Is £1,950 too expensive for a one bedroom?

[WeissMeiss]

Need some perspective, as moving back from New York where rentals are insane. We found a small but cute one bedroom apartment in Zone 1. It's part-furnished. We'll probably spend a couple of £k on extra pieces of furniture. Our take home is roughly £6,500 a month.

I wouldn't say that is expensive for Z1.

The financial stress test agencies apply is 33% or less of your take-home. So it will be within affordability range from their perspective.

'Zone 1' is too broad and also a bit meaningless, nothing special happens at the border of Zone 1/2 apart from cheaper public transport which is gonna be negligible on your income.

Is it too expensive based on your income? No, because you'll still have potentially half of your money left over after all the bills are paid.

Is it too expensive based on location? Impossible to say without knowing where it is or even the type of property. It might be expensive if it is was an old style property in one of the outskirts of Z1 like Borough or Battersea, but cheap if its a new build next to Leicester Square.

Sorry - it's in Paddington, an area called Tyburnia

My daughter is in a 3 bed in Bloomsbury for £3000 a month so you can probably do better, but you can afford it and if the location works for you then that’s all that really matters.

I'd say its about ballpark off the top of my head. But much depends on location and property type.
You can fire up a Rightmove search within 1/2 mile of Paddington for instance to give some comparables in roughly the same area. Things (generally) will be more expensive towards the centre and cheaper up towards Edgware Road.

Not bad for a one bed central actually. You won’t get much that’s liveable for cheaper

Surprisingly cheap for a 1 bed in Central - are you sure the area is ok? Some parts of central can feel a bit dodgy so make sure you research it and check out crime stats etc.

That's an odd little corner of paddington. I work in paddington and used to live nearby and I would probably look slightly further out or west. From an affordability perspective i think most would pay slightly more on your salary but only you know what's right for you.

I would look at Fitzrovia, Bloomsbury or nice parts of Westminster like Marylebone.