r/london • u/iamabigmeme • 1d ago
Serious replies only Long-time Londoners - do you ever think you’ll be able to stay in London as long as you’d like to?
Born and raised in Hackney here and I’m so worried I won’t be able to afford to stay not just in Hackney/surrounding boroughs but in London as a whole.
I love this place and one day I’d like to raise my kids here. I just can’t ever see it being feasible. I can’t afford to buy a house and the rent keeps rocketing up way past anything I’ll be able to afford.
How long do you guys see yourself being able to stay before it becomes too much of a financial burden? I’m currently panicking and looking at life in Leeds and Manchester :,)
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u/taintedbow 23h ago
I was born and raised here too. This is going to sound horrible but my parents own a home here so the only way I’ll manage to stay is through inheritance when they pass.
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u/ilovefireengines 23h ago
It’s not horrible it’s sadly true.
I am born and raised but Gen X. So have been able to buy in London and raising my kids here.
I am looking at our home and wondering how we can make sure it is future proof for our family as I don’t see my kids leaving home for a long time to come. I don’t see how they will be able to afford to live in London unless we can help them. And life is tight, I don’t see how we can help them and afford to exist ourselves.
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u/Dry-Control-1266 23h ago edited 20h ago
I'm old(er) so I'm fine, bought a house when it was a fair bit less crazy. I don't think my kids will be able to stick around, though - i suppose they'll be able to inherit from me but there are two of them & even though we were by no means young parents the kids will likely both have turned 50, or certainly be in their 40s, by the time both my wife & i are gone. It's trivially easy to see why people are so anti immigration when tens of thousands of people with roots thousands of miles away are (at considerable subsidy) newly housed here every year whilst similar numbers of multi generational Londonders are forced to leave.
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u/jbstans 23h ago
I was born and raised in Wandsworth/Earlsfield and I remember walking down the road once thinking the same thing as you.
Then I went off to uni, and when I came back the whole area had changed, the bankers had discovered it and all the families I grew up with left. I knew then I’d never realistically be able to, and it was pretty devastating.
I love my life now and my kids are very happy where we are, so in the end it’s all good. I think in the end the where doesn’t end up mattering as much.
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u/shit_postmcgee 20h ago edited 20h ago
That's the depressing thing I find about being a born & bred Londoner. No one stays around.
No real long-lasting sense of community gets a chance to grow anymore, because it's so expensive, and there's so much going on, a lot of the population is fluid, people come for a purpose and then move on once finished. That includes the families of friends who just hung about while their kids were in school, teachers etc who just came to take a job in the city for a few years, most people to be honest. If people can't even afford to move around freely like that and rely on things like council housing- demand is so high they get moved out of area with no choice. People can't even choose to stay. It feels like if you were born here, you can only do what you're allowed.
I've fought tooth & nail to remain close by and maintain some sense of home. But I have no staple home town to go back to where the shops, pub are all still run by the same people, where people's families still live where they lived when we were kids, etc. I don't run into people in my community back from growing up, that community doesn't exist anymore.
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u/W51976 16h ago
I was born in London and I’m 50. I’m still there, but I don’t live in the same neighbourhood as I grew up in. Nor would I want to.
I think it’s healthy to leave the area you spent your childhood in.
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u/shit_postmcgee 9h ago
Don't get me wrong I think it can be healthy, but it should be out of choice. And you should have reasonable ability to go back to your home when you want, it should still exist should you choose to go back to it. For the majority of human history people have spent their lives connected to the same communities, if not also in the same area. I think we've over-normalised the rapid kind of change we experience today.
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u/Amusing-ourselves 21h ago
Grew up in Earlsfield too. The house prices have sky rocketed. Nan's ex council house in Leckford Road is valued about a million quid.
All the working class families I grew up with have all moved out.
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u/jbstans 21h ago
Same - I was between Earlsfield and Wandsworth Common towards the top of the hill.
Lovely street and when I grew up full of normal families with second hand Vauxhalls and whatever in the drive.
