clgarbas

Wealthy Backpacker...thanks very much for the budgeting advice. That's extremely helpful.

About me..I'm 27, a relatively young pup, with 4 years experience in corporate communications and marketing--primarily in the financial services industry (although I'd love to be in any other industry). My husband is 34, with 4 or so years in Web development and programming. I guess you'd call us young professionals.

What would you consider to be an "OKish" part of London? We don't need to live with the wealthy...we just don't want to have rain coming through the roof. Somewhere in between would be perfect.

Out of town, Southampton looks like a great choice. My only concern is with the two hours on train every day.

wrld_trvlr

My husband and I moved to London a couple years ago and now we're back in the States. We loved our experience there, once we got used to the exorbitant prices and unreliable Tube. We lived in a decent one bedroom in Pimlico for 950GBP/month. Pimlico was a fantastic area, only 5 minutes walk to the Tube (Victoria) and lots of Parliamentary types living in the neighborhood. We could walk to Battersea Park or to Hyde Park in the other direction. A really great location. But do keep in mind the high council taxes, especially in Westminster. We found our flat through a letting agent called Jenny Jones right near Bond Street station. They are free and are walk-in only but they make all your appointments for you. Good luck!

m_kingdom

As we all know things get more expensive, the London property market has experienced enormous growth with prices rocketing. 1000GBP a "couple of years ago" is quite possibly, depending on the property itself the equivalent of maybe 3000GBP now. 1000GBP will not get you much at all. There is no way you can find a couple of hundred thousand to buy somewhere or at least make a large deposit? I always feel rentals are a complete waste of money - what do you have to show at the end of it? Obviously you need to rent in your position, but after you have a job and are sure you want London you must get a mortgage or find some way to buy a property.

wrld_trvlr

Sorry I should have been more specific when I said a couple years ago, I meant in late 2002, so it wasn't actually that long ago. And I do know of several places in that same area that are still rented for that price.

clgarbas

M_K, I know what you're saying about renting vs. buying. We'd much prefer to own, but I don't think it makes sense for us if we're only staying for a couple years in London. We don't want to have to sell our home in Toronto, and unless we do that, buying something else really isn't in the financial picture at this point.

I'll definitely look into Pimlico. Any other recommendations?

stevelondon88

A great resource if you're looking for someone to buy or rent:

http://www.findaproperty.com/

Dave_

wrld_trvlr - I agree with most of the things you say as far as costs go. However, you mention the council tax being high, especially in Westminster. It just so happens that the borough of Westminster has the cheapest council tax in the entire country at roughly one third the level of some areas. If you didn't think you were getting value for money, pity some poor souls being taxed to death elsewhere.

goldwynn

Laverendry: Lord Black of Crossharbour never had much of choice. A Canadian citizen is not allowed to hold "titles of Lordship". He had a choice, either drop the LORD or lose his Canadian citizenship.

He chose the LORD. He is no longer a Canadian citizen.

Judyrem

What is a council tax? Would short term renter have to pay? Judy

m_kingdom

A council tax is a tax paid by homeowners to their local council for council services such as education, rubbish collection, and street cleaning (on very rare occasions). Its level varies depending upon the rateable value of your property, with there being bands A up to H. However, these are outdated with the highest band being properties of over 320000GBP in value, this is far too low and makes no distinction between properties worth 320kGBP and 32mGBP. The lowest band is from 40-80kGBP, I'd like to know what property is now worth such a low amount, a revision is far too long overdue. I say bring back the poll tax where everyone pays the same - much fairer!

PatrickLondon

ooh let's not start all that up again (though the point is that the valuation bands are relative to each other, not to actual market values). To answer Judyrem's point, people on really short-term (holiday) lets wouldn't have to pay directly - the owner does. But if, say, your name is on the electricity bill you probably would. The original enquirer, being a Canadian citizen, would be entitled to vote (and, if memory serves, required to register to vote if resident at the due date in October each year) - so would also be spotted that way.

Oh, and you'd have to pay the TV licence as well....

m_kingdom

For £280 per week you can have a one bedroom garden flat in West Hampstead. This area is relatively pleasant, and close to central London. I have been perusing the London Property Guide, and thought that I would would bring this to your attention.

Try www.primelocation.com or www.foxtons.co.uk. These two websites conatin virtually every property currently for sale in London.


Council tax bands while being relative to each other are out of date with virtually every London property worth inhabiting falling into the two top bands G and H

Kate

clgarbas, you'll no doubt find that the choice of areas to live in London is mindboggling. First there's the north of the river verses south thing, then do you go east or west - everyone has their (striong) opinions on which they like best, and if you're a south of the river type, you'll view "northerners" as an alien species!

Rather than getting one off recommendtions from this forum (given that there's about 500 different areas you could choose to live in), I recommend buying a good guide. "Where to live in London" published by the Evening Standard will give you a good basic introduction to choosing an area. Use it in conjunction ith "The London Property Guide". Both are available on amazon.co.uk

Happy hunting

Judyrem

Patrickoflondon, I assume license means "bill". Since we are flying over there today. I will be picking up some rental guides and brochures. Thanks mkingdom for the info on Hampstead. So we would be responsible for electricity, water? cable? or Satellite TV hook up, and of course phone. No temporary income or intangible tax? Just curious, trying to get my ducks in a row. Hope it helps clgarbas too. Judy

PatrickLondon

Judy, by the time you see this, I would hope you've already checked with prospective landlords to make sure you're clear what's covered in the rent and what you will have to set up for separately. Every property that has a TV in it has to pay for a TV licence (just over £100 a year, for an unlimited number of TV sets per household). The money goes to the BBC (up to you whether you think of it as a poll tax, compulsory subscription or small price to pay). If you want satellite or cable TV you'll have to pay that on top. I would guess for most short-term lets, these would be covered in the rent, but you should make sure. Not paying the TV licence to the BBC leads at least to a knock on the door...

Sylvia

If you really want cable or satellite TV, you'll have to pay on top of the licence. For a one-off payment of under £100 you can get a digital box for viewing Freeview from a standard aerial. It includes, BBC 4, BBC 3, Uk History, BBC 24 hour news as well as INT news, Sky news and one or two other stations. It also gives you all the digital radio stations.
Personally that's all I want but I don't want to watch sport or old films.
I personally think that Radios 3 4 and 7 are well worth the fee on their own, but that's just me ;-)

JimSteel

Lets not forget the South London. Rents are much cheaper in Charlton 1mile from Blackheath with 20 minute commute to Central London you can get a Victoria conversion Flat for £750-£800 pcm or cheaper. In Greenwich or Blackheath its much the same.

StevePWales

Pedantic point about Council Tax.

As I understand it your banding is based on the value of the property when the banding points were set (Around here that is sometime back in early 90s). So just because your property may be worth 500k now does not necessarily mean you are in the 350k+ band - depends on the value when the bands were set.

PS. You can still buy places for less than 40k in some parts of the country. Whether you would want to live there is another question.

clgarbas

Could someone please share with me the stereotypes for the quadrants--east, west, above the river and below? I'll pick up "Where to live" but in the meantime, I'd be interested in hearing where the aliens live and such.

isplumm

Hi ...

Thought I'd come back on Southampton. If you live north of Southampton, you can catch a fast train to central London in just over 1 hour .... of course this is a communter train, so gets busy in the morning & isn't cheap !!

How about Winchester ?? Guildford ... these places are south of London, but shouldn't take too long to get into London ... maybe you could at somewhere like Kingston or Suribton ... lots of flats there & fastb trains to London.

Mark