Renting a 1 bedroom flat on £1000+ doable or not?

Million$baby

I am looking to move out of the family home in the near future and therefore have been looking at flats to rent. I have found a few flats ranging from £400-500 per month. I have done research and utility bills would be around £160 combined. This would be around £600-700 per month. I live relatively simple and I do not own a car. My travel costs £60 per month and food costs would be anywhere between 40-50 per month. This would leave me with over a couple hundred left for entertainment. To be honest I rarely go out to bars and restaurant, and I'm not a smoker. I personally believe I can live on this for a while until I build a business up. I am also looking to make some extra money on the side through a second job and/or buying/selling. What do you think? Is this doable for a single person?

Edit: forgot to add, I would be able to use my friends internet who I would be moving very close to. Mobile phone per month is £12.

FutureGirl

£160 seems a bit too little for all bills (electric, gas, water, council tax, tv licence, internet?, food)

littlegreenfrog_2

Is £1,000 your net monthly income? If so I think you would really struggle. Have you thought about moving into a shared house or flat?

PasturesNew

A 1-bed is a luxury for a single person, especially just starting out. I'd be looking at studio flats instead. Rent's cheaper and council tax might be a bit cheaper - and bills will be a tiny bit cheaper.

I'd always say, back of a cigarette packet style, that a single person living alone should scribble down £200/month for basic/standard bills of council tax, gas, water, electricity, TV license, contents insurance, basic Internet/phone line.

Round/rough figures I'd give generically would be:
£100 council tax
£100 other bills
£100 food and loo rolls/cleaning stuff and little household items (e.g. a new tin opener, a new £5 kettle, some vacuum bags; NOT new bed linen/curtains and cushions).

pmlindyloo

Use a budget sheet like this https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Documents/Advice%20factsheets/Debt/d-budget-sheet.pdf

to make sure you cover everything.

I don't know how old you are and whether it would be something you can consider but the cheapest way to live (other than at home!) is to house share. Gumtree is one place to look for house shares.

If you got a 2nd job then it is probably doable but you need to consider your long term objectives.

If you wish to save for a house then stay at home until you have a sizeable deposit and concentrate on increasing your income (new job? etc etc)

If you wish to take the middle road, save some money but also enjoy a good social life then a house share is an option.

Having a flat of your own is the most expensive option.

Don't forget the deposit and one month's rent in advance. Also credit checks. Some landlords also insist on income affordability (ie you earn enough to pay the rent etc)

Million$baby

littlegreenfrog wrote: »

Is £1,000 your net monthly income? If so I think you would really struggle. Have you thought about moving into a shared house or flat?

No I haven't thought about sharing, would like my own space really. Would landlords refuse me due to my income? And would a guarantor be compulsory?

HappyMJ

Million$baby wrote: »

I am looking to move out of the family home in the near future and therefore have been looking at flats to rent. I have found a few flats ranging from £400-500 per month. I have done research and utility bills would be around £160 combined. This would be around £600-700 per month. I live relatively simple and I do not own a car. My travel costs £60 per month and food costs would be anywhere between 40-50 per month. This would leave me with over a couple hundred left for entertainment. To be honest I rarely go out to bars and restaurant, and I'm not a smoker. I personally believe I can live on this for a while until I build a business up. I am also looking to make some extra money on the side through a second job and/or buying/selling. What do you think? Is this doable for a single person?

Edit: forgot to add, I would be able to use my friends internet who I would be moving very close to. Mobile phone per month is £12.

£400/month rent would be just about affordable on gross pay of £1,000/month. You usually have to earn that to even qualify to look at the property.

£500/month rent and you would need to earn £1,250/month.

littlegreenfrog_2

Million$baby wrote: »

No I haven't thought about sharing, would like my own space really. Would landlords refuse me due to my income? And would a guarantor be compulsory?

