How to manage potential new London job

[freshmint]

Hi everyone. It looks like a promotion means my job may be moving from Oxfordshire where I live to Clerkenwell, near Farringdon. Door to door 1hr 50 mins (good day) 2 hours ++ (bad). Crossrail may shave 10 mins off that. A five day/week commute is not really possible as I will go mad and it is such a waste of time and also will have events in the evening. Good news is I will get 12 weeks holiday so only need to do it 9 months a year.

So how do I manage this? Stay in a hotel 2 nights a week? Difficult to do it in central London somewhere clean and secure for less than about £220 a night. And would have to travel with a suitcase all the time. Or do I join a club like RAC and try and stay there? Then have somewhere familiar and nice and about £140-170 per night but will have to book in advance and may not get a room. Or do I rent a 1 bed flat and if so where? Central London is £500-600 pw. Thinking about Crossrail, Stratford and Canary Wharf are fast and close and easy to get to Paddington for journey home. I could get a 1 bedroom modern box there for about £375 pw. But would need to rent all year (but dh and kids could use it too) and pay council tax etc. However I could keep my clothes etc there and not have to carry around a suitcase all the time.

Whichever way I do it it is going to cost me between £20-25k a year I think. I’m not thinking of buying because I think prices are sliding - but maybe not in Stratford?

All thoughts gratefully received. This would be a long term position.

If you’re prepared to do a weekly commute and stay in London in the meantime, you could rent a room Mon-Fri. Much cheaper than a flat and you’d probably be sharing with a professional first time buyer that wants the place to themselves at weekends but doesn’t might a tenant mid-week.

Or you could get a bolt hole - prices aren’t sliding everywhere. Some areas are going up but you’ll need to factor in the extra stamp duty, second home mortgage with large deposit required etc - pretty faffy.

Oh, in terms of your main home, are you set on staying put? You could always move somewhere that’s commutable on s daily basis.

What about finding a M-F only lodging? Lots of people have a spare room but maybe don’t want a lodger there at the weekends so just do M-F instead. Not sure on prices but you’d be able to leave stuff there and have a familiar base.

Can you work from home some days? I work for companies in the city but work 1-2 days from home. It’s the norm.

Thanks for your response! I’ve looked at M-F lets but they are all quite young professionals and I think I’m just too old to start flat sharing with people I don’t know again .
Not thinking of moving at the moment as have 3 DC well established at schools and A levels next year, GCSEs the year after etc. Might be something to think about down the line. Re buying - yes stamp duty alone would pay a lot of rent, particularly at 2nd home rates! Would want to try the area before I buy too, I think, if going somewhere I don’t know.

No can’t work from home, I have to be there.
M-F might work if I can find the right person. Maybe it’s possible... maybe the place to start asking is at work?

The PremierInns around London Bridge are often quite cheap.

Depends on your standards regarding hotels I guess, I regularly stay in Premier Inn or their hubs in central(ish) London for around £60 a night. They are always clean and comfortable and I've had no problems sleeping. I don't tend to eat in them though.

Have a look at fivenights and mondaytofriday to see the kinds of rooms available. We are not young professionals and we found a lovely quiet lodger who is very respectful of our space and a pleasure to have around. It will be cheaper than a hotel and you should be able to leave some bits and pieces there too.

I’m not sure what their scope is, but there was an agency called ‘Doctor in the House’ renting rooms to anyone in a medical field when attending training, conferences etc. They didn’t just accept doctors, but anyway they might be able to point you in the right direction. They tended to be rooms in the homes of retired people.

I’ve looked for one random night in mid April and the central London premiere inns are between £170 and £205. Some are already fully booked.

I also don’t think I could commit to 2 nights/week in a selection of premiere inns for the next x years ... too depressing!

Will have a look at those websites thanks bakingdemon

Buying a flat could be nice in your circumstances actually. We've been thinking about getting a central London pad as it could be a nice place for teenage/young adult children to visit or stay in if they get a job in London + useful if you enjoy theatres, restaurants or have friends in London. And you'd have a bolthole in the meantime. The stamp duty is a pain but if you intend to stay in the job for years, then it could be nicer than hotels or a rented room/studio etc.