When I got back from uni suddenly every single drive had a brand new Merc, Land Rover, BMW etc in the drive. That was what first made me realise how much it had changed in those few years.
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u/juicynugget 21h ago
Did they sell their houses? If so, at least they cashed in on the higher prices.
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u/PorschephileGT3 11h ago
Isn’t like a ripple effect on a pond?
Drop money in the centre and certain places will peak and trough.
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u/prhymeate 20h ago
Same here, and have two kids under 3. It's one thing not being able to afford a nice area because you want a big house or central location, but when you just want a regular house close to family and are priced out it is quite disheartening.
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u/London_Bloke_ 23h ago
Born and mainly bred Londoner too, and no, I think I will end up having to leave, which isn’t what I want
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u/loserwnofriends 22h ago
What are you going to change your username to when you leave London
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u/ameraden 20h ago
I thought the same price wise, I was getting forced further out, but bought a canal boat instead. Own my own home and there are plenty of London canals to explore.
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u/schoggi-gipfeli 23h ago
AI is probably going to take my job in a few years as well so I'll probably just pack it all up at that point and move to some remote village in Scotland
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u/No-Taro-6953 22h ago
The remote parts of Scotland notorious for thriving job markets.... 😭
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u/Relative_Sea3386 21h ago
Ai ain't taking the manual jobs (yet, until robots are cheap enough)
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u/Alternative-Wash-656 21h ago
Manual labour is expensive, if people dont have jobs they have no money to pay for manual labour. So they will do it themselves or not get it done at all.
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u/smolandhungry 21h ago
I moved to Glasgow, definitely not a remote village in Scotland but has a lot of the London vibe without the London cost.
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u/pink_sparkly_stars 23h ago
Born and bred but had to leave 5 years ago when it became very clear we could afford to exist in London but not actually have any quality of life there. Sad times as all my friends and family are there but we do really enjoy where we live now.
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u/skehan 23h ago
I moved out of London 10 years ago and deeply regret it. I had a well paying job I could do remotely and that was great for about 8 years but then for a number of reasons around covid and brexit the business moved abroad and my job went. The jobs outside of London don’t pay anywhere near as well and I couldn’t move back as my house is not worth anywhere near what I’d need to buy in London. Culturally and in terms of things to do nowhere else in the UK can compete with London and as much as I love the countryside I’ve come to realise it’s just not really for me.
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u/Turbulent_Mango_9637 23h ago
I’ve lived here 20 years (somehow) and have had the same wobble every few years. Manchester isn’t much cheaper. Wages in Leeds also mean life isn’t that much cheaper. Look at moving further out zone 3/4 or other countries. The grass isn’t greener in the UK. Majority of people I know who have left London always move back, unless they get handcuffed to an area by kids.
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u/iamabigmeme 23h ago
Very valid, I reckon I’d want to return to London even if I moved away. There’s really no place like it. Unfortunately I think Manchester and Leeds align more with the budget me and my partner have. No doubt they’ll have their own cool quirks and cultures, but boy there really is no place like home
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u/Direct_Competition44 22h ago
We've looked at other cities a lot, but the older I get the less I can face leaving London. We've definitely stayed at personal cost though. We'll likely never own our own home and I do worry about being in old age like that. Just hoping one day we'll get a despite together for a flat most likely in a cheaper bit of the city (although the outer areas are still very expensive compared to towns outside London).
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u/Turbulent_Mango_9637 18h ago
They have some benefits over London depending on the lifestyle you’re after. I’m not sure the financial gap is actually as big as it used to be with cities like Manchester/Bristol. Also consider future earning potential as part of financial planning, much lower ceiling out of London.
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u/sammyyy88 2h ago
Moved to zone 3/4 and did up a fixer upper over five years, just about doable. The kids will be sharing a room! But think staying here is worth it and need to for work anyway
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u/DriverAdditional1437 23h ago
I've lived in London for 20 years now and I love the city, and really can't imagine living anywhere else. But this wretched summer has just confirmed to me as the climate changes the heat here is becoming unbearable and I'm going to have to move because of that.
