how much would you need to earn to live in London, comfortably?

Jhoney_2

Quizzical_Squirrel wrote: »

I don't know anyone past 30 who lives in London and is on less than 100K.

That's a hello from the millions around you.
:wave::wave::wave::wave::wave::wave:

If I am wrong, why can the under 40's not afford to buy?

System

My husband and I lived comfortably on around £34k between us, but that certainly wasn't central. We were in zone 6 and lived around 45-60 minutes from the centre.

Jhoney_2

Had less than half of that, bought in zone 3/4, single income with a mortgage and found a job local to home.

That was a while ago, but it wasn't cheap even then. You have to make the situation and the numbers work for you.

It was a lousy job experience, but went in at a competitive level to secure it and worked my way up. Stuck at it until I had enough promotions to create another option for myself and then left.

Noone just hands you a set of keys...

mjoneseyjones

The wife and I earn just under 100k between us. Wouldn't want to be on much less than that to live any kind of long term life here.


We have a small house in a desirable area, but of course this means a large mortgage. We also have a car and motorbike. After these expenses are done we have a pretty comfortable life in terms of holidaying and socialising as much as we want to, but if we earned less we might have to make compromises which would suck.


London would be a pretty horrendous place to be short of cash in. 18k a year sounds miserable.

theEnd

London's expensive, but there are a much higher proportion of (very) well paid jobs.

The people I know in London either make loads or make nothing.

Nothing can be ok, as your housing is paid for and most other 'living' costs are much the same as anywhere else. There's also plenty of 'cash' work around if you want to top up the going out fund.

Obviously loads is fine. At say 80k, you can't buy a great property, but otherwise can live a good life.

The biggest problem is for those working, in low paid jobs. I'd say anything under 40k is fairly low paid in London. Just the process of being in work costs. Tax obviously, transport, lunches, work nights out, dry cleaning etc, etc. Plus you have to pay for your own housing.

Very few people in London need a car. I can only think of people in the trades and those less able.

Comstock

kingslayer wrote: »

What kind of salary would one need to live comfortably in london? I am talking about one person renting a flat in say, central london or hampstead.

Hampstead is a particularly expensive part of London. Any particular reason you want to live there (admittedly it is very nice!)

I doubt 16k would even cover the rent on a 1bed flat in Hampstead.

Highgate is a tiny smidgen cheaper, but you are still talking well over £200 a week for a studio flat.

pickles13

My partner and I work in central London and he is from West London but even on a joint salary of 80K, we can't afford to live in London near his parents (Harrow) so have moved out to Buckinghamshire, which is only 30 mins by train to Marylebone anyway.

Jhoney_2

mjoneseyjones wrote: »

The wife and I earn just under 100k between us. Wouldn't want to be on much less than that to live any kind of long term life here.


We have a small house in a desirable area, but of course this means a large mortgage. We also have a car and motorbike. After these expenses are done we have a pretty comfortable life in terms of holidaying and socialising as much as we want to, but if we earned less we might have to make compromises which would suck.


London would be a pretty horrendous place to be short of cash in. 18k a year sounds miserable.

If you don't mind, i'd like to use this as an example.

• Most people want big rooms in the properties they purchase e.g 2 kids = large garden, big kitchen high ceilings etc
• Most people want a 30min commute to work in The City or Central London (highest paying areas + thus the highest buying/renting areas in terms of demand) - not to mention wanting less than 10mins walk to get the train.
• The average wage is supposedly approx 26K pa

All of that is not achievable to most people on that wage, so compromise is a must or the realisation that you cannot have your cake and eat it.



Because for too long, resources and UKplc has been centred around london, it's a magnate for everyone and that includes a lot of people from other parts of the UK for work or pastures new. That also drives the market up(rightly or not) and is part of the disproportionate costs of buying here, over other areas of the UK, imo.


People talk of 'not so nice areas, but look at what happened to prices in East london (Olympics/Westf***d), Shebu, Brixton to name but a few.


Historically, there was the stigma of living on an estate...try buying an (ex)-council flat in West London! - I know of a 4b maisonette - top floor so no garden one for 800k. It's not even that near a station...but ah the joy/prestige of that postcode eh? Much of the issue is gossip and bad press coverage.



I say this as a born and raised West Londoner (not far from the main PL football club in the area. The fact that there is only now a good additional alternative (Boris line) to the district line from most of the stations surrounding e.g west london seems to escape all and the frenzie continues. The commutes were a nightmare. Drugs and theft (where is all the money located?) is rife, but not if you listen to the news....



Moving into the lesser profiled areas results in cheaper rent/purchase and a change in perception/realisation of the area. Suddenly they become 'up-and-coming' and prices rise (delivering potential equity).


At the end of the day, you pays your money....

nobblyned

First started in London 15 years ago on £20k in shared house (guess around £30k in today's money) lived single life fairly comfortably. Lived on outskirts zone 3/4. Went away then came back 10 years ago married on single income £60k, then joint income around £100k. Also fairly comfortable. Now moved out into commuter land.

Wouldn't want to come here as a young single now less than £30k and that would not involve living in central London or Hampstead. Shared house further out the way to go on a tight budget to get u started.

princeofpounds

The London so-called living wage is 18k. Seriously it's scraping by, and anything less than that is going to feel like (first world) poverty.

Personally I think you only stand a chance of some comfort in 25k at least, and that's if you'll accept less than nice areas.

One thing to bear in mind though; the psychology of many people thinking about a move to London is often wrong, if they haven't had much exposure to places like it. They forget about future prospects and often aim too low.

You can do London for a year or two on 18k but then you want to be pushing up and up. Sometimes it is worth the struggle so you can be earning 25, 30, 40+ in jobs that simply don't pay like that or even exist in the regions.

No point sitting around at that wage level, unless you are really into walking long distances to parks and free museums as you main social life.