This isn't meant to upset anyone but WHY do people live in London? I really don't get it when its so expensive.

[fishnet]

Obviously those who earn trillions of pounds in the city can afford it but why does ordinary Joe bother. Surely the salaries aren't that much higher that it compensates for property prices? Or am I wrong?

SIL is pregnant and needs to move from a one bed rented flat in central London. They are looking at two bed semis for about half a million pounds. Up here you could get a large five bed for that. I really don't get it. How do people manage?

Had to move to London because of my (then) job. Then met DH so we settled here.

I live in SW19 (not Wimbledon, but close enough to share the postcode!) and our house is an Edwardian semi, with a loft conversion, giving us 3 generous and 1 small bedroom and 2 bathrooms. Most recent valuation was £600K (probably about 3/6 now).

We have a small garden (benefit being it's more manageable for me as a non-gardener!) and are close to the District Line, the Northern Line, the overground to Waterloo (and destinations South of here) as well as the Tramlink to Croydon and its environs.

Good local shops and plenty of places to eat.

What's not to like?

I think it depends what you're looking for. I've lived in quite a few UK cities and my favs are Edinburgh and Manchester. Both have fab resturants and theatres and all he things that Londoners think don't exist outside the Capital But everything is so much more contained, which I like. Plus it's very green with excellent schools where I am and only 20m from city centre.

We have trams up here too, though I agree buses are way more expensive than London.

that's great news about the school - at least you won't be spending all day on the south circular now! will you put DC2 is nursery now?

I stand by my ongoing premise that a disproportionate number of MNters live in SW London . So it can't all be bad.

he he
dont mention norwich

And I really don't think it's London that's expensive - it's the whole of the UK. Newcastle and Oxford where I used to live are just as bad as London, if not worse, for the price of public transport, eating out etc. The hosue prices may be cheaper but the salaries are much much lower, and the work that much more difficult to find.

But 500k for a 2 bed semi is disproportionately expensive even for London. We live in a relatively affluent area and 2-beds don't cost that here.

i love london oudl live there if no life
woudlnt like to live in burbs though if i were there

think kids ont h whoel haev a crap life tehre though, ours go off for hours roaming around at a young age
for US london wodl be like putting certainly ds2 isn a pen

" woudl live there if no kdis not if no life"!

'if you live anywhere but london it is just a bit boring'

best stay there then

To be fair though, many people in London do think that anywhere north of Watford is akin to living in the wilderness!

When we were getting ready to move you would not believe how many reasonable well-educated people thought that all of Manchester was 'Coronation Street' type terraces fronting onto the pavement. We also had people asking if we were worried about being shot . They also thought we'd get a 4bed detached for 25k!

Friends who've come to visit are pleasantly surprised at the fact that we have such good resturants close at hand. I think they thought they'd have to eat at a Harvester or stand at the bar with half a bitter!

i do find thsoe rows and rows of vicotrian terraces dull after a while.
btu i am sure id manage ot live in one.

I completely understand why people live in London:

it's a beautiful city (plenty of rough parts, granted but true everywhere)
great arts and culture
multicultural, interesting
vibrant
pay is better than the rest of the UK
great restaurants, architecture

mind you, I say that, but I sold in London ages ago and wouldn't want to buy again starting from scratch in London, we'll get more for our money in the home counties so we'll stay here.

And the state schools are better where we live now which is a big factor.

in london

the thing that i liek about london is the amount of yougn perople there
i really notice that.

nto so any harold shipmans as out of london

i also hwoveer notice lots of odd lookgin men in old vest tops and tracky bums holding palstic bags lookign like they are weiaitng ofr someone

milliosn of em linign the mall

I live in London because I have done for 24 years (not born and bred here, I came after university).

Most of my friends live here.

My children are happy in local primary school and we live between two of the lovliest parks you can imagine.

We have a very large 3 bed terraced house worth about £550,000. But started on the property ladder in 1997 at the depths of the last property slump (a small 3 bed terrace for £106,000). At that time, DH's salary of about £30,000 ish was enough to get us the mortgage without factoring in my earnings at all. DH's earnings have more than doubled in that time, but property prices have quadrupled, at least.

So we were lucky and we are still lucky to live in this city and I really want to stay here. What I'm saying is you don't have to be fantastically rich to live here. People who work in shops manage it, as do teachers, nurses, etc etc.

NorkybutNice - I would love, love, love to live in Greenwich. We have stayed a couple of times in a holiday rental off Point Hill. It's fantastic and I would move there in a minute. We are Scottish but live in Norfolk (although nice there is not enough to do).

oh yes id be fantastically RICH in london
not shoved in a suburb
id be in a house overlooking ...er someowhree fabulous.

we once had a guy in court who lived somehwere fab whose MONTHLY mortgage was

£10 000

Yes, I had to look at someone else's bank statements recently and their monthly mortgage was ££££££££££££££, I enjoyed looking at the other outgoings too tbh.

lol at "normally waged person". I shall use that one

DH is a copper, I'm a social worker. We have a flat in zone 2. we only bought a couple of years ago. no inheritance to set us up. it's do-able.

... because it's the best city in the world.... sigh....

need a lot of money to have a comfortable life there, though.

which is why we don't live there!