The Reality of Renting in Britain today....

Jowo_2

Walthamstow to Oxford Circus is a 20 minute tube journey. Start of the line, so you can often bag a seat.

Walthamstow to London Liverpool street is a 17 minute train journey.

Walthamstow has a bloody big bus station, too.

Unfortunately, it's in Zone 3 and I understand that for some people, it may as well be in outerspace.

PasturesNew

I've spent today (and yesterday) looking at my rental options in another area. I have a choice:
- affordable rent, in what looks like a bail hostel, it certainly reads like a DSS hostel.
- unaffordable rent, 6 miles out in the countryside in a small annexe behind somebody's house.

I don't want to live in a bail hostel, or similar, but to rent something decent is out of my price range.

2x bail hostel rent = somewhere OK. Sux to be single.

Jowo_2

PN, I thought you were going to buy a motor home so you could work across the country and reduce your living expenses?

PasturesNew

Jowo wrote: »

PN, I thought you were going to buy a motor home so you could work across the country and reduce your living expenses?

I was, but I was too scared to
I'm a right wuss.....

I've had loads of ideas but there's always something that doesn't quite stack up.

Currently looking at moving and renting - and I'll have to get a job to pay for the rent/bills. 100% of takehome money in a job would pay for me to live somewhere, then I'd come home and do my online thing for savings towards a house .... and once 'settled' I can look for a house to buy at some future point.

No point going on the road as there aren't the jobs out there to keep me in work and I figure I'd just end up like a tramp in a van. Not my style ... because I have style and I'm better than that

DervProf

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

I have a second property but I don't rent it out.

Shortly after we paid off our mortgage, an elderly relative had a tragic change of circumstances. She moved in with us in our first house, we bought a second house in town (whoch we were planning to do anyway) and moved there, and we let her live in our old house completely rent free. It was the right thing to do.

Now I could rent the house at market value and rent her a flat, and make a profit, but that's not really the point. She enjoys living there, nice house, quiet rural location, has made friends with the locals, etc.

That`s very kind of you. Well done sir.

So, no you have no VI in property price increases then. None whatsoever.

olly300

Lakelady wrote: »

Hasn`t London always been like this? I remember friends 30 years ago telling how they got to rent their grotty flat.
One held a phone box free whilst the other waited for the evening papers to be delivered to the newsagents. You found a flat to rent, phoned and said you`d have it there and then, sight unseen.

Only if you picky and don't do a budget before you start looking for a houseshare.

Even in the outer London zones if you are really picky and decide to live in a swanky location rather than a mile further out, then you are going to have problems.

viktory

zappahey wrote: »

If you change the title to London, it would be more accurate. Is there any evidence that the rest of the country is in the same mess?

I would agree with this. I live 12 miles out of London (great links, can be in the Capital within the hour) and there are plenty of great flats & houseshares to rent.

breadlinebetty

Joeskeppi wrote: »

I read the first bold line and thought

"Move back out of London then you daft cow".

She WORKS in London you daft turnip! If she moved out of London, you 'nana, her travelling costs included with her rent would come to more than renting in London or even on the outskirts! It would also add on TIME you daft bean.

thequant

I read this story the other night and found it very annoying, especially since about 10 years ago living in london I lived all over zone 1 and zone 2, in some very good areas. the best was a studio in Earls court for £70 a week (yes those were the days). yet I didnt have good income at all. however learnt a few things

if want to live in zone 1 on budget: then expect to compromise completly, my "studio" in earls had space for a single bed and that about all!

If you want to live in zone 2: you will get more space, but dont expect great areas despite them being zone 2,I lived in battersea in a flat share for £70 a week with a decent size double bedroom,however it was in a council tower block

Zone 3 & 4: you can find some great places but do not expect place to have a "fashionable" name you can casually drop into a conversation to impress someone. I was in a flatshare in streatham hill for £65 a week,but was a massive house, with massive living and bedrooms.

As for my current arrangements,I'm still living in london and my budget is only £200 greater than this girls and for my budget i get, a whole 2 bedroom flat to myself, on a complex which includes Gym, sauna and swimming pool. I'm 12 mins from my work in zone 1, and have 24 Hrs trains to my place which means that it only take me 15 mins to get home from night out in central London.

My compromise for doing this ? I live in zone 5 and live in a place where as soon I mention the name I know people are looking down at me.

This girl does have expectation out of her league, but its not living in zone 2, it whats she thinks she can get for living in zone 2.

Generali

Re the Shepherds Bush studio in the OP.

You can buy a studio for about £160,000 in Shepherds Bush. Not a bad area, tough journey to White Hart Lane on a Saturday afternoon but not bad apart from that.

Let's imagine you can buy with a 5% deposit. A lowish mortgage rate historically speaking would be 6% which would give a repayment of £980/month (25 yr repayment) plus 1% of the value of the flat in upkeep as a rule of thumb would be £135/month. Add to that management fees of £50 a month (conservative I would imagine although I have no idea) and you're looking at £1165 or an extra £400/month to buy the place plus a deposit of £8,000.

Renting at the bottom of the heap in London can be pretty horrible.

I lived in a huge shared house in the mid-90s near Crystal Palace (only not as classy). There were 4 of us living there.

We paid, from memory, £85/week for a room each, a single tiny shared bathroom between us, a single tiny shared kitchen, and a bedroom each. It was cold, draughty, and slightly damp. The carpet was those carpet tiles you get in cheap offices and I think the tin of paint used to paint the house had cost 3s6d. The house was one of those huge C19th semi-detached places that you see so many of in New Cross and Lewisham.

We used to often have a mate on a mattress in a back room who was down on his luck and between houses. A good Sunday lunchtime after a Saturday night would see 10 or 12 waking up at various points round the house. We were less than 5 minutes from the nearest pub and 10 minutes or so from the station into the City.

The house might not have been up to much, in fact it was a dump but we had a great time living there. The other 2 plus me that lived there I am still in touch with (lost touch with the other one) probably earn about £350,000 a year between us in basic wages plus bonus, commission, overtime etc. and have a total of 5 beautiful kids so we did ok in the end. Add in our 2 most regular Sunday morning sofa surfers and you can probably double the total income and increase the number of kids by 2.