Hello dear fodories!
I always rely on your wonderful and usefull advises for all my travels. This time is something different. Please help!
There is a big posibility that my family has to move to London from the US as a part of big company reorganization. My husband's office would be at Canary Warf. I would appreciate ANY advise for 1. Appartment hunting; 2. School system and how to choice (my children are 6 and 11); 3. Will I need a car? 4. How much an avarage spending for food? 5. ANYTHING THAT YOU THINK MIGHT BE USEFULL.
Thank you very much!

Matroskin,

I would suggest you need to give more information first, especially re:

1. Sort/size of property - house/flat, rent/buy etc. Also location, central, suburb, country. And of course the price range.

2. Basic choice is state or private education. If private how much are you prepared to pay?

3. Obviously depends on where you want to live, but also what you will be doing when husband is at work.

Hey!
1. We need a flat minimum 2 beddroom, but prefer 3 bedroom (we are moving out of 5 bedroom house in the subburbs). I heard that houses for rent are hard to find in the city. The price range: - of course a bargain would be great but somehow I find it hard to believe.
2. Public education will work for me for now and I'll see if we need a private later (if ever).
3. The location of the flat or house should be within 35-40 min, of a train ride (or any other public transportation).
Thanks

you can contact EURA, the "european relocation association" and get in touch with a relocation expert for your area..

Have a look at
http://www.upmystreet.com/

It gives property prices, reports on schools, transport etc.
The six year old will be in the second year at primary school and the eleven year old will be in the first year at secondary school.

Rentals aren't particularly difficult to find in London. As a VERY rough guide, the going rental will be the same general cost as the current interest on a 100% mortgage for the property if it were on sale today.

So a flat that would sell for £600,000 would, if mortgages are typically 6%, cost £3,000 a month to rent - before utilities and Council Tax (varies by borough). Rents fluctuate in a different way from house purchase prices. But it's very rare indeed for property to be rented at a price that differs much from the going rate. The only way you can get more for your money is to find somewhere that's in a relatively unpopular area. And there's almost always a reason an area's unpopular.

For an idea of what's within 45 minutes of Canary Wharf - and be warned that we regard a 45 minute commute as living next door to the office - use the journey planner at www.tfl.gov.uk, in conjunction with the tube maps. Then use the site Miss Prism recommends to see general property prices.

Property is the one serious price issue in London. Most other costs, compared with New York, pretty much balance out. And of course, the real cost to you of that property depends very much on the relocation deal on offer and your circumstances. Rentals can be inflated above the levels I've indicated when major banks etc start offering silly expat packages, and London costs are irrelevant if you're renting your own house out for a similar price. If you're selling a beachfront in the Sydney southern suburbs, you might even find the equity you're bringing makes our prices look trivial.

If you decide to live in the nicer inner city areas - say Islington - it is theoretically possible to survive without a car: all the grocery chains will deliver for a very small fee (£5 a week or so), and most other sctivities are possible on foot, by bike or by tube/bus. I managed it for years. It IS an eccentric choice with children, though, and it would force you to use the state school system - which many people in central London regard as physically dangerous for their kids, though less so if you can blag their way into a Catholic or Anglican school.

In the suburbs, life without a car is impossible.

...and food.

Go to the web sites of Tesco, Sainsbury or Asda (the Wal-Mart subsidiary that's been losing market share since it got taken over). Or, if you don't want to shop with the oiks, Waitrose (easiest for London dwellers at www.ocado.com). All publish their full price lists on the web.

Bear in mind that no-one in Britain, except the truly gullible, buys manufacturers' brands. So you need to price the stores' own label products.

Don't waste energy on those silly "cost of living in 1,000 cities" surveys, since you've no idea where they're buying all this expensive fillet steak from. The supermarket web sites tell you what we're actually paying for our food today.

If this is a company reorganization then the company should be offering you:

1) compenation for moving
2) salary bump as need to make up for cost of living
3) internal or external planner to help you get this organized
4) at least two free trips to London in advance for you to suss out the territory, find some decent neighborhoods, understand how the school system works (much different from the US and a uch higher percentage of people send their children to private schools - often day schools rather than boarding schools) (In the US this is typical for only the VERY wealthy - but in the UK many middle class children go to private schools - more similar to NYC than the rest of the US)

I would start asking questions about the resources the company is providing - and not just run into this blind.

My daughter in an American working in Canary Wharf. She lives in St. Johns Woods which has direct tube (jubilee line) to Canary Wharf. St. John has lots of American expats and good private schools, including the American School. London is expensive so make sure expat package is very good.

I would like to think your company has people who can help you organize this move....salary increase, housing etc. Perhaps not.
You have received some good ideas on the practical points, which is WHAT you questions were.......however from the "other "point~~~~~~~living an expat life overseas can be a wonderful experience, both for you and your children. We did it for 5 yrs. , our children were ages 7,8,10 when we moved to Senegal and then to Portugal.(even took our little dog, but one couldn't to UK)! London would be a great experience (though things have changed some overseas since we went in the 70's!)
Make up your mind to enjoy this different life. YOu will still have your family together, and can see and experience London, and the rest of England, as well as other countries.
You have a lot of research ahead of you if your husband is the first of his company to move to London......but it can be FUN!

Thank you all very much. I need time to think it over and come up with LOTS of other questions. I'll start looking at the websites that you gave me.
Keep talking!