Does anyone live in South Kensington, Mayfair, Belgravia, Marylebone or similar?

[ColourfulMummy101]

If so, what are your monthly bills like? I am thinking about moving there!

Also, if you don't mind me asking how do you afford this area? i.e. what do you do?

Thank you!

Single-room bedsit or five-storey townhouse...? Bit of a difference

@abbey44 - I am not from the UK. what do you mean by this?

If you have to ask what the bills are like, you probably can’t afford it!

What bills in particular? Utilities will be the same price in south ken as anywhere else in the uk. Council tax and mortgage/rent are property dependent. What type of place are you looking for?

ColourfulMummy - there are a vast range of types of property in the areas you mention, from the very small (single-room bedsits) to the very large (five-storey townhouses) and a million variations in between. The bills you'll pay will of course be vastly different, depending on the property, so asking the question you did is completely open-ended and pretty pointless. But LadyPenelope probably summed it up better.

@LadyPenelopeCantDance - how pleasant of you. I am not from the UK. I am thinking about what the average budget will look like so I can decide on a few factors. Please don't be so quick to jump to assumptions.

What is this? Meanmums?

Oh, it’s going to be one of those threads.

You're thinking of moving where? Which one of those areas?

And exactly as @abbey44 says. The size of the place will mean examples are meaningless.

And 'what do you do for a job?' Why would you need this information from other people, if you're already considering moving there...?

What a bizarre thread.

If you're thinking about moving to the most expensive parts of London i'd imagine you'd already be established in a career?

As PP have said, it depends on the size of the property. EG a 5 bed town house in South Ken can be rented for about £3k a week. Council tax will be around £2,500 a year. A lot of the people who rent there tend to be high powered bankers/execs as either their salaries can afford it or their companies are happy to include it as part of their package.

Please, this thread is painful. I am a housewife from the other side of the world. I just wanted advice, know the kind of people in this area but already this thread seems to be judging or making comments. I am just doing research because I hear from a good friend that this area has good schools. I didn't know it was a crime to ask such questions.

Please, no one waste your time commenting. I will look for information else where.

You already live in London. Apart from the cost of housing (which will vary dramatically depending on what you are looking for), your costs will be similar to where you are now.

You need to be more precise in your question before people can help you OP.

Wow, you're a snippy one.

All it would take is a little civility and an idea of the size of property you would need and people could give you a ballpark figure.

Find properties you like on zoopla or rightmove. The listing should tell you if there is any ground rent/service charge, if you're buying. Whether you rent or buy you'd ha8to pay council tax and you could find out the council tax band of the property via Google.

Utilities : gas, electric, water, phone, broadband are a ymmv thing.

How about you give us an idea of your budget and then we could advise in areas / costs?

Good advice from PickAChew. We can’t help when your question is so vague...

The reason why you are getting some not very straight answers is that you have named three of the most supremely expensive areas in London. It is a bit like asking if the bills would be high to live on the Peak in Hong Kong, or on Park Avenue - yes, the bills will be high but if you can afford to live there you probably won’t mind!
Very few ordinary Londoners live in those areas now.

St John’s Wood also has a large expat community if that’s any help?

‘People’ generally can’t afford these areas... very average two bed flats were being rented out for £3000 a month when I worked in one of these places 2 years ago.

Family houses that are nothing special being several thousand a week isn’t uncommon

Some very mean responses to an innocent question.

OP, I think you do need to be clear

1. no bedrooms
2. type of property / house / flat

Then you can get an answer

As a general bills
Gas electric - 50-100 pm
Council tax - could be close to 200+ per month, depends on the property
Water -30 pm
Internet, telephone, sky - 80pm

Etc

Check right move and Zoopla, that's a better place then this thread tbh

Good luck

I thought the responses were quite fair, all things considered. And, general bills are the least of your worries if you live in any of these areas, surely?

The thread reads like someone writing an article for their school paper - especially asking what people do to afford to live there, and the disingenuous second post, to the most obvious question.

Or Research for a book

@TheDowagerCuntess I'm often curious what people do to live in certain areas . If OP is from another country she just may well not be aware just how astronomical prices are and not realise that only bankers/ lawyers and Russian oligarchs live there.

Not every post has to be looked at with suspicion

Hang on, before you were from Paris, but living in Kensington.

Have you forgotten London already?