1 bed furnished flat in London... The Holy Grail?

[geordiemacminx]

Bit of a random one - my litle sister and her boyfriend are moving to London at the end of this month and at present have no where to stay. They are looking for a 1 bed furnished flat, ideally no more than £850 a month. Her job is in the strand, so she is looking at the following areas - Greenwich, Brockley, New Cross an Black Heath although they are quite flexible. Does anyone have any suggestions re letting agents/areas or is anyone looking to rent out their flat?

I have spent the morning ringing estate agents but to be honest I think it may be mission impossible for their budget.

The Strand is accessible from pretty much everywhere. Why are they only looking SE?
Have you tried loot?

You can rule out Blackheath or Greenwich at that price for starters

They were looking in north london - angel and islington and other places but they were too expensive.....The problem is they dont know what areas are like.... my mum is worrying like ma that her little girl is going to end up in a rat hole!!

they might get something a little further out - try looking north along the tube lines, places further along say the piccadilly line (bounds green etc) might be around those prices and the tube stops at holborn, only 5 mins walk from the strand.

Have a look at the list here (10+ pages of it) . (I've done it at max £210/wk, which will be maybe just over the £850/month - you could re-run it at £200/wk perhaps.)
Gumtree is very good at giving you a run-down on what places are like - there's a link on the site to descriptions of each area.

Thanks ladies - to be honest I think she is kiding herself - she is moving to London to earn more money but hasnt figured how much more it costs to live down there compared with Newcastle - if she stopped dribking and smoking so much she could have just as much money

I would go Clapham way or other parts of South London. Quite reasonable rents round there.

well rightmove have a couple showing in Blackeath for under £900. Have a look - maybe the Pond Rd one, it's "proper" Blackheath (as opposed to BLackheath Standard, or "lewisham" Blackheath).
Personally, wouldn 't touch New Cross with a bargepole (and I know it well), Brockley has some lovely property but not v good links and little to do.
BLackheath itself is absolutetly gorgeous(I know it v well) - perfect for yr little sister, its' got tons to sdo, a sense of community, lovely open spaces and great link to the Strand via Charing Cross (direct trains)

when I was at goldsmiths uni in new cross with my boyf at the time we rented a two bedroom, 5 mins from brockley train station for around £750 a month. it wasnt luxury granted but it was fine and had a garden and cellar and was furnished.

we found it on www.oaklets.com/
I just looked and therers quite a few places in se london for their budget.

If they like that part of SE London, how about Charlton which always used to be cheaper than Blackheath but is fairly near and I think on the same train line as Greenwich.

Or there is Woolwich - I admit I found it a bit scary years ago, but there is a lot of new development there and bound to be a lot of newbuild rented flats on the river.

thanks ladies - will pass on all this info!!

Oaklets is a good agency for SE London still

Pond Road for under £1000 a month? It's a lovely location, agreed...but I wonder what the snag is with the flat?

Woolwich is still scary cloudhopper although they are doing a lot to improve housing and transport links at the mo.

Only hitch with Blackheath Standard is it is a few minutes walk to the station. With a big new M & S Simply Food there plus excellent butchers, health food shop etc, it's arguably better value than the extremely pretty but pricy village proper

I'd forget Clapham for that! Although might get rat infested mould hole

go for Blackheath proper! The only snag with the Pond rd one is that it's ex-council. It is on an estate but a pretty nice, well-kept one, small-scale, 1920s i believe just a few mins walk from the Heath/village. That's why it's "cheaper". Loads of the flats are now private anyway.

they even have 10 Downing Street-type doors! Even the council estates have to be posh in Blackheath, you know!

Seriously, it's a wonderful place for a 1st timer in London.

As others have said, the Strand is pretty accessible from everywhere. Some of south east London is cheaper than here (I thought New Cross would be) though Blackheath isn't one of those places.

www.paulsimonhomes.com is a really irritating estate agents website but advertises studio flats from £130/week, many near Manor House (zone 2 tube, probably zone 3 bus) or Turnpike Lane (zone 3 tube and bus) on the Piccadilly Line - tubes direct to Holborn/Covent Garden/Leicester Square in about 20 mins - your sister's office would be less than 10 minutes walk from at least one of these stations. Or there's a very easy change at Piccadilly Circus to the Bakerloo line for Charing Cross actually at the western end of the Strand.

I live a little east of here in Tottenham proper - true that the area's main claims to fame are riots and football, but actually, I quite like it.

The transport links for Tottenham, Harringay aka Manor House and Wood Green, specially the tube, are better speed and reliability wise than most of south east London even with the Jubilee line improvements.

Good luck to your sis, anyway.

I own a one bed flat within walking distance of the Strand (or short bus journey) that I let out for that sort of rent......might sound an awful area but have a look at the area south of Waterloo to Elephant & Castle. I'm afraid my flat has tenants but there must be other properties around in that price bracket. E&C has great transpost links.