Living in London for a 23 y/o female office worker?

Question

I have plans to relocate to London and rent a studio for approximately £600 per month, and work as a administrator or receptionist for around £17k per annum. (Works out about 1,000 per month after tax). I understand the remaining 80% of my salary will be spent on other necessities such as bills, food, which I'm ok with as weekends I will be a mobile beauty therapist.

Is this a realistic goal, or do I need to remove my head from the clouds?

The areas of London for me would be West, central or North. I have found some very cheap studios on findaproperty - some as low as £65 per week lol, sounds too good to be true.

Thanks

Answer 1

Well, I just spend about 10 days in London, with the idea of possibly living and working there for several months.

It just needs to be recognized that it is a VERY expensive city. According to a recent article, it is the second most expensive city in the world. This agency who rates these things, gives NY a rating of 100. Relative to this, London is something like 126, LA is something like 126 if I remember correctly.

If you are coming from the states, also bear in mind the dollar conversion rate is horrible right now. That also makes a big difference.

Also check out the Work Getaways site. It is very good, and gives realistic-seeming prices. One error I made was, quite honestly, being unwilling to believe their prices.

After asking around, I found out that a really good source for finding rooms to rent is GumTree.com (all references given below). It actually seems like a great place for all KINDS of things in London. Probably apartments as well.

I asked a guy who's a real regular in London -- comes back every year to work, and then goes traveling for a good chunk of months. He said a normal amount he pays for a room is 90 to 120 pounds a week. Note that many listings for a room or possibly also apartment will be in per WEEK (cpw), rather than per month (cpm). Now, note that this is for a house share.

If you do look for a room, but don't want to share one, be sure that the listing doesn't say "room share," check out the description carefully.

You can get rooms as low as 65 pounds per week, but it seemed a little dodgy.

One big thing I realized was that London is SUCH a big place, that LONDONERS don't think they really know London--they have their areas they know. And likewise, if I was going to figure it out, I should probably figure out some areas that I would like--interesting, funky, not too expensive, but not too dangerous--were my criteria. And then become familiar with them.

If you had a Londoner helping you look at the listings, that could be very helpful, in terms of "oh, that's a good location," or "that sucks," etc.

If I were to do this at some point, I would, personally, seek to arrange something in advance. I would put a high premium on that, because then you have a base on the ground, so to speak, from which to get settled, get your feet, and you might well start making connections that could lead to a place, or get people's advice, etc. Staying in a hostel and trying to figure all this out can be somewhat wearing.

Hope this helps! What I would say is, just don't underestimate the size of the place, the cost of the place, or the time required to insinuate yourself into it.