Why do people live in London?

[Waahaawoowoo]

This thread is inspired by a thread where people where explaining how a £100k salary doesn't go far in London. Examples were given of mortgages costing £25k pa. (This is my salary). Childcare bills for 2 kids costing £40k. Our joint salary is £55k pa.

I live in NE Wales. Our house costs us £12k pa for a 3 bedroom semi. Wraparound Childcare used to cost a maximum of £12k pa. But we no longer pay due to age of kids and me WFH. I cannot get my head around DH and I being significantly better off than a couple who earn double what we do.

The logical answer to me would be to move from London. So why do people stay? Is it family? The type of work you do? I'm curious more than anything about what keeps people there when they could possibly have a better standard of living elsewhere.

I have lived in London since I left Uni, and am about to retire.

It took me a while to get used to it but since then I haven’t wanted to move. Never earned a high salary, far from it, so whilst I bought before the current stratospheric prices a detached house is an impossibility, I have never had off street parking, which many MNers from elsewhere seem unable to contemplate living without. Even for their first starter home.

So: I love not having to be car based. My kids have always walked to school and had most of their friends within walking distance. I walk to shops, cinema, wide choice of restaurants, choice of parks, gym, indoor or outdoor pool. Could walk to an ice rink if I wanted to skate.

My kids had access to fantastic arts activities, led by top practitioners and mostly free or very cheap. Despite the angst, London schools are good. On average London scores higher than the national average on achievement.

I love the huge range of free activities, galleries, museums, festivals, ‘public stuff’. Like being a tourist every weekend in a different area or attraction.

I love the architecture and buzz. The walk along the South Bank, over Waterloo Bridge, along the path past Battersea Power Station. Every time I do it I think ‘I love this city’.

Despite the perception, people are friendly. Helpful. We help people carry buggies up steps. We are happy to offer directions to list visitors. Everywhere I have lived I have known my neighbours and there has been a strong sense of community.

I love rural, coastal and mountain areas, and walk, camp and swim all over the country. Makes a great change. But I can’t see myself moving from London.

I don’t have any problem with people saying they love London. It is unique. But if they can only do that by making disparaging comparisons with other places and the people who live there, well……….

Agreed. So many people leave London when they have kids. We are so happy we didn’t. The kids were able to travel all over the place by tube and buses as they became teens and we didn’t have to be taxi drivers! So much going on. They actually thank us for staying!

I am always taken aback at some of the childish, cringy retorts of posters. Mocking a whole region (N. Wales) or implying that those living outside of London live a middle of the road, dull existence. Please can we have a sensible, civilised conversation without such pathetic posts? I know, it's quite an ask on MN! Majority of posters excused, just always a few out to ruffle feathers and get a reaction. Get a bloody life.

I'm sort of trapped in London to be honest.
We're fortunate to live in a (very) small flat in zone 4 with an affordable mortgage, but we can't afford to move. Believe it or not, house prices in our area have not increased much in the 7 years we've been here, and our building has some structural issues which reduces its worth. We'd be lucky to get back what we paid for it if we sold.

Plus neither of us can really find work that interests us elsewhere. We looked at moving to Yorkshire, with work in Manchester/Leeds a while back, but both of us would have to take a signficiant salary cut - over £50k less household income a year. And the house prices for an average 3 bed in these areas were really not that much less than outer London/the London commuter belt! We'd also have to buy and run a car, possibly 2 cars. And we'd be 3-4+ hours away from our aging parents who live in Surrey and Essex.

I live in zone 5. 2 mins stroll from my front door to enter heart of big beautiful forest. 11 mins walk to station (next to bus station). 26 mins by train to City. 35 mins part by train and part tube to west end. Several useful bus routes end here for other London areas. I don't have a car. I am now 68 and people talk to me on public transport (especally buses) quite often, even sometimes on my commute to work (though not so often at that time of day). The friendliest London suburb I have lived in (many cockneys and their children and grandchildren, so much kind neighbourliness, which rubs off on most people who move here). Now lots of Londoners reading this will have guessed where I am.

