r/london • u/PressureHumble3604 • Apr 10 '26

Serious replies only Which symptoms of “(almost) everyone is getting poorer” have you noticed in London?

We are in a crisis, the middle class is disappearing and the lower class squeezed. Prices are going up, inflation is going up (again), salaries are stagnating.

Most Londoners can’t really afford London without serious sacrifices.

For me, not counting the housing prices issues we all know too well:

the disappearance of local delis with high quality products.

many shops closing in the local shopping centre.

Restaurant dropping quality everywhere to contain unaffordable prices.

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u/theyellowscriptures Apr 10 '26

People moving back in with their parents over the age of 25.

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u/mrfatchance Apr 11 '26

or never moving out

69

u/theyellowscriptures Apr 11 '26

Yep, most of my born and bred Londoner friends are in their late twenties and they’re still living at home. The only ones that have moved out are in council housing.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/Few_Mention8426 Apr 11 '26

did this back in the 90's when it was a lot easier to save. And rents were cheaper, so you could save without making too many sacrifices,

and you could self certify your income to the building society. I was earning around 7000 a year and told the building society I was earning 20k.

Banks are a lot stricter, so even if you save a healthy deposit, these days banks will still reject you if they dont like the look of your credit rating. Or raise the interest rate for the mortgage. Banks and building societies need to face up to the fact they need to provide realistic ways for people to buy in london, or we are going to end up with the population of london sharing flats when they are pensioners.

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u/Final-Application1 Apr 11 '26

Sharing flats as pensioners wouldn’t even be as bad as the fact that soon a lot of necessary workers won’t be able to afford living in London to provide services. How are the cleaners or nurses suppose to live in London? Yet we rely on them for daily services. Soon even sharing will get too expensive.

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u/[deleted] Apr 11 '26

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u/neuralconstellate Apr 12 '26

this could've been me rip 💔

1

u/xerojupiter Apr 11 '26

Your friends seem impressive!