Only a letting agency could tell you that. Speaking of which, just taking out a new tenancy will usually set you back a good few hundred pounds. Do you have any savings at the moment? Is there anything you can do which will increase your income? Any chance of getting a different job or a promotion? I can understand wanting to have your own space, but this is a luxury most people on low incomes (and many people on not so low incomes) feel they cannot afford. If you're spending the majority of your income on renting your own flat, how will you pay for unexpected costs? What about buying new clothes every now and then, or going out with friends, or going on holiday? I think it would be a pretty miserable existence if you're spending almost your entire income just on renting a one bed flat so you don't have to live with other people.

tiger_eyes

When I rented a small studio flat at £400 a month, I budgeted £150 a month for regular bills (council tax, water, gas, electricity, internet) and a further £150 for cash spending (mainly food and the occasional bus ticket). It would be doable on a net income of £1000 a month, but unless you have a large savings buffer and/or save every spare penny for months, I don't see how you'd cover unexpected large bills - say if your computer died and you had to buy a new one. And if you ever got into debt, it could spiral very quickly.

Million$baby

littlegreenfrog wrote: »

Only a letting agency could tell you that. Speaking of which, just taking out a new tenancy will usually set you back a good few hundred pounds. Do you have any savings at the moment? Is there anything you can do which will increase your income? Any chance of getting a different job or a promotion? I can understand wanting to have your own space, but this is a luxury most people on low incomes (and many people on not so low incomes) feel they cannot afford. If you're spending the majority of your income on renting your own flat, how will you pay for unexpected costs? What about buying new clothes every now and then, or going out with friends, or going on holiday? I think it would be a pretty miserable existence if you're spending almost your entire income just on renting a one bed flat so you don't have to live with other people.

I do have some savings but that money is solely to build upon to start a business venture. Promotion would be unlikely any time soon as have only been in the job a few months and I work on commission. My dream is to start a business once I have enough money built up, so currently I am working so called "dead end" jobs to build up my finances.

A lot of the time I have been working in temp jobs to keep everything ticking over as don't want to commit myself to a permanent job with me wanting to go it alone in the near future. Interesting what you say about it would be a miserable existence on my own with majority of my money going on rent and bills.

What's it like to live in a house share? Not something I've thought about because living with total strangers would be a bit hit or miss I would have thought. I don't want to end up somewhere where I don't get along with housemate/s a few weeks in and realise I have tied myself to a 6 month contract or something.

littlegreenfrog_2

Million$baby wrote: »

I do have some savings but that money is solely to build upon to start a business venture. Promotion would be unlikely any time soon as have only been in the job a few months and I work on commission. My dream is to start a business once I have enough money built up, so currently I am working so called "dead end" jobs to build up my finances.

A lot of the time I have been working in temp jobs to keep everything ticking over as don't want to commit myself to a permanent job with me wanting to go it alone in the near future. Interesting what you say about it would be a miserable existence on my own with majority of my money going on rent and bills.

What's it like to live in a house share? Not something I've thought about because living with total strangers would be a bit hit or miss I would have thought. I don't want to end up somewhere where I don't get along with housemate/s a few weeks in and realise I have tied myself to a 6 month contract or something.

How old are you, out of interest? And what part of the country are you in?

I'm 30 and I (and the vast majority of my friends) have lived in many house shares. We've all had good experiences and bad ones. Sometimes you move in with friends and discover that you don't get on as well as you thought you did. Sometimes you move in with strangers and they become amazing new friends. You don't really know until you try, and it's all part of life's rich tapestry!

It sounds like you're not very financially stable and getting your own place is likely to be a financial commitment you can't really afford. You could sign up to a six month contract on your own flat and then find you are lonely and miserable and can't afford to go out. You'd still be just as stuck as if you sign up to a six month contract in a flat share and find the people you are living with are really annoying. Probably more so, because if you flat share and find it isn't working out, you might well be able to find someone else to replace you and take over your share of the tenancy so you can move out. If you have sole responsibility for a place of your own, you can't do that unless your landlord agrees to end your tenancy early, which will cost you. And living in a shared flat would be much cheaper, so you're less likely to want to move out mid-way through the contract because you've realised you can't afford it.

I say if you really want to move out of your family home, give flat sharing a go.