Moving to London

Hello!  My husband and I (and the dog!) will be moving from southern California to London in the next couple of months and I wanted to let you all know what a great site this is!!!  My husband is originally from London and after spending 7 years in California desperately misses the culture, the bustle, and most of all the color green.   Somehow the brown hills of Californai have lost their charm! 
We are, however, a bit nervous about the employment situation so he is going before me to test the waters.  Any feedback I can get from anyone on how difficult it is to find a job in London and the cost of living would be greatly appreciated! 

London is considered one of the most expensive cities to live in - the cost of living is greater than NYC, San Fran, etc.  I think it may be either #1 or #2.  But...it's worth it for me.  Rent depends on where you decide to live and how far you want for a commute.  I can't comment on how hard it is to find a job as I had one before moving over here but I'm sure you'll be able to get that from someone else here.  Best of luck!

Welcome to the site from a (reluctant) Londoner.  As onetiger noted, cost of living all depends on what part of the city you decide to live in.  If you don't mind a good 30-45 minute commute on the tube every morning, you can find a small flat for about £800 a month.  Plus you have to factor in council tax, and travel costs which can really add up.  (My costs for travel are about £1200 per year for an annual travel card which entitles me to unlimited tube and buses in zone 1-4.)  Everything in London is expensive....except bread, for some reason.  You can buy a loaf of bread for about 20p if you're not too fussy.

As for job hunting, check out the Jobs board.  There's lots of good info there.  London is by far the easiest place to find work in the UK, I would say.  There's just so many businesses and organisations here that it may take you a little while to find the "perfect" job, and you may need to take some temp work initally to get some UK experience under your belt, and a lot of people (including me) had to go back down a rung or two on the ladder but all in all, London is fairly easy to find work in.

Good luck in all your preparation and we'll see ya around the boards! 

I shall leave the London talk to those that live in London but I wanted to say welcome to UKY!

hi there,
the job situation in london is much better than in the rest of the states. www.jobsite.co.uk is a good place to look. there are also loads of recruitment agencies which take the hassle out of things...

that positive response aside, london is quite a bit different than so-cal [understatement of the century]. first of all, you will not want to drive your car around town in any consistent fashion. you will need to rely on an unreliable rail/tube system. if you can live in zone 1 i would recommened the busses b/c they are the most reliable and pleasant journey comparatively.

rent is out of control, but having lived in NY i think you at least get more for your money. also, rental prices in london are dropping so try and talk down the rent b/c it is a renters market right now.

there is no question that london is unbelievably expensive so i suppose the sooner you can get here and start earning london-wages the better.

good luck
mimsy2000

Welcome to the site from a (reluctant) Londoner.  As onetiger noted, cost of living all depends on what part of the city you decide to live in.  If you don't mind a good 30-45 minute commute on the tube every morning, you can find a small flat for about £800 a month.  Plus you have to factor in council tax, and travel costs which can really add up.  (My costs for travel are about £1200 per year for an annual travel card which entitles me to unlimited tube and buses in zone 1-4.)  Everything in London is expensive....except bread, for some reason.  You can buy a loaf of bread for about 20p if you're not too fussy.

30-45 minutes out and the rent can still be high.  It all depends on the area.  It takes me abotu 40 minutes by tube to get to work and my rent is £1200 per month (not including utilities, council tax, etc.) for a 1 BR flat.


bvamin

bvadmin makes a good point. i know some might disagree, but my feeling is that if you have a normal 9-6 job in london, it's worth moving into the center of town - i.e. zone 1 - because of the money you save on transportation and mental health! i live in the city with my hubby [ec area] and we pay 1300 a month for a large one bedroom with 2 sitting rooms. it is expensive, but whenever i consider moving out of the city to a slightly larger and less expensive flat i realize the savings just aren't great enough to justify.

only my opinion, but i think if you are gonna live in the city - live in the city in the most convenient spot you can possibly find.
mimsy2000

Hi there,

How quickly you can find a job in London depends on a lot of factors. If you aren't fussy about the kind of job you can probably find something very quickly, especially if you sign up with a few temp agencies. If you want to find work in a specialised area or a specific industry or profession it might take longer.

As others have said, the cost of living in London is high, expect to pay around £200 p/w in rent on a one bedroom place in the inner suburbs.  If you want to know about the cost of groceries, have a look at some online supremarkets eg tesco.com, sainsburys.com

My husband's from Southern California too - Orange to be precise - where are you from Cali?

Hiya,
To live in London you have to like big city living.  If you like countryside and seeing a lot of green it might be better to be outside London.  There are the big parks in London so if that's enough to tide you over then you're ok.  It's probably worth investigating the city a bit, perhaps taking a trip first to feel out the city.

London is the 2nd most expensive city in the world (behind Tokyo) and is the biggest city in Europe which means it can get congested but there's a lot of things going for it.  It is extremely lively and, I think, has the biggest transportation network of any city in the world.

I would say if you are a city person and you can get a pretty well paying job then zone 1 or 2 (the central bits) are worth going for.  You wouldn't need to own a car which would be a big expense saver.  There are actually nice areas in zone 2 in North and South London which may be slightly less than zone 1 perhaps but your mileage will vary depending on where you look.

Matt

Hi Cali2UK,

  You mention bringing your dog...have you looked into the PETS travel scheme?  Things may have changed since I moved to the UK 18 months ago but there was an issue of having your pet microchipped six months prior to your move from the US and then upon the animal being tested by a certified PETS vet, you can bring them in (requirement used to be that pets had to go intp quarantine for six months!).  Something to think about if you haven't already.  I'm sure there's still info. in UK-Yankee about this as well.

-Sandy

yes the PETS thing is a definately an issue to sort out ASAP. last i heard you had to have them microchipped 6 months prior to coming to the UK or else they would be quarantined in the UK for that length of time...

30-45 minutes out and the rent can still be high.  It all depends on the area.  It takes me abotu 40 minutes by tube to get to work and my rent is £1200 per month (not including utilities, council tax, etc.) for a 1 BR flat.

We live about 35 mins out of central London by train and we pay £850 a month for a 2 bedroom house with a big garden. It really depends on where you are and how hard you're willing to look to find a good place within your price range.

One thing I would say about renting in the city is that you are going to have to pay significantly more if you want outdoor space for your pooch, if you even can find a landlord that allows dogs...

Personally, I love living in Windsor--close enough  to London so that it is about 45 minutes to paddington, 55 to waterloo but still very green and small enough to not feel overwhelmed...