tech

Dear All, My husband and I are relocating to London at the end of August- work permits and visas in hand. Initially, we will be living off of one salary and our savings. We fully recognize the challange of this and how expensive London is. However, with this in mind we would like to spend around 230GBP per week on a studio or 1 bedroom apt. We are young and willing to sacrifice space for location. Any advice about neighborhoods or areas we should investigate would be very helpful and appreciated. Thank you!

walkinaround

i suggest a book called the london property guide. i assume that it would be available on amazon. this book gives a good overview of each neighbourhood with average costs.

you can also look at a site like findaproperty.co.uk which has adverts and some neighbourhood descriptions.

even if we knew where you were working in london, this question is far too broad for us to be of any real help to you.

PatrickLondon

A lot depends on where you have to get to for work and/or social interests and look at the public transport routes to it. If you're planning only to rent, your budget should get you something in zone 2 (that's about the going rate for a one-bed where I live in Docklands).

I'm assuming employment has already been lined up, in which case it could be worth asking where other people in the same workplace are living and what their advice is.

This thread has a lot of suggestions for further information:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/pgMessa...p;tid=34801878

flanneruk

"We are young and willing to sacrifice space for location"

Most of us would interpret this as meaning you want to live as short a commute time from the worker's worplace as possible.

Some might have other criteria - being able to walk to work, for example (surprisingly easy for many people).

But what's your criterion for a good location? Presumably you're talking about renting - though most of us would strongly question the wisdom of this.

tech

Thank you for your help. We aren't sure as of yet which office my husband will be assigned to. He is moving over with a large company, and he will spend most of the week traveling. As of now, I am jobless. "PatrickLondon" thank you for your suggestions. In terms of interests: we are pretty laid back and prefer small pub scenes to clubs; small neighborhoods to large apartment complexes; in the states we have always gravitated to the up and coming artsy neighborhoods. I hope this narrows my question somewhat. just looking for thoughts and ideas more than answers. thanks so much, T

tech

We were under the impression that renting was the best option. What are your reasons for discouraging renting? thanks again, T

PatrickLondon

Up and coming arty neighbourhoods in London tend to be more expensive, as very few people know what's going to be up and coming before the prices start rising.

Most Londoners don't live in large apartment complexes but in terrace (row) houses, many of which may have been converted into smaller apartments. That said, it's quite possible that you'll be offered flats in blocks/estates that used to be public (council) housing.

Also, Londoners usually live a fair commute from where they work. 45 minutes travel by public transport is nothing out of the ordinary, and many people commute for even longer.

tech

thanks for your help. we are from DC and very accumstomed to commuting! Sadly, 45 mins sounds very reasonable. as a result of my husband's job, he is often on site at a client or traveling. this causes his commute to vary frequently. I am getting the impression that we may have to search for neighborhoods ourselves. we will be crashing at our family's flat for a few weeks. this should give us some opportunity to explore. i lived in maide vale for a year during college- great, wonderful! not in our budget this time around. Can you recommend any good websites for viewing apts? we've found a few, but suggestions are always helpful. anyway, thank you for your kind replies.

Kate_W

I lived in London for a year in 2001-02, in three different flats, and found some areas surprisingly more "dodgy" than I had expected. I had lived in large cities before (including New York in the early 90s) and hadn't expected to feel insecure. But one of the neighbourhoods I tried left me feeling very uncomfortable. It was around the northern end of Clapham (near Clapham North tube stop). While it seemed ideal, lively neighbourhood full of young professionals and young families, restaurants and café culture, etc., the street I lived on (only 5 minutes from the high street and the tube stop) was quite isolated and dark. At the end of the street (near my flat) was a shortcut through a gate to a housing estate behind. I regularly ran into small groups of "underemployed, shifty-looking" teenagers and young men, on a quiet street isolated from the main street. After a few too many police investigation signs asking for witnesses to shootings and kidnappings outside my local grocery store, I decided to move.

I'm not that you shouldn't live in Clapham. The point is that you should take your time in checking out neighbourhoods - and you should walk the routes you'd use daily (to the stores, tube, etc) at different times of the day and night, by yourself, to make sure that you feel safe.

You might look into renting something temporary in one of the neighbourhoods you're interested in, before committing to it. Also, if you don't mind sharing a place for a while, there are some good values on shared accommodation (in larger houses). You could probably secure a temporary arrangement in such a house for a month or two, while you explore London and get settled.

mvor

Hi tech,

Are you working w/a relocation firm? If not, and it's not too late to negotiate it w/your husbands co., I'd definitely ask for help.

I posted housing info on the link PatrickLondon kindly attached but here are some additional links for realtors:

www.property-go.co.uk/area_guides
www.liveandletlive.com
www.starlink-residential.com/index.htm
www.findaproperty.co.uk

Best of luck!

