Who is living in London?

[Theredbears]

I am a mother to 3 children, all in their mid - late teens, and a whole bundle of DN who are out of uni and are working.

The common complaint most of the DN who are working is how difficult it is to get into the housing ladder. These are bright, motivated and hardworking people.

One DN is in her late 20s and is working as a teacher, with a net pay approx £2.5k - gross is £43k but after tax, student loan and pensions. After rent, bills, food etc she has approx £700 to save towards her deposit.
Even a basic flat in around her area will set her back £350k which will be a struggle.

This leads me to my next question, if ateacher cannot afford a basic flat in London, who is living in London? People who purchased their house 20 -30 years ago?. Where are London's police officers m, nurses, teachers etc all going to live?

Housing affordability is clearly worse BUT

Younger people definitely spend more on "fun" than our parents did. Lots more eating out, fast fashion, getting nails & hair done, going on holiday.

Lots don't even attempt to save any money until hitting their thirties.

It's also much harder to build equity now because affordability matters. Many flats have stagnated in price post Brexit.

"In the past decade, London house prices have increased by just 13 per cent — that amounts to a 16 per cent fall in real terms."

Even 30 years ago to buy in London as a single person meant living in zone 4 or beyond and a place not in a desirable location.

Younger people definitely spend more on "fun" than our parents did. Lots more eating out, fast fashion, getting nails & hair done, going on holiday.

Some do, probably ones living with parents because statistically young people have less disposable income than previous generations at their age.

im in my 50s but my friends who had jobs in London in their 20s/30s have mostly left. For instance a teacher to Glasgow and a museum professional emigrated. They were sick of living in house shares with random people.

I know a small number of single people who've each bought a two-bed flat and rented out the second room. Two-bed flats are not twice the price of one-bed flats so the rent means they're paying less each month than buying a one-bed flat and living alone. You still need a massive deposit though, it's all a bit depressing. I couldn't afford to buy the flat we used to live in, now, the price has gone up a lot more than my salary!

S London and 2 normal jobs. We bought our flat 10 years ago for 340k, sold 5 years later for 100k more which helped with our next step up the ladder. Our salaries at the time were 45k and 40k so low by London standards.

Husband and I lived in a flat share with another couple in a 2 bed for much longer than we’d have liked! The rent was 1800 a month at the time - so 900 per couple! We both earned around 40k - being super frugal for a few years we saved up 37k and bought a flat for 370 3 years ago!

we earn a lot more now though and have 2 kids and the mortgage has just come down quite a bit this year thankfully when the 2 year fixed ended

My son is 26 and he rents a 2 bed , 2 bath flat in a nice zone 2 area with him and his GF with one bed and 1 bath and a male friend with the other bed and bath , so rent and bills all split 3 ways- just about doable!!

Answering the question though it's combination of rich , poor getting part or all of rent paid or with social housing , young people with all kinds of sharing arrangements, a lot of shared ownerships of new flats both couples and singles depending on income level and people who have been there a long time and managed to buy years ago

I'm a civil servant and not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. Moved to zone 5, deposit came from equity of former martial home. No kids.

I suspect this isn't the case. And if even they didn't spend money of these things. They still wouldn't be able to afford a home.

I grew up in and still live in London. I have lots of friends who are teachers or who earn similar salaries to teachers. Almost all of my friends own (with a mortgage) their home. Lots were gifted very generous deposits. Some earn loads or married high earners. Quite a few bought shared ownership properties in their mid 20s and then were able to use the equity built as deposits for houses. Lots of my friends have moved to cheaper areas further out.

We live in London zone 2 and bought 12 years ago. Out first flat (in zone 1) is not much more expensive than it was when we bought it, so I think couples in the same position as we were in then are still able to buy now. DH works in tech (high earner) and I am a public sector worker (average salary). Our neighbours were mostly tech workers, City workers and lawyers.

