Sick of Manchester rental costs

[Cinammonroll]

I know it's one of the biggest cities and there are many jobs here, but it's just not affordable to rent.
I take home about £1750 net per month, I'm looking for a better paid job.
If we're supposed to be spending roughly a third of our pay on accommodation.. the most I could afford would be a houseshare, or a small bedsit with everything in one room.
If you want a flat that's more affordable, you're looking at approx 10 miles away from the city centre. Even flats in inner city undesirable areas are expensive.
I live with my partner luckily and split costs. However our rent has just increased by £175 pcm. Yes we'll get a small payrise in April, but it doesn't match the costs.
I've just been on rightmove and looked at rent in places like Blackpool. I know it's a more deprived area, but rent is astronomically cheaper than Manchester.
I'm contemplating leaving the city, obviously depemds on my partner too but it's just not affordable at all.
We went to view a crappy 1 bed flat for 575 without any utilities or council tax, and were told we were one of 12 visits that afternoon.
Has anybody else found this and decided to move to a cheaper area?

Unless I've misread this thread - the accommodation the OP has been offered at £575 is a long way from the centre of Manchester and transport into the city centre will be difficult. Accommodation in the City centre - where she wants to live - is a lot more expensive .

How do renters manage if they have children? I am thinking of buying a bigger flat (London).. Currently, my mortgage is 16% of our joint income but a 3 bed flat would bump it to 27-32% of income! i would not be allowed to borrow anymore even if I wanted to. And when i run the numbers, it turns out I have to lead a frugal lifestyle if I pay childcare and spend 30% of income on housing. Its doable but not great.

No, I'm not single and fortunate we can afford this together. But it's hardly a desirable flat. It's in Wigan borough, so not really near the city. It was an incredibly cramped old fashioned 1 bedroom flat above a shop, not in the best condition. So I don't think I should be grateful that we can split that between us!
And yes I am thinking of when I was single and of other single people.

Universal credit.

Yes but you could afford more!! It’s less than a third of your take home, and you have a partner!

Try Monton, Swindon, Eccles. Many wuick links in to Manchester.
www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Monton.html

what about those who rent privately but earn too much for universal credit? The thresholds are very low. Certainly someone who can pay £1800 for private london rent as a childless couple would not qualify for it.

Wages are not higher for everyone though are they? Millions of people in the South are on the same or even less money than OP and still have to make ends meet. It's hard to be sympathetic. For me anyway.

Is there a reason you are only looking at north Manchester? What about south Manchester? Burnage, Withington, Northenden, Levenshulme, Fallowfield? Most of these have good public transport links. If public transport to the city centre is essential for you, then you could start looking within an area that is close to the public transport you require/prefer (tram, train, bus) and work your way outwards ie a 5 minute walk/10 minute walk/15 minute walk away etc.

Don't worry I wasn't really looking for your sympathy.

Try rental on the south coast!

Also, as some areas of south Manchester has a high student population given that the location of both the universities are mostly on the south side of the city centre, the south side really has strong public transport links to the centre.

Sympathy?

more likely jealously at your incredibly low housing cost in relation to your take home! 😂

I live in village near Leeds, with abysmal public transport, and 1bed properties here are approx 750 quid. I really don't think you can go lower. Everywhere is expensive as hell unfortunately. Unless you move to very dodgy area, but it's just not worth it. No words of consolation, but times are tough for millennials, unless you have nice inheritance (I don't).

I've just been looking at short term rentals in Manchester for a work trip for a few weeks and I was really shocked by the cost. I think I am looking in a similar area to you OP, which isn't a part of the city I expected to cost quite so much.
I know short term is always going to be relatively more expensive than taking a long term let but I was taken aback all the same. I could actually stay in a hotel for less, but I prefer to be able to cook for myself and have a bit more flexibility. Obviously it doesn't matter to me really as my expenses will cover most of the costs of my trip but it did open my eyes and make me appreciate how lucky I am.
It's many, many years since I either rented or lived in a big city, so I will happily admit to being very behind the times on both fronts, but it did give me a bit of wake up call to realise what rental costs are like now. It's no wonder people can't afford to buy, as saving for a deposit must be very difficult when you are paying high rents, even if the mortgage repayments might be similar or even less than the current rent.

For example a search of 1 bed flats to rent in Withington shows results for under £800 and under £700 in and around West Didsbury. There'll be more, that's just a quick glance. Withington and West Didsbury both have Metrolink stops and buses aplenty to the centre.

The increase in rents in Manchester over the past few years has been hideous.

I’m also unsure where you are going with this, of course low income people can’t expect to pay a third of their income to rent a flat in a major city centre like Manchester, all major city centres are expensive in all countries.

Give the OP a break. Both she and her partner are working. They aren’t being unreasonable to expect to be able to afford a decent flat that they can both travel to work from with relative ease.

Everyone has leapt on the £575 and used it as a stick to beat the OP with. It’s CHEAP, she doesn’t know she’s born, she’s unreasonable! But she has told us that it is a crummy flat, above a shop, a long journey from the centre of Manc. Is she supposed to rejoice?

Sorry to hear that you’re having a tough time, OP. Housing in Manc is really expensive.

£575 for a one bed flat is cheap IMO. Im from Bristol, where it would be double that. I was paying £1200 to rent a two bed house there years ago. I packed up and moved 70 miles away and bought a house in South Wales. Im laughing at what I got for my money! Ten miles isn’t much at all. Unfortunately these days it’s becoming the norm. I lived in London for six years and felt so unbelievably sorry for all my friends who grew up there but couldn’t afford anything within two hours of their family home.

Exactly. It's incredible what low standards people have these days. I should be grateful to 'only' have an hour commute. It's like a race to the bottom.

Would your partner be able to commute to Manchester by tram? Rochdale might work - somewhere close to the tramline. Milnrow? Kingsway?
We very fortunately were able to buy last year. We are paying much less for our mortgage now for a bigger new build house than the rent they wanted for our old house. It's doesn't seem right.

But you could afford more

the rent is less than one third of just your take home pay!

Sorry OP, but I don't see this at all.

You've said your take home is £1750 - unless you're paying off a huge heap of debts, then that's comfortably enough to pay for that rent, utilities and council tax etc.

Of course it would be very nice to keep rent/mortgage/council tax payments below one third of your income - but that's an aspirational goal and not always possible.

There are lots of us who manage perfectly well paying more than a third of our income on rent/mortgage. Obviously it would be nice if it were lower, but with rising housing costs that's just not always feasible.

You've roundly slagged off this £575 flat which is fine - so why not look for something a bit more expensive? You've got loads of wiggle room on your salary alone, and then you've got your partner's to add in too. I don't know why you're digging around in the bargain basement zone when you've got a good income between you to spend on somewhere nicer - and you still won't break the bank!

@Cinammonroll I am from your neck of the woods and I think possibly people aren't quite understanding that whilst Leigh is technically greater Manchester, what you're essentially paying over £500 for is a small flat in an ex industry, very working class, small town. Not that there's anything wrong with those things - I've grown up here. But the most exciting thing we have here is a Nandos. The high street is 100% charity shops and takeaways - not even clothes shops have survived. Transport links are rubbish... so that 1 hour commute is often unrealistic as well - when I worked in Manchester it was more like 2, with traffic/train change overs to consider.

So although your rent is probably 'low' compared to the SE, it is still all very depressing. I am in the same position & feel for you