The other side of the coin is commuting costs. They would be substantial for a season ticket from Oxfordshire I'd imagine (though maybe not astronomical iif you can get to Farringdon in an hour). I'm not up n current price structures but when I commuted in, doing it part time wasn't really economic because you either pay for a season ticket and only use it half the time, or pay £££ for peak time single/return fares. Costwise it may work out cheapest to jump one way or the other - commute day to day and only pay for a hotel occasionally, or pay for accommodation but generally don't go home midweek.

Another option is rather than staying centrally, go further out on a trainline that goes direct to Farringdon, and find somewhere close to the station at the other end. Alternatively move house locally to get closer to the station if that would make enough of a difference. Minimising the walking and simplifying the public transport to just one leg makes commuting much easier, and the further you go out the cheaper the accommodation (ish). But always look at the combined cost of transport and accommodation, not accommodation by itself. Especially if you want to do PT commute, PT staying over which can quickly get very expensive.

Have you considered a mix of commuting and staying in low cost accommodation such as the University Women's Club or the Civil Service Club, if you are eligible for membership.

Premier inn Croydon is good. If book in advance can get for about £35 a night. Direct train from east croydon to Farringdon. I wouldn’t buy as things can change and you’ll have to pay stamp duty /legal fees etc. Lots of mon-fri let’s are not just for young house sharers so it could work for you.

A lot of Mon to Friday let's will go for older tenants. Maybe 800 a month. Some have cleaners and linen change. Look on stations up or down from farringdon e.g. west hampstead or Kentish town thameslink

DS used a website www.spareroom.co.uk to rent a room for his student placement
Worth a look ?

I’m a member of the Union Jack Club , through my DH who is ex Services. Single en suite is £60 a night, it’s a fabulous place. Not sure whether there are any affiliations you might be able to wangle, they do have other businesses having functions there. Literally opposite Waterloo station.

I stayed in a Mon-Fri let for 2.5 years. It was in the home of a reasonably famous actress in Battersea. Had my own kitchen, bathroom, living area with bed on a mezzanine- all for £400 pcm. And it was only five years ago!

Had my 50th birthday while there so not a young thing! Worked really well for me.

Dh got a room recently at a premier inn in Brick Lane that was called something funny like the premier hub rather than a plain old premier inn. He got it for about £50/night - advance rate. Close to Liverpool st train station but depending on which bit of clerkenwell/Farringdon you need to get to (and how much you need to carry!) it wouldn't take long on the bus or even to walk (I used to live about half way between those two and would reckon on them being a 10-15 min walk so you'd be looking at a 15-30 min walk).

The hub place was aimed at people like you - needing a single room for the night, clean, comfy, no frills. So the bed was a 3/4 rather than a double, etc

OP I used to work in Clerkenwell and now I live/work in Oxfordshire!

DH commutes in, Marylebone is 45 minutes on the train from Bicester Village; could you consider this?

look at M-F lodging in a family house. we have mates who let a room to a woman in your position. they get the extra cash and the house to themselves at weekends, she gets lower cost and somewhere to leave her stuff.
try finding an area that might be suitable and post on FB pages and newsagents windows/local playgroups etc?

I’ve looked for one random night in mid April and the central London premiere inns are between £170 and £205. Some are already fully booked.

That's two weeks away in the holidays though?

Thanks very much everyone. Yes Macaronipenguin (great name!) I am realising that staying 2 nights a week means that I will get rubbish value out of a season ticket plus if I rent a flat I am also paying for that 7 nights a week to use it twice. Most expensive of all possible worlds.
Shack up I’m not in that bit of Oxfordshire unfortunately. I could do oxford parkway to Marylebone but it is an hour or more and there are hardly any trains. Better route is didcot to Paddington 45 mins and trains every 15 mins or less, but then have to travel from Paddington to work. Either didcot or oxford parkway are about 20 mins drive.
To be honest it is getting across London which is the real pain, not the train.
Maybe I spend the money on a first class rail fare instead, so at least I have a guaranteed seat and the hope of doing some work on my laptop on the train.
I don’t want to do mon-fri in London because my kids would hate it, as would I. Maybe I could manage a daily commute plus hotels when absolutely necessary for a few years. But I have 6 years until youngest has finished school...

Have also applied to the royal overseas club which seems to have good value rooms in st James’ and has an affiliation with my professional body.