How much do you need to earn to live in London?

[Pommygranite]

Monkeylegend said:

H22 was managing on £35k ish, or maybe a bit less.

Shame he is not here to contribute to this thread, it would be fun.

Where's he gone? He was 'fun'. I miss him.

[surveyor]

Du1point8 said:

MajorProblem said:

DanL said:

This explains your confusion. You're comparing living out of London with living in it, and making some assumptions about travel, etc. that don't hold.

I agree, I do not know that's why if asked.

London is vast... if you want a specific meal type, most people will use:

http://www.opentable.co.uk/london-restaurants?forc...

If I wanted Soho tonight for 19:00 I can look here:

http://www.opentable.co.uk/s/?DateTime=2014-08-19%...

Then choose on budget/style/offer alone.

This is what we did last weekend. I'll not mention the restaurant as it was quite a bit more than £100 (but this is very rare for us), and we could have eaten for a lot less should we have wished to.

We go there on the tube - Free for other-half as we'd got a travelcard. £3 or so for me on the Oyster card. Had the meal then wandered around the west end, stopping for a round at pubs that caught our eye. £10 a round or so (large wine and a lager).... When we'd had enough we had planned to get a taxi back to our hotel in the City, but they were hard to come-by and I'm not patient. So bus back again for not many pennies.

I reckon £75 total, with a normal meal - but on a normal night out we would not have done the west end wander.

[anonymous-user]

lepetitoeuf said:

However, the OP didn't ask how much money you need to just get by, he asked how much you need to buy a certain level of lifestyle.

So the real question is "How much do I have to earn to have a big house, a flash car and to eat out every night?".
Nothing to do with London really.

[OzzyR1]

djc206 said:

According to the BBC today the average salary in London is £39k so I would suggest that constitutes making do. With your entertainment budget and car requirement you're going to need £60k ish each as a couple to achieve your property aims. That's the biggest thing with London. If you're prepared to rent you can live on a lot less, if you want an 80% mortgage you need a big headline salary to be lent the money.

Two different questions really, how much do you need to live in London? And how much do you need to buy a home in London?

Quite an interesting thought really, wonder if that means a stagnation or reduction of London property prices is coming? Things must come to a head when no-one earning under £60K on their own or £90K as a couple can get more than a one-bed flat in Zone 4 outwards (say £250K) on the "traditional" 3.5x and 2.5x mortgages.

Also the small issue of raising a £50K deposit while paying rent...

Surely it can't keep rising at 15% (or whatever it was) year on year.

[GG89]

about £1,000,000 PA

Since this is PH.

[Shaoxter]

OzzyR1 said:

Surely it can't keep rising at 15% (or whatever it was) year on year.

People have been saying that every year and there's still no sign of a slowdown. You're forgetting the foreign cash buyers... what we really need is a 15% stamp duty on foreign purchases like in HK.

[Du1point8]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

This is the bit I don't get... Usually the OP of the thread is from an up north village and seems to think everything in london is £1k a month, everyone has a six figure salary, etc.

Yet when the people actually from step in and say that the pricing is all bks, everyone questions them.

Its more like this:

£1k-2k a month in mortgage and bills split 2 ways if 2 people
£couple hundred between 2 people on entertaining a month
£250 or so for 2 people for full use of transport

So nowhere near what people outside of london think.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

NNH said:

I think there's a few of us who've suggested that a gross household income (whether single or couple) of £60-70k gives a pretty decent lifestyle in London. It would be quite hard to enjoy the benefits of London on much less than that, though.

One of the greatest benefits of living in London is walking thru London. Fabulous parks, a wonderful river, a vibrant street culture, a landmark on every corner, amazing architecture, history galore. I walk a lot in London and never get bored. At the moment, it's still free, and I am not aware of a pedestrian congestion charge coming into play any time soon.

[OzzyR1]

All good points, just wonder where it will end up that is all - at that sort of rate of increase a £250K one-bed flat (already non-existant in all but the "worst" areas of inner London) and generally only found in Zones 4, 5 and 6 will be worth half a million in 6 or 7 years. Can't see the average wage being £140K to compensate.

