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

arbrighton

kingslayer wrote: »

Wow! Over 900k average price for a flat, wih 89% of the area being largely flats too. Those prices are unjustifiable tbh.

Supply and demand- it's worth what someone will pay for it and can be justified by a mortgage valuation. A 'desirable area' carries a premium and starts bidding wars

Transformers

kingslayer wrote: »

Wow! Over 900k average price for a flat, wih 89% of the area being largely flats too. Those prices are unjustifiable tbh.

It's comments like this that show just how unaware you are of real life.

Prices are dictated by the market - if people are prepared to pay then there is no need for landlords to reduce rents. If properties are selling for £900k then that is what the market is indicating they are worth.

Anyway, how many more threads are you going to start about your 'pie in the sky' ideas?

Particularly when you haven't even bothered to do any research yourself - a look on Rightmove, London job sites and researching council tax and utility rates would have given you the information required to make some budget estimates on your own.

All these threads just smack of immaturity and wanting everything handed to you with minimal effort on your part - that's not the behaviour of someone with ambition is it? Where's YOUR initiative and drive?

Doshwaster

I've never lived in London (love visiting though) but to consider moving there for a job now it would have to be at least £70-80k. Even if I was still in my 20s and was happy to share I struggle to see how London could be tolerable for less than £30k

Out here in the sticks, I can have a very comfortable on life as a single person on around £48k. in a modern 2-bed semi with a mortgage of only £550 a month. In London I would be paying twice as much for something half the size.

You really couldn't pay me enough to commute into London every day.

[Deleted User]

ANGLICANPAT wrote: »

Wow , my nephew could have done with you to show him round last year,he couldnt find anything under a grand a month in Hamstead, and that would have been a less than wonderful 1 bedder.

Well, the studio flats I found online were TINY for that price; and quite often these adverts lie a bit when it comes to location

Wanting to move to London and picking Hampstead as your first port of call AND not having a lot of money is quite mad in my opinion.

kingslayer just won't make any decision or do his own research - i think he'd fall flat on his face if he moved to London (not that he will because he has no opinion of his own or ability to make decisions)

Personally, if I was moving to London as someone in my 20s, i'd be looking around West Hampstead. I just like the place, and it's got great links into and around London.

Philuk

kingslayer wrote: »

You just "manage" on 32k? Jesus! I keep hearing conflicting opinions. On other sites I've been on some people say their siblings or friends manage on the salary I mentioned, whereas others say you need 25k or above. I'm thinking the former opinions may be fibbing slightly or have taken costs into consideration.

Depends what you consider being a liveable life. If it involves flat sharing with a polish couple and 2 chineses students in an ex-council in zone 4, with the nearest tube station 15 mins away by bus. If beyond traveling, working and sleeping, your only activities are streaming football and play 5 a side once a week, then YES you can live on 20k. I know cause the above was my situation.

Oh, and don't even think about saving a deposit to buy a flat, you would need to earn way in excess of 50k to save any significant amounts (average flat 500k, so deposit of 100k+ required if you are on 6 figures with the combined income of you and your partner .

isisini

When I first moved to London in 2006, I lived on £18k, shared a room in Zone 2 and got by, just about I think it would be extremely difficult now.

My husband & I earn £85k between us and have a pretty comfortable house in Zone 3, about 20 minutes from Central London by tube. We have enough pin money for entertainment and a couple of holidays each year and we can save a bit each month. We could get by on quite a bit less I think.

DtSje

I'm on 27k living in Balham (south west zone 3) and pay £800 per month rent for a big flat shared with an old friend.

After rent I'm left with just over £900 per month, which I'd class as being reasonably comfortable.

That being said, I did earn 20k for a while paying £700 rent per month, so it is doable on a small budget.

Candyapple

Philuk wrote: »

Depends what you consider being a liveable life. If it involves flat sharing with a polish couple and 2 chineses students in an ex-council in zone 4, with the nearest tube station 15 mins away by bus. If beyond traveling, working and sleeping, your only activities are streaming football and play 5 a side once a week, then YES you can live on 20k. I know cause the above was my situation.

Oh, and don't even think about saving a deposit to buy a flat, you would need to earn way in excess of 50k to save any significant amounts (average flat 500k, so deposit of 100k+ required if you are on 6 figures with the combined income of you and your partner .

^^THIS.

Hampstead, whilst it is a beautiful area, isn't somewhere you should be considering residing in as you simply cannot afford it. If you don’t even have basic qualifications, what jobs are you realistically looking to apply for? Because even a basic 30k job won’t land in your lap if you have no degree or work experience, that’s to say if you even manage to get an interview because of the competition.

Get by in London on £16-18k? Those types of jobs are usually going to be menial unskilled roles with long hours of 40+ per week. Where would you find the time to do anything other than eat, sleep and work? You would essentially be working to live with no ‘life’ outside your job. You most certainly wouldn’t be able to afford rent anywhere near Hampstead.

What are your long term goals? Let’s say by some stretch of the imagination you managed to secure a job paying 30k, would you be ok renting a shared space with 4-6 other strangers and paying half your monthly wage for the privilege? Even if you lived frugally, you would still have transport costs (tube/bus commute to work) debt repayments (assuming you have some), food costs, what if you wanted to save for a holiday, go back to see your friends, met someone/dating etc. All of these costs soon add up and if you lived carefully you may possibly be able to save what, a few hundred quid a month if that? If you were looking to save for a house deposit you can forget about it.

If you are serious about moving to London, I think you need to concentrate firstly on your job prospects which mean sorting out your education. However as someone else pointed out, this is just another pie in the sky thread about nothing.