I have a new job in London lined up and as such would like to move into London in order to reduce my current 2 hour each way commute (and the looming £4200 season ticket renewal) The role itself will be based in Belgravia, with the nearest station being Victoria. To the folks that currently live in London, where are good places to live? and how much can you expect to pay? (willing to go up to ~£900 per month depending on travel)
IMO your best bet is to be in the SW corridor (battersea, clapham junction, balham, etc) as then you've got national rail trains direct into Victoria... or be on the victoria line in the north east, or district line (either east or west - so putney, wimbledon, earls court .... west ham, whitechapel, etc) Rents are insane, so £900 a month will get you a nice-ish flat share in zone 2, and a quite nice one in zone 3 and beyond. £900 won't buy you a flat on your own unless you move way out (like zone 4 and above) and it'll probably still be a studio even in zone 4 for £900 a month. TLDR: get a flat share in battersea/clapham/balham You've also got a train direct back to reading if you've got friends/family there from clapham junction, which'll save you going to paddington
Basically what RTT said. All nice areas, but SW will be your better bet for your budget. Rents are CRAZY expensive here. I have a two bed flat in Kentish Town and you don't wanna know how much that costs me.
Thanks for the advice, I'll have a look on Zoopla and Rightmove at the types of properties in those areas. The rents in London are frankly terrifying, but then again so are season tickets from Reading. Honestly the £900 a month is somewhat of a guess, I would have around £1950 a month after tax to use, but without know where I would live it is a bit of guess work with regards to travel and cost of living etc. Ideally I would want to buy somewhere, I have a fair amount of savings, but as I'm only 23 at this point that is probably a fair way off. Hey, if anyone needs a flatmate.....
The general rule is spend about 1/3 of your take-home income on rent but the absolute minimum you're gonna be able to spend in London for a bedroom in a flat share is going to be around £700. Oh and, not to be patronising, few of these prices are bills inc Buying property in London is a mug's game at the mo, wouldn't bother. Let it crash first try spareroom.co.uk
Buying in London IS a mugs game. A girl at work wants to buy a two bed around the corner from me, in Chalk Farm. For a two bed, she's looking to pay £500-600K. That basically means a deposit of around £100K-£125K for her. A deposit that could buy a two bed flat in other parts of the country.
I live in Pimlico, just south of Victoria, and have another flat in St. James's park, however, at the moment, if I had to live or buy anywhere, go to Brixton or something. I let out my Studio in St. James's for £325 a week, and my current one is a 2 Bedroom ground floor conversion on a garden square, and it was £825,000. If you look hard enough, some thing in Pimlico might suit, though flat sharing might be your best bet. Its smartening up, and with 24 Hr tube coming in September, getting home at night will be an awful lot easier. Another option might be looking around Earls Court/Barons Court, as its on the District and not rediculously over priced.
If it weren't for the 2 hour commute, you'd absolutely be better off sucking up the season ticket cost, as you will probably exceed your quoted figure in the difference in rent from Reading to London + Intra London travel costs. BUT, as you would literally be wasting your life on a 4 hour round trip everyday; I have to agree with the other comments and say generally speaking SW > SE, so look in Battersea & Clapham which will get you into Victoria easily. I also believe in the 1/3 rent rule and as such, close though it is, Pimlico I wouldn't even consider... Needless to say I'm also very jealous of Mankz right now. Brixton... Is definitely also an option, (don't believe whatever you've heard; I'm down there regularly and it's very pleasant) but you will need to be slightly more open-minded to get the most for your money. Travel is also very easy to Victoria from here too. I'm sorry to say, but in any of the above areas you're likely to be ending up in a large flat/houseshare unless you break the rent rule, and go with your £900ish figure which'll probably get you a shared flat with one other person and possibly an ensuite. If you're sticking to the above areas, head straight to spareroom. If you really want you own space though, and are willing to go out to Zone 3 jungle and beyond (like me) then it's probably worth looking for a studio or 1 bed on Rightmove as you say - just don't expect too much.
Ah yes, Brixton, of course. I tend to forget that the Victoria line goes further south than Vauxhall, albeit only one stop... to Brixton
You could also go North on the Victoria Line. I’d make a very strong case for the Finsbury park area. You can be in Victoria in 15 minutes in the morning (I know because I also work in Victoria and travel from Finsbury Park). You are within spitting distance of Camden for a dirty, rocky night out, and Angel for a posh night out. Hampstead Heath is a quick overground ride away (best park in London, bar none), there’s a whole heap of good boozers, restaurants and you are close to the city centre should you choose to torture yourself with Oxford St shopping or Covent garden shenanigans. North London also has MUCH better transport than South London - just look at the tube map. My mate pays £600 a month in 4 bed house. I lived down the road in Tufnell Park up until last year when I bought, and paid about £550 (but my house was errrr..... studenty......)
I will be making the same move in half a year. I study in Reading and my fiance studies in UCL so we took turns. I will be looking for one of those cheap student shares. Good luck finding a place.
Finsbury park is a good shout, but I'd stay out of walthamstow. I sold up and moved from there 2 years ago. From there you are in the Vic line for 45 mins at least and in my opinion having to do that twice per day ought to be considered a form of torture. Piccadilly line from fins park is a lot more civilised, but still a long way from fun.
and the rest for 95k i bought a 3 room semi detached with dedicated wetroom. the south is just ****ing retarded.
North London has more tube lines. That doesn't actually equal better transport. South London is packed with way more overground lines, and as everything is Oyster these days it makes no difference. The only reason there isn't much tube down 'sarf is because the soil (well, clay) is different and harder to tunnel in, so the Victorians built on the surface instead. I currently live in Tooting Bec (for the next month anyway), and central London is 20 minutes away on the Northern, with easy interchange on to the Victoria at Stockwell. It's also where you live if Clapham/Balham are too expensive (hint: they are) without ending up in Morden. Tooting itself has massively changed over the last four years or so - gentrification is a very real thing. Saying that, I would never ever live in Brixton. Just a few weeks ago I saw an old lady peeing in a phonebox, then just walked off, right outside the station.
Brixton, like any part of London has it issues and its go to places, example, I hate walking down Lupus St in Pimlico, and normal get the bus past the Worlds End Estate on the Kings Road, both of which are in otherwise affluent, pleasant areas. Its just a case of being savvy and avoiding the bad bits, and doing your research like asking the local police which parts are dodgy. In the last 5 years Brixton, and places like Peckham for that matter have all become a damn sight safer and more enjoyable to be in, at least from my perspective.
I lived in Tooting seven years ago and it was scruffy. Not sure what it's like now. The Closer you get to Tooting Bec, it was OK (due to proximity to Balham and the Common), but tooting Broadway wasn't the nicest. Morden is worse. Does it still try to class itself as Surrey? Lived in Stockwell for two years. Nice place and decent transport, but nothing really in terms of shops. You'd need to go to Brixton for that. Lived in Camden now for four years. I've noticed that Camden is slowly turning from it's heavier dirty rock days to International white middle class territory. Now the Waitrose has opened, it's become even more so. Living in Kentish Town right now. Nice enough, but again, there's this divide between the upcoming 'trendy classes' vs the traditional inhabitants. There was even a little spat a while back, because there was talk of calling the area 'little Hampstead' in an effort to shake the Camden grundge. Regardless of all said, rent prices are crazy increasing in volume. My place in Tooting was a two bed house with a garden. In 2008 I paid £910pm My current place in Kentish Town is a two bed flat with garden. Rent is £1700pm.