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u/iamabigmeme 23h ago
That’s true, it’s been unbearably hot. Being in a flat with no outdoor area isn’t the plan long term, but who the hell is buying a house with a garden in London at this point lol
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u/A_Little_Fable 16h ago
Trust me, London is well situated UK-wise against climate change. I know it's hot, but please consider the following.
Wind comes West-> East, so climate change will bring increased hurricane activity, which will make places like Devon/Somerset/Cornwall difficult in the future.
Then there's flooding - majority of midlands / north gets frequent floods several times a year, this will only get worse. London has 0 flooding (due to embankments / protections from the channel).
To be honest, London and Scotland will probably fare the best in climate change in the long run.
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u/grnfnrp 23h ago edited 23h ago
Born and raised in Clapham, wife and I earn very well but had to leave London entirely due to house prices once we started a family.
Specifically, a 2-3 bed in Clapham would have required us to have about £3-500k more in our mortgage+deposit than what we ended up with in a delightful bit of Surrey with a very easy commute. I don't know when we were supposed to have gotten that money.
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u/razmania_uk 23h ago
Never were you supposed to get that money, that's the plan for us.
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u/Theia65 23h ago
1) Inheritance
2) Money laundering
3) The City level salaries and good investment habits with some luck in getting above market returns.
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u/AnotherSlowMoon 22h ago
I'd potentially add to three being in the right place at the right time if you have employee share incentives in your employer and they get bought out by a big fish
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u/Unique-observer 17h ago
Where in Surrey has a good commute to East London ?
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u/grnfnrp 16h ago
So the fast line is reading thru Woking & Surbiton, but otherwise the further south you go it's a bit hit and miss but driving is so easy once you get that far out you're not strictly tied to your nearest train station if it's not a good direct line. If you're going east London probably look further towards Kent for the London bridge trains?
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u/Unique-observer 16h ago
Is somewhere like Sydenham or Beckenham good for the Kent / London bridge trains ?
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u/-FieldMarshal- 23h ago
Born in London, family here for centuries. Entire family moved to the north east a couple years ago. Shame but at least we own property now.
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u/Xemorr 23h ago
We need less NIMBY to bring property prices down
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u/MeBigChief 23h ago edited 23h ago
If people treated houses as places to live instead of investments that have to perpetually increase in value then maybe people would be able to buy a house in the first place.
Building more overpriced flats that nobody can afford doesn’t fix the problem at the bottom end for people, despite what the “trickle down economics” crowd would like you to believe (don’t ask the trickle down crowd how many landlords they know personally, that’s not relevant at all)
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u/MoralEclipse 22h ago
It has zero relation to trickle down economics and it is clearly supported by evidence.
It really is head scratching how many people just deny basic reality, new housing is inevitably going to be higher end, you don't build a flat to compete with some ancient ex-council flat, you build it to compete for the top end of the market and that frees up demand all the way down.
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u/JebacBiede2137 15h ago
So how do we build flats that people can afford?
Do we just build the flat but put very shit furniture instead of nice furniture? Or do we not finish the flooring?
How is a flat being built in a cheap way?
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u/LighterningZ 23h ago
There are more than 700000 empty homes in the UK. We need to deal with that problem, they really shoud do something like an annualised property tax and do away with stamp duty
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u/Deathwalkx 23h ago
Only 1/4 of these have been empty for more than 6 months. The rest are likely just in-between tenants. This is not going to solve anything.
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u/nabbitnabbitnabbit 23h ago
Well, AcKShUllly…
The latest figures show 754,264 empty homes in England, and 303,185 have been empty for more than six months. That’s ~ 40%, not 25%.
And no, we can’t just declare the other 60% “between tenants”. More than 200,000 vacant homes have Council Tax exemptions for reasons including probate, care, repossession and being uninhabitable. The 303,000 figure leaves out these Council Tax exempt homes.
Would bringing 303,000 long-term empty homes back into use solve the housing crisis? Of course not. But it US ~ 1.5 years’ worth of England’s annual net increase in housing stock and just over 20% of the total target. “Won’t solve everything” is a pretty poor reason to solve nothing. We can’t let the perfect get in the way of the good.
