Advice on living in (or near) London

Hello Dani

I think a lot of this boils down to personal taste, and since you dont mention WHY you want to move to England, I dont know what your taste is and what you are looking for, but if you have only ever been to London, I would really suggest you visit other parts of England.  I think its important to realise that there is so much more to England than London and IMO once you get out of London, its so much better!

I live in Surrey and think its the perfect place to live because you are close enough to London (about 30 min by train where I am), but also close to the Cotswolds and more rural areas and close to the coast.

Let us know if you have specific questions and I'd be happy to help if I can.


Blog: www.beyondthequeen.blogspot.com

An old Spanish friend is stuck in London and wants to move back to holland........ grass is always greener?

I suppose if young I would do the same though if not British. The key concept in London is that a bed bug infested hell hole super tiny room in what looks like a war torn suburb with drug dealers outside will cost you an arm and a leg. You will have to work hard just to survive. Friends are paying upto 80% of their income on rent to stay somewhere decent. That means they can't afford a social life much.

For social life on the cheap, eating with friends, drinking supermarket lager and cheap wine, going to free exhibitions/art galeries and other events is possible to survive.

When I came back to UK in 2007 I bought a friend a drink. The man behind the bar said 8 pounds! I said TWO pints. He said EIGHT pounds yes for TWO beers.

I gave up drink then and there lol

Cheaper areas of London to rent? Basically East London and South East. When I say cheaper I am not talking that cheap. What I noticed Polish/East Europeans doing in Barking for example was taking a two be flat and having 3 couples in it. Turn the living room into a bedroom. Then the 1,000 pounds a month rent + tax can be shared - but quality of life? 6 people and one bathroom? And Barking and Dagenham is the cheapest borough in London!

Have fun!

Thanks for responding!!!

More and more people are advising me not to go to London, no exceptions here then

I think I should start looking for living and job opportunities elsewhere. Being in England would be the most important thing to me, I don't have to be in London. Surrey sounds very good!

London sounds like Amsterdam... But worse! Drinks are at least double the prices than where I come from and rooms are expensive. But I won't describe it as 'a bed bug infested hell hole super tiny room in what looks like a war torn suburb with drug dealers outside will cost you an arm and a leg'. I guess it's not an understatement when they say that London is 'the most expensive capital in the word'!

Nemodot wrote:

When I came back to UK in 2007 I bought a friend a drink. The man behind the bar said 8 pounds! I said TWO pints. He said EIGHT pounds yes for TWO beers.

Hmm.. this doesnt seem too terrible to me, maybe for 2007, but £8 for two pints is certainly not unheard of now. The average price of a pint in the UK is just under £3.00, so £4.00 isnt majorly inflated.

Dani - if cost is your major concern, then don't move to Surrey.  Its not particularly cheap around here either, but a much better lifestyle if you ask me.  Generally speaking, it gets a bit cheaper the further North you go, so if you find the South of England prohibitively expensive, you can increase your search North and may have better luck.

Costs aren't my main concern if I can get a decent job to afford it all. I don't think I live expensively, but lifestyle is very important to me.

It comes down to luck, I guess...

I'm a club promoter in London so have certainly seen the expensive side of the city.

I would say that the expense depends on the type of things you enjoy doing. If you have expensive tastes and enjoy shopping then it gets costly, quickly! However if you enjoy art, conversation and just being in a city it doesn't have to be so much.

Also if the things you enjoy are close to where you live then you're not paying for transport, eating out etc. I've got some friends in Brixton (South London) and they hardly ever leave the area because they enjoy it and know people. And in London transport costs are a big part of the equation.

On the flip side, high paying jobs compensate you for the living expenses. If you're on £50,000+ a year then you won't need to watch your pennies, and can live in a reasonably flashy house.

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the advice!

I don't think I will be earning 50.000 or over straight away. I must start all over again when I get to England.

I don't make a lot of extra costs at the moment and I don't expect that to change in England. I just need to find a job to cover the costs and a decent place to stay.

Hi guys, I would really like to move to London. I've received several offers in a range from 38k to 40k/year. My only concern is about moving without having a job for my wife. Do you think that is possible to live in London with such salary?

Thank you,

Paolo

Slowtree - this depends entirely on lifestyle.  Take a look at this post.  It may help: https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=21546

Hi Paolo,

Welcome to Expat-blog!

Maybe you should start a new topic on London forum. Thank you.

Hello Dani.I will go to Birmigham in august and i dont meet any person there.

Good luck!

Hi Dani,
I will hopefully be moving to basingstoke  in the next few weeks. If yo want to we could share a 2 bedroom apartment. it is still a nice drive to the sea and to ferry as well as there are work opportunity's there. think about it ..