Where in London would you choose to live?
Where in London would you choose to live?
Hi all,
I need to find a house share somewhere in London. I work near clapham, the closest tube station is stockwell but at the moment i drive to work. I currently live in Kingston/Surbiton (South West).
My boyfriend and I are splitting up, so i need to find a nice friendly house share, preferable somewhere closer to work but in a nice area with plenty to do. I have only been living here for 5 months so i dont really know where to start looking!
My family are 5 hours away, i dont know anyone else here apart from my boyfriend so i feel i've got a big task ahead of me to find somewhere good!
I earn just over £1000 a month, so realistically the maximum rent would be £500 a month.
Does anyone have any ideas please? I'd really appreciate it.
Answers:
Hiya
Just wrote a big reply but got booted out of stupid bag before I'd posted it!
Sorry to hear you’re breaking up with your BF.
I can’t be much help as regards the area you work in as I live in Islington and don’t know London very well at all (only lived here since Sept), but I think a lot of people that work in Clapham live in Balham, and from what I’ve heard it’s supposed to be a good place to live.
Regarding the rent, without wanting to be too nosy, is the £1000 figure before or after tax? If it’s after tax then I think you’ll really struggle with £500 a month rent, once you’ve taken into account the additional expenditure required for bills, water, council tax and TV licence. In fact, even if the £1000 is after tax then you could find it difficult. I’m on about £1300 per month after tax, and my rent is £560 per month (daylight robbery of what - I was paying £180 a month inc bills in York!!). I get by money-wise but I don’t by any means have wads of cash to splash about! To give you an idea, it’s payday today (woo!) and I’ve got about £100 left from last payday, but I really need to not spend that as I am attempting to sort my overdraft out, and I managed to save £50 which I am going to attempt to do every month (ideally I want to save £100 but we shall see).
Sorry if this post is a bit doom and gloom but just wanted to point out that there are loads of hidden extras as regards renting a place, and there’s no point making yourself unnecessarily skint! I think you should be able to find somewhere for less than £500.
It’s quite easy to find houses, what I did was I signed up with various websites on which you write a profile-thing about yourself, and then I either contacted people or they contacted me! Be careful about who you move in with though and make sure yo meet up with them first etc. I found my flatmate through a webite called moveflat.com or something like that, she contacted me first, we looked at some places together and that was that! We get on really well, which is just as well really as I don’t really know anyone in London!
It’s a big step, moving in with people you don’t really know, but it needn’t be a bad thing by any means. PM me if you want more info.
x
Answers:
I used to live in Surbiton and Kingston, great isn't it :rolleyes:
If you work near Clapham then why not consider moving near there, I think you could probably find a good houseshare and it has lots of pubs, bars and little shops, lot of young people and lots of terraced streets. It's close enough to central London/Waterloo for nights out and I think the rent can be fairly reasonable. Balham isn't much further and is getting quite cool.
There are quite a few websites with names like flatmates.com where you can narrow down the areas you would like to live in and then search. You can email and talk to the people on the site before making any decision too, and avergae rents seemed to be in the £300-400 mark for a room in shared house.
Answers:
several of my old workmates lived in clapham and worked the other side of kngston to opposite travelling that you do! they all shared, some with one person others in a proper house share and they were on approx £1000 after tax so it is possible!! they loved clapham as there are loads of bars there now and its not as bad as it used to be
but i dont know how they found them - one girl i think found hers using something like gumtree but not sure about the rest
defo worth having a look at the sites suggested!
Answers:
Hi sarahpuggy,
Can I ask where you work?
I'd agree with the others that Clapham / Balham are nice, but if it's doable for your work commute, I'd consider Ealing - quite expensive, but good transport links and really social / good facilities.
I loved it (now live out of London, as my work has moved a bit west!)
x
Hi all,
I need to find a house share somewhere in London. I work near clapham, the closest tube station is stockwell but at the moment i drive to work. I currently live in Kingston/Surbiton (South West).
My boyfriend and I are splitting up, so i need to find a nice friendly house share, preferable somewhere closer to work but in a nice area with plenty to do. I have only been living here for 5 months so i dont really know where to start looking!
My family are 5 hours away, i dont know anyone else here apart from my boyfriend so i feel i've got a big task ahead of me to find somewhere good!
I earn just over £1000 a month, so realistically the maximum rent would be £500 a month.
Does anyone have any ideas please? I'd really appreciate it.
Answers:
Hiya
Just wrote a big reply but got booted out of stupid bag before I'd posted it!
Sorry to hear you’re breaking up with your BF.
I can’t be much help as regards the area you work in as I live in Islington and don’t know London very well at all (only lived here since Sept), but I think a lot of people that work in Clapham live in Balham, and from what I’ve heard it’s supposed to be a good place to live.
Regarding the rent, without wanting to be too nosy, is the £1000 figure before or after tax? If it’s after tax then I think you’ll really struggle with £500 a month rent, once you’ve taken into account the additional expenditure required for bills, water, council tax and TV licence. In fact, even if the £1000 is after tax then you could find it difficult. I’m on about £1300 per month after tax, and my rent is £560 per month (daylight robbery of what - I was paying £180 a month inc bills in York!!). I get by money-wise but I don’t by any means have wads of cash to splash about! To give you an idea, it’s payday today (woo!) and I’ve got about £100 left from last payday, but I really need to not spend that as I am attempting to sort my overdraft out, and I managed to save £50 which I am going to attempt to do every month (ideally I want to save £100 but we shall see).
Sorry if this post is a bit doom and gloom but just wanted to point out that there are loads of hidden extras as regards renting a place, and there’s no point making yourself unnecessarily skint! I think you should be able to find somewhere for less than £500.
It’s quite easy to find houses, what I did was I signed up with various websites on which you write a profile-thing about yourself, and then I either contacted people or they contacted me! Be careful about who you move in with though and make sure yo meet up with them first etc. I found my flatmate through a webite called moveflat.com or something like that, she contacted me first, we looked at some places together and that was that! We get on really well, which is just as well really as I don’t really know anyone in London!
It’s a big step, moving in with people you don’t really know, but it needn’t be a bad thing by any means. PM me if you want more info.
x
Answers:
I used to live in Surbiton and Kingston, great isn't it :rolleyes:
If you work near Clapham then why not consider moving near there, I think you could probably find a good houseshare and it has lots of pubs, bars and little shops, lot of young people and lots of terraced streets. It's close enough to central London/Waterloo for nights out and I think the rent can be fairly reasonable. Balham isn't much further and is getting quite cool.
There are quite a few websites with names like flatmates.com where you can narrow down the areas you would like to live in and then search. You can email and talk to the people on the site before making any decision too, and avergae rents seemed to be in the £300-400 mark for a room in shared house.
Answers:
several of my old workmates lived in clapham and worked the other side of kngston to opposite travelling that you do! they all shared, some with one person others in a proper house share and they were on approx £1000 after tax so it is possible!! they loved clapham as there are loads of bars there now and its not as bad as it used to be
but i dont know how they found them - one girl i think found hers using something like gumtree but not sure about the rest
defo worth having a look at the sites suggested!
Answers:
Hi sarahpuggy,
Can I ask where you work?
I'd agree with the others that Clapham / Balham are nice, but if it's doable for your work commute, I'd consider Ealing - quite expensive, but good transport links and really social / good facilities.
I loved it (now live out of London, as my work has moved a bit west!)
x