If you're household income is 74,000 Where do you live?

[homeymum]

Husband will work in London near Farringdon and St Paul's tube stops. We have two children, I am open to homeschooling if the schools are not good. So, good schools are not essential, but of course would be nice.

Preference is to not have a car. So, live where shops and activities for kids are nearby. Commute for husband around an hour is acceptable.

Seeking a 2 bedroom rental.

Anyone able to make it work on this income?

Have you looked at www.commutefrom.com/?

I recommend looking at the largish towns in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire on the Great Northern line that goes into Kings X as many have fast trains. 38 min from St Neots for example and you could live there easily without a car on your income. Biggleswade might be another option though if I am honest I don't like it as much, but there may be more to rent there. It has less fast trains an hour but it is a bit closer to London. Nice places further in towards London like Hitchin etc are lovely with good schools but are probably too pricey. Worth looking though!

Anywhere walking distance of stations carry a premium. If he's prepared to walk for 20 minutes or longer that opens it up a bit. A season ticket is about £4K annually - so take that into account.
Hitchin, Letchworth, Stevenage, Baldock, are within your price range.

Winchester!

Winchester has two beds for £1100 pcm within walking distance of the station, the schools are good and there's plenty going on in the city.

And it's better not to have a car in winchester (we park ours and forget where we left it...)

Essex, Chelmsford is nice.

YY most people I work with in town live in essex

Lots of it is v nice, affordable, and excellent transport into town

disclaimer I don't live there myself so this is what I'm told! Seems to work for them though and they all seem to do much better for their money than I do in Zone 5 London.

Do you not want to live in London itself - plenty of nice places that you could rent a two-bedroom flat in on an income of £74K.

North Essex.

Not in rented though so no idea how much renting a house would cost.

Schools are good in Chelmsford and you don't need to drive.

Your starting point is net income. How long is he willing to commute? You could rent a 2 bed property through most of the South east. Where do you live now? Could he commute? There are zillions of options, you need to narrow what you are asking a bit