Moving to London (Housing Guidance)

@Akshay Bagde

You have done your homework, to look for property in the area.

But I'm surprised your work hasn't offered you any assistance in finding accommodation or rental while you find appropriate accommodation.

Silly question but did they ask any money beforehand for a visa etc...?

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

I was born and then raised in London, but that's not going to help me much in answering your question.  Bottom line is that the kind of accommodation you are looking for is always in short supply and because of this very expensive and as you have already pointed out, there is a high risk of being scammed.  You won't get much for your budget price.  The Numbeo website has detailed information on costs; this link will take you straight to cost data for London.

Your forum information tells me you're an Indian citizen, if you're looking to live in an Indian Community in London, then Wembley or Harrow and surrounds may be attractive to you - both are in Zone 2 and on the tube to central London.

To be honest, I don't get the London thing, but I guess that's because I come from there, and I just don't get the fascination; I had the chance of moving back there when I returned from living in the Netherlands and then again 25 years later when I retired.  The bottom line here is that if the place you look at is anywhere near the London Underground or Bus routes into the city, then you will pay a large premium for that privilege, more so if there are amenities (shops, libraries, gym etc) close by - these places are popular, in great demand and market forces will affect the price upwards.  Google maps is very useful in finding out travel information from and to any address in London, it also includes train and bus information.  Unlike the rest of the London Underground, the Elizabeth line was designed and built to be wheelchair accessible, if that's important to your life, then definitely a good choice - the line stretches from NW to NE London (Middlesex to Essex).

Pure coincidence, that postcode is St Bartholomew's Hospital.  If that's where you're going, then there are in-house accommodation providers who could help you find somewhere to live.

I hope this helps.

Cynic

Expat Team

Hi @Akshay Bagde

I am also a tech professional currently in the middle of planning a relocation for my family, so I completely understand the spreadsheet nightmare you are going through right now.

Since you are already looking on Rightmove and Zoopla, you need to be really careful about Council Tax and EPC (Energy) ratings. A flat listed at £1,850 can easily push past £2,100 a month once the local council tax band and winter heating bills (especially if the flat has a poor 'E' rating) are factored in. Also, commuting daily on the tube from Zone 2 will add another £120+ a month to your expenses.

I actually got so frustrated trying to manually calculate those exact things (taxes, energy, and commute costs) from abroad that I built a free little browser extension to automate it. It just injects the final "True Cost" directly into the Rightmove/Zoopla listings so you can see if a place is actually within your £2k budget before you reach out to a landlord (which also helps avoid those private landlord scams you mentioned by keeping you on the main portals).

Since you're also in tech, I'd love your feedback on it if you find it helpful for your search! Feel free to reply here or send me a message, and I'll share it.

Best of luck with the move!

Oldish thread, but dragged up.

Housing tends to be expensive,  but don't go on price only.

Check the crime figures for amounts and types of crime. Phone snatching is big, as are drug puddled idiots and all the mess they bring with them as they drag their useless bodies down the streets.

Cost can be lifestyle as well as what drains from your wallet.

@alec16

Heyy

Despite what Fred has said, which only gets the news  from the Internet. I get it from those that live there. I have many friends living there. My sister travels frequently. Sorry weekly, and has no issues.

For goodness sake, this is London, capital city of England and has a population of 13 million. You tell me of a city where is no crime in west?

Of course areas are better than others, that's how it's been since the year dot.

Just for reference. Knife crime, stealing of mobile phones is down.

@alec16HeyyDespite what Fred has said, which only gets the news from the Internet. I get it from those that live there. I have many friends living there. My sister travels frequently. Sorry weekly, and has no issues. For goodness sake, this is London, capital city of England and has a population of 13 million. You tell me of a city where is no crime in west?Of course areas are better than others, that's how it's been since the year dot.Just for reference. Knife crime, stealing of mobile phones is down. - @SimCityAT

Police crime figures give quite an eye opening, but one thing pops out - crimes are measured in the hundreds per one thousand people.

In other words, if there are 600,000 people in an area, with a crime rate of 100 per thousand people, that's a very big number being hidden by fancy manipulation of the way the atrocious level of crime is reported.

As for getting news from the internet, I also have 45 years of first hand experience in that country, some in various areas of London.

Posters might like to consider that over a non-evidenced, and rather silly, remark about news from the internet.

As for moving to London and quality of life, I would strongly recommend not bothering with the place.

The general cost of living can only be described as moronic, crimes are extremely common, and London is a very unfriendly city.

I moved from Sheffield to a town in Central java with a comparable population. Instead of hundreds of crimes per day, a local cop I got to know here thought his area had gone to hell because there were more than 20 crimes that month.

People don't realise how bad things are until they either move into Hell, or until they escape to a civilised place.

Then look at air quality

https://www.accuweather.com/en/gb/londo … dex/328328

Having to earn a very large salary to have any sort of freedom from money worries in a very unfriendly, high crime city with dangerously polluted air seems to be a bad idea, so housing guidance is easy - Don't live there.

I just looked up police crime figures for EC1A2FD - Not a good area to live or work in. The housing advice for that area is "don't"

https://www.murdermap.co.uk/maps/london … ides-2026/

London is doing well as it has fewer than a hundred murders so far this year, but  there were 28,000 rapes. The Met police don't say if the rapes are crimes against women.

By the way, don't use your mobile phone on the street in London. Around 70,000 are snatched every year so, given lives are on our phone, having yours  stolen is a far greater crime than the replacement cost.