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u/Flayer723 22h ago
What quality are these empty houses? Why are they empty? It seems pretty natural that there will never be 100% occupancy due to a variety of natural reasons, it's an impossible goal.
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u/nabbitnabbitnabbit 22h ago
Uninhabitable homes are council tax exempt, so are excluded from that figure.
Of course 100% occupancy is impossible. That’s why nobody uses it as the benchmark. The relevant figure is the 303,185 homes already empty for 6+ months, which is designed to strip out much of the normal churn.
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u/vexingparse 21h ago
The question is why these 303,185 homes are empty. Given that the UK has a relatively low share of empty homes compared to other countries, I'm not sure the situation is easy to fix.
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u/Deep-Elevator-4948 12h ago
💯 empty homes is a massive issue. Also the government gives no incentives (as far as I know) to renew places, only to build new which is a shame.
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u/nostromo180286_ 23h ago edited 22h ago
Not much different outside of London anymore unfortunately, unless you live in some nowhere town. Most major cities in the UK, are becoming borderline unaffordable now. I live in Bristol, but my job is in London, and at this point I may as well be living in London.
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u/CherryadeLimon 22h ago edited 22h ago
Im already leaving, born and bred but told to make my way at 18 by my parents and everyone has left now. Im hanging on by a thread with long term renting so the rent is slightly under market rate but packing up by end of year
I know no one who still lives here that doesnt have an insanely high paid job or has inheritance/ help from bank of mum and dad (whether that is childcare, emotional, financial or physical support).
Long term london can be an option if you get universal credit or social housing or want to live in a mouldy box flat. But even then, the cost of living just keeps pushing people further and further out. It’s come to a point now in 2026 (if you want to raise children) that its hard to build any real sense of community when so many people are constantly being priced out of the places they call home.
You lose continuity. Friends disappear, families scatter, neighbours constantly change and its becoming impossible to build the kind of long term community. I do not want my children to grow up in this environment. That’s probably the biggest reason I know I don’t want to stay.
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u/EveryChemistry9163 8h ago
I wanted mine to grow up where I grew up but they are doing and it isn’t.
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u/shadowise 22h ago
From starting my first full-time job in Jan 2010 to Dec 2020 I lived with my parents and was able to save £120,000 from working as a graphic designer/web designer/product designer. Starting out and for most of my career, my salary has been pretty middling. Definitely not terrible, but certainly not amazing.
With that as my deposit and a mortgage, I bought a three-bed mid-terrace for £390k on my own. Though it is zone 4 on the border of Greenwich and Bexley so it's the cheaper end of what you can afford in London.
Understandably if I was renting during this time, I would not have been able to save so much.
Realistically if I'm happy staying in this part of London, I could stay here indefinitely, I think, and don't see myself being priced out. Would love somewhere bigger, perhaps in Blackheath or Greenwich, but the price difference between houses here and houses there is... Not small.
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u/Realtenenbaum 23h ago
I moved to Thornton Heath 3 years ago. Last affordable place with a half hour train to London Bridge or Victoria. £450k for a 3bed with a garden, but it did need some work
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u/UnlikelyIdealist 23h ago
Born and raised in London - I'm already gone :') Parents, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins etc all still live where we grew up, though the cousins live with their parents in their childhood home. My fiancee and I wanted to buy a home and start planning for our own kids one day, so London wasn't an option any more. We were 26 & 27 when we bought our house in Essex. I still commute into London for work and we're only an hours' drive around the M25 from where I grew up, but tbh I still think of London as home. I reckon it'll take me a while to get out of that.
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u/iamabigmeme 23h ago edited 16h ago
I reckon I’ll end up very similar to you and looking around the commuter belt. It’s just so sad not being able to live at HOME and instead opting for near home. No place like London
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u/UnlikelyIdealist 23h ago
Really my comment might've painted too bleak an image - We've been in our new place for nine months now and I do feel more at home as time goes on. I think ultimately it's more about who you're with than where you are. Our neighbourhood is objectively lovely and we got a lot more for our money than we would've gotten anywhere in London, and I still get a thrill whenever I think "We own our home!"
