Moving to London - Need some inputs

[Roopasrivats]

Hello friends,

I will be moving to London in a month or so. I have been offered a salary of 50000 pounds gross per year by an IT services company.

I would like to live somewhere which is 30-45 mins by train to Central London.

I have a wife who will not be working.

Do you think this is a reasonable salary with which i can have a decent lifestyle and save atleast 1000 pounds per month.

What would be the typical monthly expenses.

Any inputs on this would help me in my decision making.

Thanks in advance,
Sri

[kaz101]

Hi Sri,

Welcome to the forum.

I left the UK in July 2007 and I am also in IT (JD Edwards analyst programmer - soon to be ex!)

I assume you will be renting rather than buying?
Whereabouts in Central London will you be working? I was just thinking about
where your nearest train station will be, and then it would be worth looking at what's within a 45 min train journey since the distance out from London covers a lot of ground. Kings Cross goes north to Luton in that time period and there you can rent a house for about 750 - 900 pounds a month (or more if you want a really good house).

You also need to define what you think of as a decent lifestyle. Some will say a Mercedes and others a Hyundai (nothing against Hyundai since I drive one )

Regards,
Karen

[Roopasrivats]

Thanks for the reply karen.

Iam not sure of the exact location of my office. It's some where in central london.

I have not finalized a place to live. I heard that places like east ham is good from where we can have a decent commute to office. Just that iam ok for a 30-45 mins commute to the office from the suburbs.

I would like to rent a 600-800 sq.ft apartment and do not want to own a car since i heard that public transport is better off in london.

With this information, can you provide me some insights about the kind of monthly expenses iam likely to incur.

[kaz101]

Hi Sri,

I know nothing about East Ham - sorry.

If you check websites such as Find properties to buy, homes to rent, overseas houses and new homes on rightmove.co.uk and Vebra.com plc - Search for estate agents, homes, houses and property for sale and to let they have information about renting property and that will give you some idea of the costs of renting.

It's also worth checking the fares on National Rail Enquiries - Official source for rail information, UK train times and timetables since fares usually go up in the UK every January. I agree it's probably not worth driving into London and parking costs a fortune as well as having to pay for the congestion charge.

Regards,
Karen

[Gerry Pridham]

Hi Sri,

I can't post links to sites yet, but take a look at gumtree dot com for some local prices of accommodation and other useful info for expats

[MichelleAlison]

Sorry about the doom and gloom, but you have asked - East Ham comes under East London and not really the suburbs. Transport costs are very expensive, but you would not be able to drive to work due to the daily congestion charge of 8 pounds per day plus parking which is out of the question.

Don't forget the horrible council tax that every property has to pay and this is NOT included in the rent. This is always payable by the residents of the house

Council Tax 2007-2008

I would think that every single property in East Ham comes under bands G & H. These figures are expected to go up a lot because East Ham is situated within the Olympic games 2012 area.

As has already been posted Find properties to buy, homes to rent, overseas houses and new homes on rightmove.co.uk is an excellent site. It covers all estate agents all over the country and abroad.

I'm not sure whether you have to pay income tax, but if you do, you might find that you fall in the top band of 40% (it was 50,000 pounds a year, but it might have changed).

I hope this helps and it hasn't depressed you too much.

Good luck with your move.

[queenie40something]

Hi Surrey is a very nice place to live in and not too far by train to get into central London. Our average weekly food bill ( family of 2 adults and teenge daughter ) is about £120 a week. If we have a takeaway this will be about £15. An average meal out for 2 is about £50. You also need to take into accont gas and electric and these prices keep going up. My current monthly electric and gas bill is about £80 a month for a 3 bed house.
You also have to pay for a TV licence - dont know what the exact cost is as we pay quarterly - think it is over £100 a year now. Petrol is also expensive as is public transport.