We lived in house shares (rather than a self-contained flat just for us) for 11 years after graduating, to cut rental costs. It meant we were able to save a good deposit, and as it saved over a long period we invested it rather than using savings accounts, and that gave us a very good return. We had no family help with our deposit, it irritates me a bit that many people assume that a large deposit must have come from our parents and that it's impossible to save for a London deposit on your own.

When my landlord sold, I looked at flats in my Zone 4 suburb and even further out. Prices were just outrageous, I could have -just- afforded to live on my own, but that would have meant sacrificing a lot of things. And I was on almost 50K a year,
Just an example: I looked at a 1 bed above a café for £1200 in December 2023, same flat was rented out again in December 2024 for £1450.
Flatshare rents are not much less.
In the end I got a job in Germany and now pay the equivalent of just under £1000 for a large one bed with all bills included.

Lots of my friends moved completely out of London, to other places in the UK or abroad, or had help buying, I know some people who bought property at prime addresses in Central London back in the 1970s for very little money and are now sitting on a fortune. I tried very hard not the be envious, but at times it was quite hard.

The answer to your question is we rent! My friends all pay private rent which is astronomical. They all live in their overdraft because their jobs aren't paid well. I'm born and bred in east london (my parents are too) and I still live at home because i can't afford to private rent. None of us can afford to save £30-40k for a deposit and none of us are going to be able to get a mortgage on our meagre wage.
It was only the Green Party that wanted to put a cap on private rent in London. With keir Stamer increasing rent in social housing and putting a cap on the amount of discount you get if you were lucky enough to buy your council house, there's no way me or my friends will ever be on the property ladder.

Bought in London zone 3 last year with husband both aged 33. It took us 10 years to rise in our jobs enough to afford to buy and save a deposit with no family help while private renting. Had we managed to buy 2-3 years earlier (as many of our friends did with gifted deposits) we could be paying 1k less a month currently.

Just happy to have somewhere safe to live to call our own. Try to live by comparison is the thief of joy.

I think you either need to receive a gift/inheritance, commit to saving for a long time or move out.

And while it’s a small sample size (6 people) - all the teachers I know here either have rich parents or a rich partner.

The vast majority of my friends had help to buy either cash gift/living at home to save or both, including me.

I live in zone 2. Private rent a studio flat as that's all I can afford on my own. Luckily my rent is quite cheap for the area.

I’m a teacher. I have a partner and children and still live with my mum in south London. We moved back in about 12 years ago to “save for a deposit” and here we are, still saving. We’ve given up hope now. Fortunately my mum loves having us here and has her own partner out of London who she splits her time with. We can’t stay here forever but it feels like we will be. I don’t want to leave London as we’re black - it’s not a simple “get up and go” for us. There are a lot of things to consider (not only racism - which is a big factor of course, but things like food shops, where we get our hair done, buy our hair products, our general community, fetishism, the list goes on!)

Fetishism?!

People in London flat share well into their 30ies and buy property with their partners, for example

Born and bred Londoner, grew up in SH and no family help. Bought a 1 bed with my partner with the 20% equity help to buy scheme 10 years ago. Bought out the equity and finally sold up to up size in our area and managed to hang on by our finger tips to get a 2 bed. All of my school friends have moved out of the area and even our neighbours that we live with initially are being priced out.

I bought a small 1-bed flat in Zone 4 in 2010 with a 20% deposit (gifted). My ex-DP and I both worked in admin and had a combined income of approx. £50k. I’m now a SAHM and own a 4-bed house in Zone 3 with my current DP who works in the City (accountant, banker, lawyer type). I wouldn’t be in London if not for the help I had and my current DP’s job.

It's because London used to be a lot more relatively affordable than it is now, and it takes a long time for that to filter through fully to a population. Probably most people who live there are somewhat insulated from the worst of the housing costs.

There'll be million of Londoners in social housing, fully paid for homes or owned properties that in one way or another are funded by a purchase a long time ago.

Lots of overseas buyers who are mega rich who are using property in London as tax dodges. The properties are mostly empty. This practice affects house price inflation generally.