Graduate Moving To London - Best Areas?

tim123456789

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Affordable, nice and near London ... you can have two but not all three.

For someone whose job expectations are as a "paid" intern I think that he can have one of them, affordable, not nice and not (very) near London.

ISTM that unless he wants to couch surf, his affordable options are going to be places like Luton or Medway.

tim

butterfly72

A couple of other to consider:

An easy gettaway out of london when you want to visit home. A long drive around the m25 or train ride across london to your main station can add an hour to your journey home.

Working in the music industry do you need to go to evening gigs? Think about your journey home at night and choose somewhere with good links. You dont want the last train home leaving waterloo at 11.12pm!! Not sure where the majority of gigs are held nowaday but 10-15 yrs ago when i used to go to gigs the main locations were shepards bush, camden, brixton, islington, west end.

Hope this helps.

mellonicoley

butterfly72 wrote: »

A couple of other to consider:

An easy gettaway out of london when you want to visit home. A long drive around the m25 or train ride across london to your main station can add an hour to your journey home.

Working in the music industry do you need to go to evening gigs? Think about your journey home at night and choose somewhere with good links. You dont want the last train home leaving waterloo at 11.12pm!! Not sure where the majority of gigs are held nowaday but 10-15 yrs ago when i used to go to gigs the main locations were shepards bush, camden, brixton, islington, west end.

Hope this helps.

Trains run throughout the night from London Victoria into East Croydon

Croydon isn't the nicest area at all, but it has good transport links and is cheap!

sann420

Hi mate

Your first goal is to get yourself in London. I would suggest go for a house share. Once you are in and you know the ins and outs and have a permanent job then start thinking about buying.

Cheap areas with good commuting links that come to my mind in East London: Leyton, Ilford, Barking.

I think these are generally dirty and disgusting but not dangerous.

Once you decide to buy you can also opt for shared ownership properties.

Tancred

isisini wrote: »

You could go for somewhere that you can commute into Paddington (not too far from Kensington) e.g. somewhere outside Reading like Twyford or Newbury.

Or buy somewhere nearby where you are now and suck up the commute? Swindon - London isn't that far..

However working a paid internship in the music industry is really not going to get you very far towards buying property in or around London in the short term. You might want to scale back your expectations, unless your girlfriend is on a really good salary.

I can tell you as a Reading resident that it is very expensive to commute into London nowadays. I can't recommend it. Moreover, Reading is not a cheap place to live.

abankerbutnotafatcat

I am not recommending Reading to the OP as I don't know the area or enough about his situation but I had a quick look and wouldn't think there are many areas you can easily commute to London from in his general direction (he's from the SW) where you can buy a two bed terrace within a mile of the train station for less than £170k. I know these thing are all relative but whilst maybe not 'cheap', that seems like value to me.

topbargainhunter

I know of a very nice 1 bed flat for sale with 170 year lease for £175k in Barnet. It is a very nice area, and I always felt safe walking the streets in the dark when I lived there. It was about £1100 a year season ticket to get into central London when I last worked there (5 years ago). So I don't think it's out of your league if you sell the other place. A house however probably is, you're talking at least double that.

melx

Hiya Parts of Acton are very nice and up and coming and they have 7 train stations in the area with direct access into London or you could cycle in..its around five or six miles to Kensington high st? Also you could look at shared ownership if you wanted to buy a larger property but felt you didnt have enough deposit? Also a bit further out is Walton on thames again a really nice area but with the added costs of commuting? Hope this helps and good luck!!!

Bazshawkins

If you've got a deposit of £150k and borrowed £100k, you could get a 2 bedroom place within zone 2.

Not sure if you'd be able to borrow £100k based on your salaries although a quick look on Halifax shows that if your combined income is around £39,000 (assuming hers matches his) you could borrow this amount and you'd be looking at repayments of something like £600 per month between you - I'd have thought that was affordable if you are prudent.

Moonraker71

Hi there, I worked in the music industry for 15 yrs in this part of town, commuting in from the south coast. Assume from your post you'll be working at Universal, which I'm sure you know is right next to Kensington Olympia station. If you're coming into town from the south, it's quite a good connection as you can change trains at Clapham Junction and avoid having to go through zone 1. This can take a sizeable chunk off the cost of a monthly season ticket. I think you'll struggle to get somewhere affordable even on the outskirts of London, if you're looking for a house of your own (to rent or buy) on an intern's wage. (Initially, before you're on a permanent contract, I doubt you'd be able to get a mortgage).

Have you considered the area around Three Bridges, Horley or Redhill? Not particularly glamorous it has to be said, but substantially cheaper than most of London I'd imagine. This would mean a total commute of around 45-60 mins, which is not too bad.
Good luck. They will work you to the bone, pay you abysmally and by the time you hit 30 you'll never want to see another gig ever again. Only joking of course, you'll have the time of your life