Renting in London

suffolkb

Roehampton to Brentford is an easy cycle - cross Kew bridge and turn left. Especially easy for you as he would be doing it. Richmond and Roehampton are pretty expensive, but if you could walk to uni, that`s a big saving. I`ve no idea how long public transport would take as I found it easier to cycle (quicker too).

lau_dicker

Thanks for all your suggestions! Its gonna be a big change for us both! We have a car at the moment, but we were considering selling it before we move. Would you suggest selling it before we go or keeping it and bringing it with us? We wont really need to come back "up north" very often I don't think ... unless I get home sick!!!

Kaminari_2

My other half works at Roehampton Uni and we live the other side of the river from Richmond. He gets the train and then a bus (when he can get on it) and it takes about half an hour. Our two bed flat is £850 per month but council tax is an extra £135 because we are in the borough of Richmond. We moved last year from East Sheen (about 15 minute walk from the Uni) where our rent was £1000 per month. That might give you an idea of renting prices in the area.
Roehampton is notorious for the poor transport links. It has quite a few buses but as mentioned above Roehampton Lane can grind to a halt. Buses from Barnes Station up Roehampton Lane has been slightly reduced which is an oversight by TfL and i know that the Uni and TfL are in contact about improving them.
Roehampton itself is not the nicest area to live (Except up near Putney Heath and sorry to anyone that lives there now) but Putney is good for transport as mentioned above and it is also close to the river. Roehampton and Putney are both in the borough of Wandsworth and Council tax in less than Half of what it is in it's neighbouring Richmond. That might be something worth considering to.
Quite often you will find advertisements for flats in Putney but really they are for Roehampton because Putney is considered more desirable, more people have heard if it and it has an underground line.
I would second the recommendation above about https://www.gumtree.com

Good luck!

Mutton_Geoff

Don't underestimate the noise from the planes arriving at Heathrow. Using a map (here's a link to Google), draw a straight lines from each of the two main east/west runways back out over London. These are the paths the planes follow from 4.30am until 11.30pm. The runways are "swapped" at 3pm each day so the arriving planes move from one to the other. Generally departures won't bother you there unless they depart towards the east (much less common due to prevailing westerly winds in the UK).

If you keep your househunting a mile or more north of the line that extends from the northerly of the two runways (ie about where the Google arrow is on Brentford High Street), then you will sleep better! Double glazing doesn't help much as a lot of plane noise still comes through the roof of your house etc.

There are plenty of the big property sites that have lettings on them and with the surplus of landlords, don't forget to bargain hard!

olly300

lau_dicker wrote: »

Thanks for all your suggestions! Its gonna be a big change for us both! We have a car at the moment, but we were considering selling it before we move. Would you suggest selling it before we go or keeping it and bringing it with us? We wont really need to come back "up north" very often I don't think ... unless I get home sick!!!

Some places in London don't have any parking nearby and/or you will need a parking permit. Different councils have different requirements about what you documents you need to produce to get a parking permit and visitors parking permits.

So you may arrive and find you can't park because you don't have the correct documentation!! Ask about parking when you are looking at places to live. Then check the council websites before you agree to the place if you need a parking permit.

Whether you need a car or not depends simply on your where you live, you lifestyle and how far the nearest decent shops are near you. (Though you can now use internet delivery for heavy items. )

Generally if:
1. you are approx a mile away from a large supermarket
2. have a decent lot of shops or a shopping centre within 2 miles
3. are near a tube or train station with frequent (1-10 minutes) trains in the day
4. are on more than two frequent (less than 9 minutes in the day) bus routes 5. go out in the area or in centre London

then you can manage without one.