W9London

Hello tech and welcome to London,

I'm more inclined to recommend renting, until you know you really like the neighbourhood. Then many expats I know consider buying (because of property boom), but this probably makes sense if you'll be around for 5yrs or longer...
Especially delighted to hear you lived in Maida Vale. Now 1bedroom is more like 280-300GBP.
If you/your husband may be travelling frequently, you might consider an area with easy access to Paddington (for LHR).

Hard to name good neighbourhood without knowing your preference...
Would you prefer central part or more suburban feel? (ie Adams Morgan or Silver Spring). If commuting convenience is the key, sometimes mainline train is faster than some tube lines (Northern Line is notorious). Do you want to live near a park--Queen's Park in west, Hamstead, Highgate in the north, Blackheath south of Thames are all nice in that respect. I presume you didn't mention the children, so probably school is less relevant? Also some types of properties are more common in certain neighbourhood--don't expect to see many mew houses in, say Canary Wharf.
Other areas popular among young professionals include Islington. Shoreditch is more edgy, up-and-coming.

BTW, any chance your husband can ask for a preliminary "housing trip"? Also, real estate agents usually specialise in certain areas. Strongly recommend contacting them ahead, so that they can line up multiple property viewings.

Final word, don't bother asking if the flat has A/C.

tech

Thank you all very much for the advice! will check out the suggested websites and will be sure to investigate neighborhoods at differnt times of day. no little ones to worry about and definetly more adams morgan than silver spring (thanks for the DC reference points)! we have a few weeks in london pre-start date of my husband's job to find a spot to live in. I will try and arrange with some realtors before we get there in August. thanks for all of the input!

nessundorma

Not only do you have to really look for yourselves, but I would suggest that you consider a 3-month or six-month sublet.

If it were me, I'd live in the South Bank area near the Cut, but you might not like it as much as I do and it's possible that if I really investigated the neighborhood from the point of view of living there, I might come up with negatives. But right now it's my favorite place to hang out when I'm in London.

zupermaus

ok here r some tips.

if you want to live in central London or even near central London be prepared for for a bit of a shock. The house prices here are astronomical compared to US, so you will be living in:

1. a flat. A small house costs an average $600,00 and the rent is pretty much criminal.
2. in a slightly 'gritty' area. London has some of the most mixed residential areas in the world - the rich live cheek by jowl with the poor and there are no single race based ghettoes, even for rich middle class whites. What you'll see are many races, many classes and much intermixing between them. Don't be put off by the look of an area, but do be prepared for tales of street crime from the locals. Whatever you do don't move to cheap and cheerful, fast developing Hackney (like just about everyone else) as the tales are however, TRUE. Peckham is bad too but mostly due to the drag of crap public transport, drug crime, and well, little to do. Elephant & Castle is the ugliest and most polluted part of London - don't even think about it. These 3 areas are very popular with newcomers due to the cheap prices.

I do recommend leafy, youthful Clapham (although its South of the river and thus, seemingly seperate from anything going on in the centre), multicultural, superhip and gritty Brixton (famous for representing so evenly every level and ethnic strata in society) and anywhere near Brick Lane, the traditional heart of the Bangladeshi community in the East End (and accordingly with low crime) and the new heart of the artistic/ trendie community too. Be careful the prices in these places are already mostly priced out to the rich, but you can still find some in your range.

My final tip, if you're looking for a nice property, leafy suburbs with great local pubs and local high streets etc, with higher qualities of life than the ex-inner city, just go to any of the suburbs. Theyre far quieter, greener and with lots of choice - just remember you will be facing long commutes each day.



3. you will be using public transport to commute, which is quite expensive but still the only affordable option. It costs $15 a day for the privilege to drive your car into the central zone, and don't even think about parking, or being able to afford that(a garage in the centre costs as much as a house in the US).

4. be living south of the river (ugly and with bad transport links -to be honest I wouldnt advise it no matter how nice the flat is, unless its Clapham, Battersea) or in the East End (up and coming but still very gritty). Noone can afford to live in West Central except millionnaires. To get a genteel, affordable place, try North and further West - but you'll be far from the centre and commuting is slow and very prone to delays.

jungli

well, i did a lot of house hunting in feb when we relocated from Hk and it took me a month to find this gorgeous place where i now live.Try golders green which is extremely safe, has good transport and is very convenient.u could also try west hampstead which might fit your budget for a one bedroom but its definitely a poor cousin of hampstead which is gorgeous-u could try the southend bit of it for studios/one bedrooms in ur budget..

tech

thank you all for these wonderful opinions... It is so helpful! thanks again, T

PatrickLondon

I'd get yourself a short-term base to do some looking: you could try university flats for a couple of weeks -

http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/vacations/
http://www.gre.ac.uk/conferences/mar...ommodation.htm
http://www.ccrs.qmul.ac.uk/holidays/
http://www.wmin.ac.uk/page-4305