Is this one OK?

£380 per week!    

I've just been reminded of why I would never even consider moving back anywhere in or around London.

No offense Paul, but to a city girl like me, London is worth every penny .

From what we've looked at so far, Japan is cheap.  CHEAP!

We have a 4 bedroom house, large garden, parking... near huge natural parks, beaches, reliable transportation, schools... 40 minutes to Tokyo... about 700 pounds/month.  Taxes are really low, too.

Mortgage at 1%.  Not only that, jobs are plentiful and I make over 30 pounds/hr.  Not likely I'll be able to do that in London.

Now I will cry.

I don't want to rent anything too different from what we have in Japan...  and we can go up to 400 pounds/week...  but even in that price range, everything we've seen looks cheap/run-down.  Rooms and gardens are small.  Flooring looks like laminate.  From reports, some of the floors have been very weak.  Bouncy/saggy weak.  Some houses had no bathtub!  

Sorry about long post... will keep looking...

Hiya!

I've heard quite abit about Japan - a good friend of mine gets 'sent' there every so often for work and spends a couple months a time.

Tokyo is THE most expensive city on the planet in terms of cost of living and London is second - maybe Tokyo/Japan economy/standard of living  is such that the commutable towns are much more nicely priced and offer better value for money compared to the same here in London.

Madeira - remember 40 minutes commuting outside of London gives properties that are pretty much on par with what you are used to/want. I'm hazarding a guess that if you were in Tokyo itself, you would'nt have the 4bed, large garden, parking, beaches type place! (I'm actually looking in my weekly local Property news newspaper and see rightaway some properties matching what you'd like around in Windsor, Camberley, Eton and dare I mention it Slough areas!)

As for the 'Quality' aspects, I agree that many 'traditional' looking architecurally London properties 'seem' a little rundown, however, many of these places are getting refurbished and inside they are completely 'wow' ! - guess it ties in a little of the English culture of being 'reserved' ! All the new builds whilst not as solid as traditional UK properties, are tiny and way overpriced (in terms of costs of living/income levels)

Good luck in your search!

Dennis! West London & Slough UK!!