Suppose if we knew when it will peak we'd all be millionaires though!!

[anonymous-user]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You're joking aren't you? My mum seems intent on spending mine. This month it's a hot tub.

[BrabusMog]

Crossflow Kid said:

anonymous said:

[redacted]

You're joking aren't you? My mum seems intent on spending mine. This month it's a hot tub.

My folks are doing 3 or 4 holidays a year together, plus my dad always goes off to play golf with his pals for 2 weeks and my mum seems to constantly be at a spa day/weekend!

[JohnSW20]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

One of the greatest benefits of living in London is walking thru London. Fabulous parks, a wonderful river, a vibrant street culture, a landmark on every corner, amazing architecture, history galore. I walk a lot in London and never get bored. At the moment, it's still free, and I am not aware of a pedestrian congestion charge coming into play any time soon.

I agree 100%, there is no place like it to just wonder around and see where you end up. When I first moved here a friend told me to avoid using the tube as I would miss out on so much and not get a feel for where everything is. That's the best bit of advice I could offer anyone. Just walk round or jump on a bus at the weekend. You might even find a place selling food at less than £250.00 a plate full.

[Bullett]

BrabusMog said:

No commute to London, I'll be going from Caversham to Camberley without a hassley drive down the A3/M25/M3

That's not going to be a easiest commute.

[Davey S2]

Shaoxter said:

OzzyR1 said:

Surely it can't keep rising at 15% (or whatever it was) year on year.

People have been saying that every year and there's still no sign of a slowdown. You're forgetting the foreign cash buyers... what we really need is a 15% stamp duty on foreign purchases like in HK.

It's already 15% for corporate purchasers of anything over £500K which catches the offshore purchasers.

Individuals already pay 7% on anything over £2M.

It's a fine line between taxing them and sacring them off.

My team does the legals on resi mortgages for London property typically between £2 - £35M and some of the SDLT bills are scary.

[okgo]

For a £1000-£1750 mortgage or rent I think £100k HHI is comfortable.

[BrabusMog]

Bullett said:

BrabusMog said:

No commute to London, I'll be going from Caversham to Camberley without a hassley drive down the A3/M25/M3

That's not going to be a easiest commute.

Really? I've done my girlfriends by Tilehurst to Camberley plenty of times and it's a doddle, plus I'm closer to the A329M in Caversham? I usually get to the office for before 8 and leave between 1pm and 3pm though I guess, so I'm not as affected by traffic round that area.

[speedysoprano]

MajorProblem said:

£250 a week ain't gonna go far getting meals out / going places etc.

Yikes. Husband and I go out at least twice a week and wouldn't even get close to spending that. We eat well, we like a drink or several and certainly don't skimp...

[speedysoprano]

surveyor said:

MajorProblem said:

Exactly it's FA. A meal and drinks is gonna be minimum £100 for two unless you go to maccy d's.

Disagree - you can blow £100 on a meal and the rest. But there are other places where the prices are more comparable to the rest of the uk.

Or is your question How much do you need to earn to live in a London to a lifestyle that you'd like to have?

If you find your good local places (and there are many, pretty much everywhere you look), £100 for a meal will go a long way. We usually spend around £50-£60 on a meal plus drinks at a decent restaurant.

[okgo]

speedysoprano said:

Yikes. Husband and I go out at least twice a week and wouldn't even get close to spending that. We eat well, we like a drink or several and certainly don't skimp...

I went to duck and waffle the other week, few drinks each, some food. £200.

Of course if you insist on Bella Italia it will be cheap, but if you go to decent places, it gets pricey, that is the truth.

[anonymous-user]

speedysoprano said:

MajorProblem said:

£250 a week ain't gonna go far getting meals out / going places etc.

Yikes. Husband and I go out at least twice a week and wouldn't even get close to spending that. We eat well, we like a drink or several and certainly don't skimp...

I'd agree with that. Mrs CK and I go out quite often. No idea where she goes but I have a wail of a time