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?

I fear it's the same in most cities. 2 bed flats in my development used to be around £800 a month. The ones that have been advertised recently have been £1350-£1395! £575 doesn't get you anything other than a room in a shared flat here.
I think you need to be realistic about where you live in relation to work though as that seems to be the blocker as much as the financial issue here.

The Dublin bubble is mad.
it went from abandoned building projects and houses worth bugger all, to completely unaffordable for huge swaths of the population overnight. If you were able to take advantage of that short period inbetween you were incredibly lucky.

Our rent is 75% of our income.
just in case you missed my advice op buy as quickly as you can even if it’s a commute out, it WILL be unaffordable in the blink of an eye

If you are looking at Wigan, have you considered Southport / Sefton area?

Sorry, meant to say there are great train links, plus you aren't too far from the coastline if you like to live near the coast.

yes thats true. my DH's mum has never earned more than 18k per year and she has lived in london for over 30 years. Her son went to university while living at home and also lived at home while saving to buy. BUT graduates on 50-80k are a dime a dozen in London and while it does not translate to a life of luxury in London, earning that salary does give you better bargaining power if you wish to move away (if that means finding a new job). Working in international companies and growing your career/skills set also pays dividends. While people like new immigrants probably don't can't earn that sort of money, their children would be in a better place to- lots of people in the operations side of finance come from Essex for example. Starting salary is 40k, can easily get 75k after 5-6 years. I think its better to have earning potential than to move to a cheaper area with fewer job prospects. You cannot economize your way out of inflation; we are in the same country after all- we all have to pay for groceries from the same supermarket, council tax, heating, bills, clothes (online shopping is the same in any part of the country).

The worst off are the people in places like Cornwall where there is limited scope to earn more, high housing costs, expensive public transport and the same base costs in terms of bills, food etc. its no wonder the young people all leave (and generally not for cheaper places but for big cities).

There has been a lot of business/corporations moving into big cities outside of the south east, with Manchester attracting a lot of these.

This is what is wanted as part of "levelling up". These moves bring more jobs and higher wages, which drives up the prices in city.

It will keep happening, and is a part of "levelling up", just not a part the government are keen to highlight.

London property pricing (to own and rent) has outstripped wages and wage growth for a long time, and now this effect is being pushed out to other cities.

I agree it's shit

but 20 years ago, as a singleton in London, I was paying more than half my salary in rent and the commute was a minimum of an hour. So nothing has changed, it certainly wasn't better here before unless you go back to before I was born probably. Manchester might be different of course.

I always thought "third of a salary" was a joke! I don't know anyone, barring high earners, who only spent that on salary.

Yes, if all cities follow the same path, they'll all wind up like London. Which works for mega rich but not for anyone else.

There are still the same number of properties though and the same number of people needing to be housed

It won't work for the mega rich if there are no poor people available (because they can't afford to live there) to staff their businesses and work for them to keep them mega rich

Renting is very expensive in an awful lot of places op. My son and his gf have just move din with us because their rental was going up to £1200 per month and that was the price a close relative was charging ! There is no way they could afford it , both in low pay jobs. It's a worry. So ds now drives an hour each way to work and works ridiculous hours 60/70 a week.

Completely agree and I always mention it on any thread about levelling up. My areas levelled up, it’s unaffordable for many to live, unaffordable for many small businesses and traders.

there’s also lots of cash ready investors overseas and here who have seen it happen time and time again and what to be part of the profits.

Presumably a single person on a low salary would rent a room in a house share though? There's no reason why every individual must have a whole house to themselves. That's not realistic.

Comparison is the thief of joy. Sod your colleagues.

Personally, I find 1 hour each way a maximum. I wouldn’t want to do more. But it’s time to listen to a book, get fresh air, switch off from work.

And with greatest respect, 575 plus bills and utilities with 2 incomes is v v affordable, even if DP earns a fair bit less.

We live outside a major city and moved from elsewhere. I plotted the city and suburbs on 2 x A3 sheets, highlighted all the train lines, park and rides and major bus routes and that helped us find areas to target our search, because we knew we wanted to be able to get a late bus home, but didn’t mind being a bit further out. We were buying, but same principle. Smaller house in the north of the city was double what we paid for ours, but easily 20-30 mins by bus still. Yes it’s a longer commute (max 1 hour by either train/bus/cycling, not considering a car because of city parking) but we have a much nicer place. It’s a trade off.

£575 between 2 people is astonishingly cheap. Even with bills you're likely to have over 1k a month spare, each

I'm in Yorkshire and pay more than that on my mortgage, on my own.

Genuinely affordable[1] housing needs to be widely available. Without this the economy stutters and people become trapped on support.

Think of housing benefit as landlord benefit.

If the government wants to continue to spend billions of "landlord benefit" then they should consider a national program of building good quality eco-credentialed housing fit for people to rent.
Heaven knows what they'd call it, Government housing maybe. Or perhaps something a bit more local like Local authority housing, or hey, what about council housing.

However that would mean building on every inch of brown field space available and then expanding elsewhere.
The current demands on housing are immense.

[1] And ban this insane affordability lie of selling people half or quarter a flat/house.

What about areas like Fallowfield, Withington, Chorlton, Trafford, Stretford? Fallowfield has a train station and there are frequent buses into the city centre from Withington too. In wider Trafford and Stretford you'd be on the tram line and of course buses into the city. Since you work in North Manchester what about Bury or Whitefield?

It's not extortionate rent for a city centre place to be honest but yes it does price out those on a low income especially if they are single. The spend a third of your income on rent is a con. Most people spend more. An hours commute really isn't much, I appreciate it isn't nice on public transport in all kinds of weather but it's an average commute for most.

575 is a cheap rent anywhere these days. Even in 2007 I paid more than that for a basic 2 bed flat in the SE and my wages were £4.20/hr.

The idea that wages are tons higher in the whole of the SE is a myth though. If you’re in London you may have better opportunities available for work depending on your job and a higher average salary, but any increase in wages will usually be wiped out several times over by the cost of living in London or commuting. And if you’re in the SE outside of London the prices of everything are almost as high due to popularity with commuters, but no chance of any extra wages at all.

Bury also covers Tottington, Greenmount and Ramsbottom. All quite affluent.

East Manchester? Lots of new builds everywhere.,

I think an hour commute each way isn’t too bad. I’m in London though, and that’s considered a pretty good commute.

Ive never really spent less than half my income on accommodation if that helps at all.

These days I’d much rather move somewhere cheaper but im not able to do that due to the kids’ contact with their dad

The trams run until midnight in Manchester.

Beyond that, anywhere that isn't the city centre is going to be inaccessible.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/130542767#/?channel=RES_LET dont rule out Salford. Practically manchester city centre. Really good transport and very short commute. This is a nice road.

I've just looked on right move and can find plenty of rentals at £500/month.
All within 5 miles of city centre