millennials-can-you-afford-rental-prices-in-london

missbiggles1

DRFC1879 wrote: »

Don't get me wrong, I like a trip to the theatre and enjoy the atmosphere in London for a visit every now and then but on the whole the quality of life (not just in my hometown!) in many places outside of London is so much better.


Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Leeds all have great nightlife if that's what you're after and still at a fraction of the price.

It depends what you mean by nightlife.

Nowhere offers a range of opportunities and choices of going to the theatre, dance, live music etc that in any way rivals London. Nor, with the possible exception of specific ethnic areas, does any city offer the range and variety of restaurants that can be found there.

missbiggles1

Hutchch0920 wrote: »

OP mentioned how they know of late 20s earning £100k+ a year. Being a late 20s I've had a think about my friends, what they do, and how much they earn in London. So off the top of my head (all accurate within a couple of thou...)

Me (27) £32.5k
OH (25) £15K
Best Friend 1 (25): £19k
Best Friend 2 (23) Nadda (she's a student)
Best Friend 2 boyfriend (29) <£25k
Best Friend 3 (26) £35k
Old housemate (24) £26k
Old housemate 2 (27) <£20k
Work colleague (25) £26k
Work colleague (28) 32-34k
Work colleague (28) £40-42k
Work colleague (34) £45k ish
OH Best Friend (23) £24-28k
BF from Uni (26) £60k

I am not in the habit of grilling people on their salary but these are the ones I know about. There's two girls that have done pretty well for themselves, one is training to be an accountant and works for one of the big 4 so I am pretty sure she's on a fair bit. The other one is a girl I know from uni, when she moved to London five years ago she started on £35k and she's a really hard worker so I can only dream of what she's on now.

Anyway, I am sure I have many bright and well off peers yet from my personal experience this is by no means the norm.

As it stands at the moment I can't stay in/around London and be able to afford to live in a family house so I can start a family.

Most people, IME, don't start a family in a family house, they do that in a 2 bed flat or small house, if they're lucky. A "family house" is something you acquire (again, if you're lucky) when you're in your 40s, well established, with children in their teens.

Carl31

CLAPTON wrote: »

I think you are new to the board so I'll update you with the rules

-nearly everyone here was born in poverty
-everyone worked incredibly hard and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps with no help from anyone
-most of the people they grew up with were wasters who are now single mums
-they are all now highly successful with £100,000 + jobs
-they all have a multi million property portfolio
-they all believe that anyone earning less than £100,000 is a benefit cheat whose only ambition is a council flat
-they all believe that London is totally affordable if you only worked hard (just go out and get a better job etc)

that's just for starters : now have I told you about my poor upbringing, the poverty and how I .............

also, those who do own a property

-bought theirs when times were harder than they are now
-first property was nothing more than a cow shed with a bucket in the corner for toilet, and a bed made of old leaves
-they lived on pickings from bins for food, and drank their own wee for 10 years in order to save up the deposit


and of course, the main reason why no one can afford houses is because they have iphones and drink coffee

Hutchch0920

@Clapton :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Most people, IME, don't start a family in a family house, they do that in a 2 bed flat or small house, if they're lucky. A "family house" is something you acquire (again, if you're lucky) when you're in your 40s, well established, with children in their teens.

At the moment my idea of a family house would be a small 2-3 bed house...not a huge place like where my OH's parents live. But as it stands we would just about afford a one bed flat in zone 6....which we'd swiftly grow out of as soon as baby 1 arrived.

My best friend on the other hand has just bought a well proportioned semi detached two bed in a cute village in the Midlands for half the price it would cost for something similar in Kent (...not even London!). And my other best friend has just inherited something similar down the road which would be worth about a third.

It will be interesting to see whether over the next couple of years my salary will increase to something which would allow me to afford something down south....I'm not pinning my hopes on it though!

cells

Hutchch0920 wrote: »

OP mentioned how they know of late 20s earning £100k+ a year. Being a late 20s I've had a think about my friends, what they do, and how much they earn in London. So off the top of my head (all accurate within a couple of thou...)

