Belfast - London Relocation

abankerbutnotafatcat

You could consider areas where the trains go into London Bridge too - it's a 15 minute walk to Bank or a 20 minute walk to Liverpool Street (Cannon Street is even closer and some trains from Kent go through to it).

If you live outside of the London Transport zones it saves you c£500 a year if you can walk from the mainline station your Train goes into rather than get the tube/a bus. You can then get an Oyster Card for occasional use.

As a starter: you could get a two bed flat in Purley for c£800 -£1000 PCM and a monthly ticket to LB is £160. The train journey is c30 mins.

SuzieSue

Just in case you haven't seen this, these are all the trains that go in to Liverpool Street.

http://www.greateranglia.co.uk/travel-information/journey-planning/network-map

I know about the line from Liverpool Street to Cambridge and if I were you, I would look at flats within walking distance any of the stations north of Cheshunt.

The places on the Hertford East Line will probably be cheaper because it is a slower train and they are less frequent.

You might also consider the lines going East, but I don't know about those areas.

All towns around London have bad areas, so you need to make sure that it will be safe for you to walk home at night and the best way to do that is speak to the neighbours when you view a flat and see if any of them commute in to London. You should also speak to some of the nearby shop keepers and see if they have any trouble with anti-social behaviour.

nollag2006

If the move is only for 3 - 6 months, surely the company would put you up in London for such a short stint? You are still likely to have to keep paying your mortgage back in Belfast.

Realistically, for a decent place in London you would be paying at least £1,500 pcm for a two bed (plus utilities, water, and council tax), perhaps a couple of hundred pounds less for a 1 bed. Even at that price, the areas won't be great.

If you are willing to commute, and pay London's sky high rail fares (as I do !) then this website might be of use, in terms of target commuter towns:
http://www.commutefrom.com/

Annisele

kgrant wrote: »

Personally I would be on a decent wage but can someone honestly give us a good salary figure that would be suffient to sustain 2 x Adults to live near London for at least 3-6 months?

That's a "how long is a piece of string" question if ever there was one!

If you're supporting two people on one salary in London, I'd personally consider £50k to be the bottom end of a decent wage. If you want two bedrooms, then I think less than £40k would be very difficult indeed. £40k gives a take home pay of about £2.5k per month, and you could easily spend £2k per month on rent/bills/transport (and no, council tax isn't usually included in the rent - broadly, that'll be another £100 a month). However, I know people do manage on less that that - but you won't be getting any tree lined avenues.

Put another way, I work in London and I don't know anybody earning less than about £35k who lives alone - they're all either in houseshares or with (earning) partners. Around £35k a few of my colleagues live in studio/one bed flats.

We will also want an area that is safe for the car that we would be bringing & was wanting to ask in terms of council permits how much can they cost up too?

That's another thing that's going to restrict you in your search. If your budget was larger it'd be less of a problem, but parking in London is expensive.

Many flats don't have access to parking spaces at all (and on your budget, if you choose to live in London itself you're looking at a flat not a house). In the estate I live in, parking for one car is about £80-£100 a month (zone 4, but near a mainline station so the parking costs more than it otherwise would). I don't have a car; if I were to park both at home and at work the parking alone would cost me £250 a month, and the tube costs me less than that.

The further outside London you go, the cheaper parking gets - council permits in Bishops Stortford seem to be £35 (but I'm not sure how long they last).

However, it sounds as though you're wanting a second parking spot for when family come to stay. You're going to have to make compromises somewhere given your budget, and I think a second parking spot might be one of the things you have to compromise out I'm afraid.

Annisele

SuzieSue wrote: »

You should also speak to some of the nearby shop keepers and see if they have any trouble with anti-social behaviour.

My favourite question for that was "how often do your windows get smashed".

I've had three basic answers "never, we installed shutters", "about once a month or so", and open-mouthed amazement. I moved to the open-mouthed amazement place; very glad I did!

kgrant

nollag2006 wrote: »

If the move is only for 3 - 6 months, surely the company would put you up in London for such a short stint? You are still likely to have to keep paying your mortgage back in Belfast.

Realistically, for a decent place in London you would be paying at least £1,500 pcm for a two bed (plus utilities, water, and council tax), perhaps a couple of hundred pounds less for a 1 bed. Even at that price, the areas won't be great.

If you are willing to commute, and pay London's sky high rail fares (as I do !) then this website might be of use, in terms of target commuter towns:
http://www.commutefrom.com/

No no I'm wanting to at least sustain for 3-6 months until the wife gets a job hence I need to know what income I'll need to afford to rent,pay bills,commute without eating into our small savings! In Belfast we are only renting and have no tie-ins hence why we want a place to rent in around Bishops Stortford... In terms of having an extra bedroom I suppose it is a luxury at the mo & a sofa bed would probably help on the rental overall....

BitterAndTwisted

There seem to be quite a few 2-bedroomed properties for rent on Rightmove around the Broxbourne/Cheshunt area at the moment for about £1k a month or slightly less.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Cheshunt.html?maxPrice=1000&minBedrooms=1&maxBedrooms=2&displayPropertyType=flats&oldDisplayPropertyType=flats&retirement=false

Some close to BR stations and with allocated parking

SuzieSue

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

There seem to be quite a few 2-bedroomed properties for rent on Rightmove around the Broxbourne/Cheshunt area at the moment for about £1k a month or slightly less.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/Cheshunt.html?maxPrice=1000&minBedrooms=1&maxBedrooms=2&displayPropertyType=flats&oldDisplayPropertyType=flats&retirement=false

Some close to BR stations and with allocated parking

Yes, Cheshunt is worth considering as there are some fast trains which reach Liverpool Street in around 20-25 minutes and the train fare will be much cheaper than Bishops Stortford.

nollag2006

Have you asked your company to put you into a serviced apartment for the first month or two until you can figure out what areas you can afford to live in?

kgrant

nollag2006 wrote: »

Have you asked your company to put you into a serviced apartment for the first month or two until you can figure out what areas you can afford to live in?

Good point-I will ask this as I have just made a list of questions & will go in today to work to try find out more on the offer & if the package can be tailored to be more sustainable.....