Shows you how mad things are that i consider that to be quite reasonable. I pay more than that for a 1 bed
Oops, forgot to add ... Tooting Bec's nice (with sod all going on). Broadway's still a total a **** hole with a load of horrible **** going on (lived there for a year. never been back, never intend to go back).
1 beds in Morden (end of northern line - south) are upwards of £900/pcm so yeah.. get a flat share You can find studios for a little less. Commuting in from here is about 50 minutes to Victoria. Going further up the line, tooting bec is probably a good compromise between the pricier clapham and the dodgy tooting broadway, though it saves you about 10 mintues each way compared to living in Morden. You can get an oyster travelcard, but unless you're travelling 6 days a week (2 journeys) or more, not really worth it. For me I'd need to take the tube from zone 1-4 5 days a week plus two bus journeys for a travelcard to be worth it. If you've got contactless on your debit/credit card.. just use that! Oh.. and yes.. Morden does class itself as surrey on some addresses though fairly sure it's in the "London Borough of Merton"!
My partner and I don't have a lot of money but, we rent a two bedroom bungalow with a garden front and back, right on the very edge of the village. We have an area of grass out the front between us and the road and we are up a cul-de-sac, off a narrow lane. The view from the front, south facing, is over the local golf-course's pitch and putt, which is little used so quiet (The golf course is private and well used, so there is not going to be any development in-front of us). It is so quiet here that much of the time the loudest noise outside is the birds tweeting. The bungalow is council owned, costs us £360 per month. and we are in Somerset, west of Taunton. Glad I don't live in London!
^ Horses for courses tho, and all that. At this stage in my life (and I am guessing the same for Mankz, etc) I wouldn't want to be anywhere else unless it was also a 'world class' city with the same employment prospects, insane bars and restaurants, and everything and more on your doorstep. Will I want to be doing this in 10-15 years time? I'm guessing not And, rents - who cares. It's the same %age of my income on rent as it would be elsewhere - work in another corner of the country, get paid much less but also rent for much less. It makes no odds in the long run, although I'll admit I am in the lucky position of being able to earn enough to make this feasible. There are plenty of people spending >50% of their take home on rent and treading water (or worse) financially, which I certainly would never do.
A-****ing-MEN. I'd consider Singapore, NY or HK as the only other real options to London at this stage of my life.
Tooting Broadway (by which I mean the exact Broadway area) is still a bit scruffy, but there has been a massive influx of hip and trendy new restaurants and bars in the last few years that have replaced some of the really dodgy places. Hell, there's a Starbucks and a Foxtons. However Tooting isn't just about Broadway. Go a few streets back and it's really quite alright. Plus Wandsworth council tax is fantastically cheap.
You don't want to move to Singapore - it's main attractions are food and very expensive bars, full of expats with alcohol problems.
I agree on the horses for courses. I grew-up in a small village on the Mendip Hills in Somerset. Nearest city was Wells, population 10,000. Living in a big city, any of them, would be like to being sent to my personal hell.
I'm not remotely ready to settle down, need to have accessibility to pretty much anything at any hour due to my work schedule, needs to be constantly moving with something going on, and a western/ex-pat community I'm sure there are other places in the world, but those are just the ones that I've visited/lived in.
London prices are insane but aren't going to change anytime soon. I just sold my rented out flat in Greenwich and bought a 3 bedroom house with decent garden, drive and garage in Sussex for nearly the same money. Yeah, the commute is expensive and rubbish at times, but I'm married for 5 years with 2 kids so had to make that kind of decision. Rentals are skyrocketing in London too. I got £1,300 per month for my flat and if I'd rented it out again would have taken another £100-£150PCM on top of that. Sadly couldn't keep it as needed the capital.
