@Zak have I really been that misinformed about London prices?

£30k for a middle class lifestyle in London doesn't seem so bad. That's about what I am on now and I would consider myself middle class

Of course, you'd always have to rent in London because holy crap those mortgage prices

£30k will get you a middle class lifestyle in Cardiff.

London is, well, just horrendously expensive.

Say you earn £100k a year in London. That's £65k after taxes.

For a nice 1-bed flat in a resosnable part of London, assume £400 pw.

That's £21k per year.

Down to £44k

@Zak what the fuck

I have a rather crap 1 bed flat in my place and it's £570

read: can't use the sink half of the time becuse of static shocks

per week or per month?

mo

+ £100 council tax

oh yeah, forgot council tax :)

call it £4k per year.

cringe

Middle Class food, call it £5 per meal.

£5/meal sounds about right, thats' what I do now, yup

Hardly middle class food, I just never buy in bulk...

Add in eating out/takeaway etc.

Call it closer to £10

£36k per year

math

so now we have £4k left

Okay, so mabye not an exggeration then.

Seems crazy you'd have £4k disposable on a £100k/y salary lol

Yep. Have I mentioned? London. Is. Insanely. Expensive.

At my current level of expenses I could have £4k in 5 months (if I didn't spend anything)

And then you read that Median salary of £35,000 again

and wonder how on earth half the population of London even survives.

@Zak students + living outside the city, I guess

housing market in this country is truly fucked

I remember an article the other day saying cardiff bay flats are "low priced"

It's £800/mo for a single bed flat, what the hell are you on about "low priced"

That's nearly half my wage

to be fair, the housing market >1 hour away from London is very reasonable.

On a historical basis.

Anything within London's influence though is just ridiculous.

@skiwi Not just Chinese investors.

People with lots of money buy houses/flats and do them up just to rent them out

I remember reading an article the other day where a huge percentage of flats in cities - not just London - are unoccupied simply because they're being bought-to-let

And because no -one can afford them.

It's a bubble. Hopefully it pops because rental prices are truly ridiculous

London bubble won't pop because the attraction isn't primarily about returns.

I mean more in my area

Wages combined with rental costs and truly ridiculously agency fees really limit where I can move

it's primarily about minimal overseas restrictions, secure store of value, and prestige.

read: £450 agency fees

Ouch.

it should be criminal, honestly..

@Zak £250k signing bonus.. lol

that's what I would earn in 10 years

Go get a life, ISIS. Stop blowing people up.

New attack in Jakarta.

Alan Rickman died.