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Moving
- Thread starter victoriab
- Start date
Augustus Gloop
Well-Known Forumite
Moving to London?
My sincere apologies.
My sincere apologies.
rich upsetter
Cuffy is the new skill
when you say you need some kind of place to live, what do you mean? actual bricks and mortar, or an actual area?noir2985 said:
I need to either rent or buy or something a flat or a house or a hole or whatever I can afford! I know bugger all about London other than it's expensive. I'll be working right in the middle from what I know (not much) and so what that means I have no idea. I suppose what I'm after are any opinions on what to look for, where to look and what to avoid.
cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
only hes off travelling the world at the mo.dirtybobby said:
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rich upsetter
Cuffy is the new skill
cant speak from personal experience but the missus and many friends work and live down there, but from what i can gather a lot of it can depend on what time you start work/which tube line its on...as getting into work in the morning is like entering into hades. so that should maybe a start point? buying, well looking at prices when im down there your gonna need the best part of 200 grand for a one bedroom flat, with maybe two other rooms. if you rent say goodbye to over 100 quid a week, and thats pretty cheap.
ive got some mates who live in camden and kentish town, which is pretty 'groovy' but unless you are sharing with a partner it can be well over 150 a week. but you are within 10 min tube journey of everywhere that is considered city centre.
miss upsetter lives in east dulwhich which doesnt have a tube stop, only overground so it can take longer to get to the city, but is in easy reach of her work...so again depends where you are working can highly recommend east dulwhich...anders and jimbob live a further couple of stops in the opposite direction...but east dulwich can be pretty pricey. claphams quite cool as well, but is being overun with aussies, so wont be visited by gon2seed any time soon!
this could go on and on really but all depends on a few factors on your side noir!
ive got some mates who live in camden and kentish town, which is pretty 'groovy' but unless you are sharing with a partner it can be well over 150 a week. but you are within 10 min tube journey of everywhere that is considered city centre.
miss upsetter lives in east dulwhich which doesnt have a tube stop, only overground so it can take longer to get to the city, but is in easy reach of her work...so again depends where you are working can highly recommend east dulwhich...anders and jimbob live a further couple of stops in the opposite direction...but east dulwich can be pretty pricey. claphams quite cool as well, but is being overun with aussies, so wont be visited by gon2seed any time soon!
this could go on and on really but all depends on a few factors on your side noir!
cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
right my advice would be:noir2985 said:
1) look at the tube bus routes online to your place of work. you need to be able to get to work easily (well, relatively) but if work is in the city, there wont be any affordable housing.
2) try and get a short term let in a shared house. that way, if its not right, youre not tied to it for too long, plus it will give you the opportunity to have a ready made source of company/friends/research other than the people you work with.
3) do as much research as soon as you can, try finding versions of stafford forum in london and see if there any lettings pages.
4) above all, stay positive, be proud, you are a very brave lady, and im very envious. i couldnt do what youre doing and ive got family in london and know my way around ok. (mind you, i think its the family thats putting me off
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cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
aaaahhh, i stand corrected....apologies.dirtybobby said:he doesn't go until march.. he will be back in stafford for a few weeks prior to his departure.. he was on the forum last night
is there going to be a leaving bash?
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cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
right then, it looks like ikea is going to have to wait and i might be home the weekend of the 17/18dirtybobby said:
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Anders_Panders
Official 6000th poster!
Do you know what tube station you're near to Noir?
you can check Loot and moveflat.com for rooms to rent. unless your earning mega bucks to rent a whole flat then a room is probably better
you can check Loot and moveflat.com for rooms to rent. unless your earning mega bucks to rent a whole flat then a room is probably better
Anywhere north of the river is highly likely to cot you an arm and a leg. I'd defo look south, unless you've got plenty of spare dosh.
http://www.findaproperty.com/listregions.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1®ionid=504
http://www.findaflatmate.com/
http://www.housepals.co.uk/flatmate.html
As far as travel goes, you can get pretty much anywhere from anywhere else, but pretty much anything within zones 1-4 is going to have fairly good transport links into 'town'.
Me and Panders live in West Norwood, which has a 20 minute train into Victoria, and a nearby bus garage, so there's a fairly comprehensive bus service. However, it is a shithole.
As Rich said, Clapham is full of Ausies, but that's true of a lot of places south of the river that have anything like a decent amount of nightlife. Your best bet south of the river, for my money - although obviously you'll be using yours - is the Balham/Tooting/Streatham area. Much of this falls within the borough of Wandsworth, which, until recently at least, had the cheapest council tax rates in London. There are also plenty of tube/train stations round there, which can get you to Kings Cross/Victoria/London Bridge pretty easily, depending on exactly whereabouts you are.
To give you an idea of house prices, the tiny one bedroom flat upstairs from us, bearing in mind this is West Norwood which is shit with no decent pubs or shops and no tube station, went for £160k last year.
Renting, we pay £700 pcm for a 2 bed flat in a converted Victorian house. For the same kind of property in Balham etc, it'd probably be about £800-£900 a month.
http://www.findaproperty.com/listregions.aspx?edid=00&salerent=1®ionid=504
http://www.findaflatmate.com/
http://www.housepals.co.uk/flatmate.html
As far as travel goes, you can get pretty much anywhere from anywhere else, but pretty much anything within zones 1-4 is going to have fairly good transport links into 'town'.
