London Rents

I absolutely love Wimbledon.  LOVE IT!!  I used to live in Uxbridge and then Harrow and really wanted a life change.  Wimbledon has the best of all worlds, to me. 

It has really great transportation links.  It is on the district line but also has overground train links.  It take 17 minutes to get to Waterloo (a huge hub) and 6 minutes to Clapham (also a huge hub).  It is very easy to get to Gatwick airport.  The buses run to convenient places as well, which was not the case in the other places I lived.  You can also get to Luton airport on a direct train as well as Kings Cross.

It has good shopping or nearby shopping.  There are 4 large grocery stores right near the train station, an indoor mall and the high street has tons of shopping.  You can take a 15 minute train to Kingston, which is also a huge shopping area.

There are too many restaurants to count.

I live up in Wimbledon Village, 2 blocks off the Village high street.  I am 2 minutes from the Common, so I get plenty of green space.  Again, there are loads of resturants, 3 bakeries and loads of little boutiques shops.  I love the Village because it is a small little town in the middle of a huge city.  Convenience but also just a bit away from all the buzz. 

The only drawbacks are that is expensive and that it is loooooooong getting to West London, where tons of my friends still are. 

Wow, Sara, we're practically neighbors! I live on Wimbledon Hill Road right off the roundabout. I too love this area for every reason you cite. Just one thing I could do without is the damn hill when coming home from the station.

sorry to hear, for private nice and helpful landlords...

I'm going to ask a question I could google myself, but for the sake of conversation...
(and of course knowledge)

Broadly speaking for London, how much did rents increase 2006-2008 or 2003-2008?

(and is canary wharf also a living place, or only working place?)

Sara:  Can you tell me a bit more about Wimbledon (and fulham?

MaryKate, could you tell me a bit more about Hammersmith (and Shepherd's Bush and why you want to move out of Tower Hill)

I've heard/considered some of these places, but still very uninformed...

Is it because you live it better, easy commute, or?

It's the commute...I work out in West London (near Heathrow) and traveling across central London before getting out to the burbs is driving me insane. If I move over to west London I can cut my commute by about 40mins - 1hour.

Tower Hill is generally a great area, I'd recommend it, It's a short walk to Brick Lane, Spittalfields Market, London Bridge etc. I also like having the river so close (I take a lot of boats) and it's quite touristy so it's pretty safe.

Shepherd's bush and Hammersmith, well the idea is to live on the H&C line so I can get to Paddington quickly, both seem nice areas, I'm looking for somewhere near the new mall (Westfield) or near shepherd's bush green.
I like that there's lots of little shops and restaurants around there but the mall is there for big shopping, and it's convenient to get around, still relatively close to the river (depending on where the flat is) and handy for Hammersmith apollo!

I've only been in London 6 months, it doesn't take long to get to know your way around.

If you want to assess areas, for commuting use a combination of the tube map and the journey planner on http://www.tfl.gov.uk/
you can work out how long it will take you to get to places

thank you - that makes a lot of sense...

what would you say is an average commute - 1hr?

and a good one, less than 30 mins?

I've commuted before on the trains from CT to NYC, so its doable, but also would love love not to have to... 40min tube/walk would be ok...

I hope you get to move soon and cut on your commute, good luck with that

So how did you pick where you are now?  Did you not know where you would work?

Is Zone 1 much different than Zone 2. Or is that just a silly question... Ignore it then..

Ok, for someone without a car, is it a big difference between Zone 1 and Zone 2?

Can I find a place for £1Kpcm in Zone 1, a small but nice, clean and safe place?

Or much easier to find that in Zone 2.


I thought Notting Hill was uber-expensive?
Steve says I will not see better value for money in Zone 1 here...

thank you - that makes a lot of sense...

what would you say is an average commute - 1hr?

and a good one, less than 30 mins?

I've commuted before on the trains from CT to NYC, so its doable, but also would love love not to have to... 40min tube/walk would be ok...

I hope you get to move soon and cut on your commute, good luck with that

So how did you pick where you are now?  Did you not know where you would work?

If you've commuted to Manhattan, even zone 3-4 is not gonna phase you, trust me. The distances you're dealing with are much shorter.

Wimbledon, which, I believe is either end of zone 3 or beginning of zone 4 is about 25-35 minutes from the center.

I don't know how you can look at the rents for London and stay sane- I'm getting palpitations with those prices! 

I don't know how you can look at the rents for London and stay sane- I'm getting palpitations with those prices!� 

Moving from Boston, I thought I was familiar with relatively crazy rent (it's not NYC or SF, but still pretty high).  And then we began flat hunting in central London...
 

ETA: I should add that we were flat hunting in July when it was more than 2GBP per $1.  Our money was still in dollars, so we were thinking in dollars.  That was the real kicker. 

We moved into a flat in Kew (Zone 3) in October, and where able to negotiate 10% off of our flat as well. I also caught a glimpse of some paperwork in the agent's car, that indicated the price had already recently been reduced by 10%.

When we first started looking, it never occurred to me to negotiate on price. However, everyone at work said that is what you are supposed to do. We really low-balled our first offer, and asked the agent if she thought that was reasonable. She said "I wouldn't be embarrassed to bring that offer to the landlord". The landlord wanted a slightly higher price than the original offer, which we accepted.