Me (27) £32.5k
OH (25) £15K
Best Friend 1 (25): £19k
Best Friend 2 (23) Nadda (she's a student)
Best Friend 2 boyfriend (29) <£25k
Best Friend 3 (26) £35k
Old housemate (24) £26k
Old housemate 2 (27) <£20k
Work colleague (25) £26k
Work colleague (28) 32-34k
Work colleague (28) £40-42k
Work colleague (34) £45k ish
OH Best Friend (23) £24-28k
BF from Uni (26) £60k

I am not in the habit of grilling people on their salary but these are the ones I know about. There's two girls that have done pretty well for themselves, one is training to be an accountant and works for one of the big 4 so I am pretty sure she's on a fair bit. The other one is a girl I know from uni, when she moved to London five years ago she started on £35k and she's a really hard worker so I can only dream of what she's on now.

Anyway, I am sure I have many bright and well off peers yet from my personal experience this is by no means the norm.

London is special in the UK in that it has thousands of jobs that pay very good wages. Compared to the nearly 9 million in the city its a small percentage but its a large nominal number. Compared to say stoke on trent where the number is closer to zero

Also the truth is that for most the well off or better off especially true in London, inheritance plays a big part. More than £100 billion is passed down each year.

So it is not just wages bidding for homes its this £100 billion of inheritance each year bidding for homes too.

As it stands at the moment I can't stay in/around London and be able to afford to live in a family house so I can start a family.

where there is a will there is a way

alternatively you could move to stoke where homes are ~1/10th the price

N1AK

CLAPTON wrote: »

yes it detracts from the real story that young couples in work in London and SE, can no long access family sized homes in many areas of London that had been available to similar people 20-30 years ago.

This means their standard of living is declining due to the population increase much of which is caused by immigration.
They do of course have access to far more coffee bars and restaurants than previously.

Your usually half thought out reactionary xenophobia I see. If all these immigrants are benefit scrounging low paid burdens like you seem to think then how exactly do you explain your claim that they're pushing up the already very high London prices?

N1AK

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Most people, IME, don't start a family in a family house, they do that in a 2 bed flat or small house, if they're lucky. A "family house" is something you acquire (again, if you're lucky) when you're in your 40s, well established, with children in their teens.

That might be the case now but I'd have to see some evidence to back up a claim that it was 20-30 years ago. Every member of my family, and my wife's family, of my parents generation was living in a proper house before having kids; and the majority didn't go to university or get higher than average pay jobs.

People generally started earning earlier, pay peaked earlier in life, and housing was more affordable so it would be odd if they didn't find it easier to do that.

economic

N1AK wrote: »

That might be the case now but I'd have to see some evidence to back up a claim that it was 20-30 years ago. Every member of my family, and my wife's family, of my parents generation was living in a proper house before having kids; and the majority didn't go to university or get higher than average pay jobs.

People generally started earning earlier, pay peaked earlier in life, and housing was more affordable so it would be odd if they didn't find it easier to do that.

agree. my parents were in slightly below average paid jobs and had very little money yet managed to afford an average semi detached in zone 4 in their early 30s. they are 60 now.

missbiggles1

N1AK wrote: »

That might be the case now but I'd have to see some evidence to back up a claim that it was 20-30 years ago. Every member of my family, and my wife's family, of my parents generation was living in a proper house before having kids; and the majority didn't go to university or get higher than average pay jobs.

People generally started earning earlier, pay peaked earlier in life, and housing was more affordable so it would be odd if they didn't find it easier to do that.

And yet I lived in London in the 70s (my early and late 20s) and I couldn't afford to rent more than a room in a flat share and wasn't able to buy until I was well into my 30s, married and had moved to Hertfordshire.

All my friends, most of them graduates, were in a similar position and were only able to buy in London by taking on a wreck in a run down area and spending all their leisure time doing it up over several years.

Mistermeaner

I don't think London is place to earn average wages and start a family. I know plenty of people who hadx a great time there in their 20s generally in multi occupancy homes and then relocated when starting families in their 30s.

Some who had very good jobs stayed in part because they could afford to but even those moved outside the m25 to buy family homes

I looked to move to London recently with work but couldn't make it work for numerous reasons, partly cost and partly my perception of quality of life particularly with my son. Schooling and the commuting were major factors. I turned down a very generous relocation package and wage rise to stay in my northern hell hole and travel in my train as required.

Not that its perhaps relevant but I'm now lucky enough to be a six figure salary earner but still live in a 2 bed semi even in a northern hell hole.... Not sure where the sense of entitlement to a big property comes from???.....