Me and Panders live in West Norwood, which has a 20 minute train into Victoria, and a nearby bus garage, so there's a fairly comprehensive bus service. However, it is a shithole.
As Rich said, Clapham is full of Ausies, but that's true of a lot of places south of the river that have anything like a decent amount of nightlife. Your best bet south of the river, for my money - although obviously you'll be using yours - is the Balham/Tooting/Streatham area. Much of this falls within the borough of Wandsworth, which, until recently at least, had the cheapest council tax rates in London. There are also plenty of tube/train stations round there, which can get you to Kings Cross/Victoria/London Bridge pretty easily, depending on exactly whereabouts you are.
To give you an idea of house prices, the tiny one bedroom flat upstairs from us, bearing in mind this is West Norwood which is shit with no decent pubs or shops and no tube station, went for £160k last year.
Renting, we pay £700 pcm for a 2 bed flat in a converted Victorian house. For the same kind of property in Balham etc, it'd probably be about £800-£900 a month.
Thankyou Cookie that sounds like good advice, not sure about being brave, I have a whole year to worry about it and get used to the idea!cookie_monster said:
The place is near 'Bank' and some other station I can't remember. The area was full of serious people in suits and expensive cafes. Scared the crap out of me!Anders_Panders said:
Thankyou for this it's very helpful. My instinct says it'd be more worthwhile to find a place to buy and put money towards a mortgage rather than rent, is this a naive notion? On the reasonable but probably less than sufficient wage I shall not be being picky about my place, I'm not too bothered about living in a crap hole as long it's not below a crack den or something.jimbob23 said:
Thankyou very much for all the help everyone this is great.
Augustus Gloop
Well-Known Forumite
Noir to make a mortgage deposit worthwhile you need to have a fairly tidy sum also the housing prices down there are appalling - as highlighted by Jimbob (they're bad enough here but that's for another thread). If I was you, I'd rent and see how it goes. Don't stretch yourself too much to begin with.
Also, you could probably do without the stress/worry of buying a property whilst you settle into your new job. That'll be more than enough stress for the time being. Give it 12months and then look at your finances again to see whether you fancy buying a shoe box in London.
Also, you could probably do without the stress/worry of buying a property whilst you settle into your new job. That'll be more than enough stress for the time being. Give it 12months and then look at your finances again to see whether you fancy buying a shoe box in London.
The problem with renting is that in 12 months - assuming you'll be paying at least £100 per week, which you will - is that after a year you'd have already spent £5200+, which would have been quite useful for a deposit.
If you can afford to buy, and after all you know what you can afford, I'd go for it. If you do rent you're probably going to be tied into a contract for at least 6 months anyway. If you buy and decide to leave, even if it's 6 months later, you'll have at least gained profit on the place, rather than having lost money on rent.
I've lived in London for nearly 4 and a half years. In that time I've spent about £17 grand on rent. That's £17k I could have been putting towards a deposit or paying off a mortgage with. If I could have afforded to buy when I moved down I'd have done it.
If you can afford to buy, and after all you know what you can afford, I'd go for it. If you do rent you're probably going to be tied into a contract for at least 6 months anyway. If you buy and decide to leave, even if it's 6 months later, you'll have at least gained profit on the place, rather than having lost money on rent.
I've lived in London for nearly 4 and a half years. In that time I've spent about £17 grand on rent. That's £17k I could have been putting towards a deposit or paying off a mortgage with. If I could have afforded to buy when I moved down I'd have done it.
Augustus Gloop
Well-Known Forumite
Very true Jimbob. I'd never rent, dead money.
So I don't know why i'm recommending it to someone else.
If Noir can generate a tidy wedge between now and the move, I'd probably go with buying a property. If finances allow of course.
So I don't know why i'm recommending it to someone else.
If Noir can generate a tidy wedge between now and the move, I'd probably go with buying a property. If finances allow of course.
cookie_monster
Well-Known Forumite
people told me i was brave when i upped sticks and moved back to sheffield. that i didnt understand because id already lived in sheffield for 4 years at uninoir2985 said:
but to go anywhere that youve never lived before and dont really know your way about, is incredibly courageous and should be embraced as a fabulous experience.Anders_Panders said:
right, having consulting the oracle that is my diary, bank is on the central, waterloo & city, northern, circle, district and docklands lines, so any where along any of those lines would probably be a good start if youre prepared to fork out for the tube.noir2985 said:
my experience of london transport has been that in general the tube is more expensive that the buses- but i dont live there and im rubbish at buses even in sheffield. i think you can get bus routes on line from london transport though.
i think its safe to assume that anywhere south of northamptonshire rent/house prices just start becoming absolutely ridiculous. the benefit of a shared house is obviously that your rent will probably be a bit cheaper, youre not also being expected to pay all the untilities on your own too. but im sure im telling you to suck eggs with this one so im gonna shut up now.
thats what we're here for!noir2985 said:
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