In the end, I was really surprised how much the landlords we looked at were willing to negotiate. I was really worried having two cats would not only hinder our ability to find a place, but require us to pay more.

Talking to agents, it does seem landlords are willing to negotiate more with "optimal tenants". It would seem they prefer couples, rather than single tenants or roommates. There were a few places we looked at, where the agent said the landlord had had bad experiences with the place not being maintained well or rent not being paid, and they were more concerned with getting the right tenant in, rather than the most money for the place.

Rents can be pretty high in London, but I don't think they are all ridiculous. We actually pay the same amount in rent here, as we did in Dallas. (Granted we lived in a fairly expensive flat in Dallas).

Negotiate, negotiate!  My husband's an estate agent (don't flame me ) and he says that flats NEVER go for the asking price.  Either someone offers slightly less, or tenants get into a bidding war over a hot property!!

Always, always offer - never just take the asking price without trying first!!

the good old days of the bidding wars, the ultimate winner's curse!!

I wish I live in a place in NYC with a name that also exists in London.
So I could go from Kew Gardens to Kew Gardens, or Chelsea to Chelsea, or Soho to Soho

One thing I hope is that our next flat is going to be bigger and slightly cheaper or same than the current one, at least that's what it seems, for zones 2+...  but I may be wrong...

My worst commute was ~1:25hrs, and the best one ~25minutes...

Question on definitions:  What is a double bedroom (or single), and what is a studio?

I see studios advertised but they dont look like studios on the photos   

But anyway, there is over 50% chance it will be in canary wharf  (or the city).
Canary Wharf is on the east side somewhere near the Docklands and stuff, or no?
I hear the West  or North West or North is 'better' ?  But from the perspective of a person who doesnt know anything (and doesnt know and hopefully doesnt care about the whole north versus south of the rive thing)... wouldnt it be better for the commute to live somewhere near c.w. or at least on the jubilee and/or the DLR lines in order to ease the commute?
I had a co-worker who came from London and he worked in canary wharf and lived somewhere in greenwich  or south greenhich or something...

As an uneducated ballpark guess, say you want to look for a 1-Bed Flat that is �200-�250 a week,  is there enough areas to look for, or mostly areas that you would be priced out of?
I'm after just plain safety and easy access to transport/food/essential while adjusting...

I dont know...

If you are working near Canary Wharf, then the Docklands would be ideal.  There are loads of new developments out this way and prices are seriously falling.  My only concern would be that if you DON'T work in Canary Wharf, you can really make it difficult for you to easily get to other places by being in the Docklands.  It is the main reason I won't move there.  I will say as well, depending on the area, it can be really different scenery from the rest of London.  Buzzing in the week when everyone is working but hard to find places open on the weekends.  Which is opposite of what you want living there.

Now on the "better" thing.  I don't get into the North vs South of the river nonsense.  I would say that every area has a culture and that is more important to know.  South of the river tends to have more green space and a bit more room but it can also be seen as more for "settling down with a family."  But being in a busy hub like Wimbledon or Fulham or Richmond will fix that family feel.

When I was deciding to move, I thought about what is important to me first.  I lived on a High Street and was driven mad by the noise, so I wanted somewhere quite.  My old area had no decent restaurants or green space just to walk.  I wanted more than one way to get into town.  Then I asked my friends what areas they liked and why.  If the reasons matched what I liked then I looked into it.  At that point I narrowed it down to 4 places.  Then I looked at transportation links and narrowed it down to 3. Then I looked at rightmove.com for 2-3 weeks to get a real feel for prices.  It naturally narrowed down to one area for me.  So I focused on spending several weekends there and knew it was right.

You can get a 1 bed for that, but as others have said, you can afford more by going out in the zones.  Check rightmove and see what you can get for your money. 

A studio is a flat which has no separate bedroom, the bedroom is also the main living area.
So you may have your bed in one corner and your sofa and tv in another. Sometimes there is a seperate kitchen, but often the kitchen is in the main room.
Open plan living! A studio has it's own private bathroom. A bedsit would normally share kitchen/bath or both (gah!)
It's not as bad as it sounds, studios can have mezzanine areas or the beds can be in alcoves and it's fine, especially if you're on your own.

A double bedroom would have a double bed in it, a single bedroom a single bed.

Yes you can definitely find a place for �1K in zone 1 or 2, in fact you can have my flat in tower hill if you want! it's �867 a month, small one bed and the landlord always gives deposits back and doesn't ask for a credit check or references

If you're working in canary wharf have you considered Greenwich/Charlton/Deptford areas.
Greenwich is amazing with lots of little markets and nice shops and really safe. You could walk to canada water from Greenwich if you were so inclined or take the DLR.
You could also use spareroom if you're looking to bring your rents down, there's always lots of city people looking for flat shares, there's also flats on there to rent as a whole like studios etc.
If I could live anywhere it would be by the Cutty Sark in Greenwich, great boho lifestyle, cool pubs and restaurants and markets, so easy to get around.

Good luck on the flat hunting - £200-£250 a week won't get you much in London, i lived there 20 years ago and moved back north mainly because rents and property prices are absolutely ridiculous.
I was watching Daily Politics on BBC2 today and they were speaking with a private landlord in London (I didn't catch the exact area) but he was complaining because he'd had to drop his rents from £1700 a month to £1300 for a 2 bed flat. Absolutely crazy prices!