@Needmorelego that’s interesting thank you! My comment wasn’t meant as denigrating at all, I think it shows more my lack of imagination as to what people do. When you’re driving through beautiful countryside and you can see people and you know they just have jobs but there’s no discernible centre of industry…..

Mine and partners joint is about £240k pa
Im retired. I live in a London Borough and he has a house in Kent.
I did work in London, and always thought Id move away when I retire. But now with children and grandson close and Im attached to my house of 22 years, albeit far too big, I cannot see me moving.
MN’s stock reply to most things is “just move” but its not that easy. We just spend time in mine for convenience of London and airports, and his by the seaside.
Possibly buying a place abroad for winter sun.

£100k defo does not go far in London

We live in London because:

1. The arts (west end shows, free museums, always something to do here)
2. Opportunities for our kids (tech, theatre, sport, etc.)
3. The food is just amazing (normal British food is just so boring)
4. Partner makes 150k which is unheard of anywhere else
5. I make 50/hour doing freelance work (again unheard of anywhere else)

People here are way more motivated. We've visited other cities and the calmness would bore me. Everyone has their preference so I can totally see why it may not for everyone. We are a family that loves to stay busy so that is why we live in London.

Ooh a lot of angry londoners in this thread, now I see why they get a bad reputation. 😂
I don't know why either op, I live in a small town in South Wales and we own a 3 bed semi, currently paying 680 a month for it but as we both earn 50k a month between us have a lovely pot of spending money left at the end of each month for holidays etc.
I can only think it's because either they were born there or the job opportunities.
Our friend moved to Cheltenham for a job and we were both agog at how much they were paying for a tiny flat (more than us) and just going out to eat cost so much more money than in our local area.

Whatever makes you happy, but I would hate to live in a big city, the traffic and parking in Cardiff is bad nowadays can't imagine it in London.

There was a theory that the cottages were being burnt by elements of UK government trying to stir up anti Welsh nationalist feeling in the lead up to the investiture of the Prince of Wales

🙄

I adoreeeee London. As a POC I often feel out of place in places outside of a city. Genuinely, I have experienced some horrible racism and ignorance there is no way I’d endure it to have a bigger house or an extra £200 in my pocket. It’s so multi-cultural and diverse. My partner and I earn around 120k between us and live a very comfortable life. Before DD (4 weeks old) we were out most weekends in central. And before my pregnancy a few evenings a night too. There is so much to do in London. My partner wants us to move to Surrey or Hertfordshire to raise DD but I desperately don’t want to leave, so we have compromised on NW London suburbs. I grew up in London and never plan to leave.

I've lived in London for 8 years and absolute love it! Me and my partner has been fortunate to be able to get our own house.

I love everything about South London and couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Barnes, Richmond, Wimbledon and Kingston are all so beautiful. I love the architecture, open park, the variety of places to eat and the ability to be able to go into London for dinner/theatre.

There's so many more opportunities in London and the chance to meet so many more people.

We couldn’t do ours jobs otherwise. We both work in very specialist areas and are lucky to have both found jobs we like in London. I could find a job elsewhere, but the chance of DH being able to find one anywhere near me is virtually impossible. DH could find a job elsewhere, but again it’s very unlikely I’d be able to find one in the same city.

Even if we both found equivalent jobs elsewhere (which we wouldn’t), those jobs pay roughly 15-20k less, so between us we’d be earning about 35k less. That’s a difference in take home of almost 20k, which is more than our entire mortgage payment.

I don’t find childcare that much more than elsewhere. My friends and family in other cities pay pretty much the same as what we do, but I appreciate that in our little pocket of London childcare seems ridiculously low compared to elsewhere.
Our tube travel is relatively high, but a lot lower now we work from home some of the week, and travelling by tube to work means we only need to run one car. Elsewhere I think we would probably need 2.

