my rent was around £400, bills were much much less though and even then I had to choose between a food shop and going out. It will be tight but if you think your salary is likely to go up within the year it’s possibly doable.

It’s true, being single puts you at a massive disadvantage financially.

It’s an awful sad post on so many levels. Living with a partner or being married usually does have financial benefits. I have single friends who have struggled with exactly this situation. Can you get a better job? Promotion?

I only stayed in London because I could just about afford to live alone. I also had to make the choice between food and going out, I was very thin in those days!

I’ve asked much younger colleagues why they stay in London. Most often the answer is that things should be different, they feel it’s their fault they can’t afford anything.

I also think it’s difficult to meet a partner in London and that therefore makes it harder to get onto the housing ladder.

I can totally understand it if you’re born in London but I can’t see why people would stay here and struggle long term if they’re not.

30k is a salary which sucks. Too much for government support but at the same time not enough to live on. Covers rent for one bed (but not in London or anywhere in the South unfortunately) bills, food and that literally is it.