Overall we are not significantly better off or worse off financially living where we do. But when we finish paying off our mortgage we will have a house worth 3 times what a similar one in my home town would be worth. That gives us options that other people don’t have in terms of possibly moving elsewhere and releasing a huge chunk of equity from our house.

I think because they/we started living in London when it use to be better and now can't be bothered to move, can't afford to move or are stuck in their rut.

London used to be great.

It was never cheap but it had great restaurants, gread arts and entertainment and theatre, lots of choice for workers at lunchtime (no stale sandwichs - sushi, mexican takeaway, hummus bros, abocado, starbucks and prets, salad bars), easy to get around on the tube and by taxi and no congestion charge or ULEZ There were a lot of pluses.

Now honestly it's a shit hole.

The cost of everything is astronomic because it was always more expensive due to overpopulation = land shortage = high rent. But now add into that energy costs and inflation.

The tube is now really expensive, horrible and dirty and personally I hate it now in a way I didnt' feel so antagonistic towards it before because of Covid and I can't bear the overcrowding. It was never nice but now I feel repelled by overcrowding in the rush hour which I didn't befire.

You can't get around anywhere by taxi or car because all the roads are blocked off with these stupid Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) so all cars are funneled onto a few roads where you sit in idling traffic forever. LTNs, not to mention congestion charging and ULEZ and parking make andy even a quick trip to a supermarket where you want a car to pack a family shop hell on earth.

All the nice lunch places have closed down in the pandemic because there was no trade as everyone started working from home.

Because it's so expensive and hard to get around it's harder to get to enjoy the stuff that used to be fun about London.

I'm still here but honestly I hate it. It's not what it was at all. It's very sad. A big part of it is down to insane traffic policy that affects everyone whether you are an Uber, taxi or car user or not - because it reduces population movement which reduces economic spend which affects prices and causes stuff to close down. It's not just Sadiq Khan alone but he's got a lot to answer for here IMO.

@Mangomingo "countryside" is very different to a medium size town though. Drive through a town and they are full of industry.

Because London is awesome and full of opportunities

I haven't read the whole thread, but I haven't been disparaging and the many posts from Londoners I've seen haven't been either. We were asked a question and answered.

I was careful to say North Wales, we had a totally different experience in South Wales. My friend comes from South Wales, doesn't speak Welsh and was castigated for that in the North.

The lucky amongst us get to choose where we live. Of course we all like different things.

People who like peace and fresh air will hate London. And those who crave a fast-paced life and lots of ‘culture’ will seek a big city. If we all wanted to live in the same place, the infrastructure wouldn’t cope!!

Many of us compromise on house size and garden to live in London. I can see why others would not want to do that.

When I win the lottery I am moving to a Mayfair penthouse or a Nash terrace!

Choice is good. One thing which is a bit of a ‘privilege’ is if you are white, straight etc, the whole country is your ‘oyster’. If you are say gay or not white, you have to give your residence a bit more thought. I know some people in London who would love to live more rurally but fear being the ‘only’ somewhere else. That’s not saying people in the country are all homophobic or racist; I know that’s not true. But it’s about wanting to be around others like yourself. I am not sure how we can change that. If nobody ever moves, diversity will be the preserve of our big cities. Just musing really.

I haven't read the whole thread, but I haven't been disparaging and the many posts from Londoners I've seen haven't been either. We were asked a question and answered.

There's been several disparaging comments.

Because I was born and brought up here. It's my home.

Because for a lot of jobs, particularly v high earning ones, you literally can’t work anywhere else but london. City banking jobs for eg. Obvs you have to spend more to live here, but it’s worth it. Yes my mortagae might be £3k a month (ouch) but income more than covers it, with left overs for school fees, holidays etc etc. The jobs are better, more interesting and it’s the centre of everything tbh. It’s where people from all over the world come! Amazing really.

We’ve been on holidays in Wales and driving with my (born Londoner) husband shaking his head saying ‘what do people DO here??’ And me rolling my eyes at him…

So I guess the ignorance is mutual?

Different people like different things and have different lives and different priorities. Not sure why that would be a difficult thing to understand.