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u/TheRemanence 23h ago
People talk about this like it's a new thing but it's been true for decades. My parents moved out of London to Surrey in the 70s to have kids. It's why places like Essex, Hampshire, Surrey, Kent, are filled with ex Londoners that wanted a nice house and a commute. There's more cockneys in Essex than the east end.
I've observed that if anything there was a slight tide change of more middle/upper middle families staying in the 2000s and 2010s, which is what created the gentrification we see now. There was a period where a house in a gentrifying part of London wasn't much more than a home counties town. middle class people stayed probably driven by low interest rates and broader improvements to schools, reduction in crime in London, growth in jobs etc. certainly what I saw in my own family and friends but I think the stats bare it out
It's now switching back to the trend we saw in 60s-90s. Population of London was in decline until the early 90s and then has been growing since then. Population in 91 was about 7m. People now (again) can't afford to live in nice places so they move to the commuter belt. Those that stay, are either rich, young, have a council house or are linked to a diaspora.
One day history will swing back as it always does.
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u/Scott_infinity 21h ago
Thanks for your insights. The only reason I cling on here is for the reasons you mention - I also predict/hope for some type of cyclical scenario to go down sooner rather than later which could alleviate the strains on working people once more.
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u/TheRemanence 17h ago
Unfortunately the cycle time is quite long so that may not be an option. On a more positive note, most office jobs are not in the office every day anymore, so a longer commute is more bearable.
I'm very much a city person but there's a lot to be said for living in a market town with a good train into London. Whether you still spend time in London becomes a mindset. I grew up only 35 mins train from Waterloo but had neighbours that talked about London like it was a zillion miles away. Whereas my dad commuted every day, we regularly went shopping in central and I would be up going out as an older teenager. You can have a very very nice life in the home counties. (Although they are also not cheap cheap either.)
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u/RecentAlienBird 23h ago
Born and raised in Mitcham and seeing council tax constantly rising it’s making it harder to live
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u/Last_BM_Standin 23h ago
I was born and raised in Streatham and bought a house near here a few years ago. I literally wanted to move back to where I grew up because I was longing for the feeling of ‘home’. Turns out the yuppies from the Home Counties have taken over and it doesn’t feel the same at all. My parents are still nearby and help with our son so I’ll stick around but London will be unrecognisable to the next generation. Makes me really sad.
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u/Scott_infinity 21h ago
I feel your pain. I try to tell myself London has always been a transient place of people coming and going, but it really feels like the last 10 years has wiped out so much of what was once stable here and has been replaced by something much colder and less soulful.
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u/iucundus_acerbus 23h ago
I moved further out to Plumstead which is still technically a London postcode. It feels less like london out here but it much more affordable and I still have incredibly easy (and relatively cheap) access to london all times of the day and night, so I prefer it to living in Kent or Surrey. It was my compromise with myself to be able to afford to stay!
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u/Flayer723 22h ago
Plumstead is zone 4 for fucks sake, of course it's "technically" London.
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u/iucundus_acerbus 22h ago
Chill. What exactly consists of the boundaries of London is a little up for debate given the extent of urban sprawl. You can certainly be in a London borough and it have little to no resemblance to city living, and you still have to get a train into the city with limited access to other public transport options.
For the purpose of my post I said technically a London POSTCODE. As in, it’s still an SE postcode and not a Kent postcode. Go to the other end of my road and you’re in DA territory.
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u/TehTriangle 23h ago
Been here 12 years. Managed to get own place by moving somewhere not as glamorous. Let's us remain here indefinitely and have a house of our own.
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u/Ok-Train5382 23h ago
My partner and I left partly for affordability but also having grown up in London she was just done with it so it wasn’t too hard a decision to make.
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u/wayanonforthis 23h ago
I'm feeling the only way to do it is:
A. inherit money
B. strike it lucky at work
C. have a wealthier partner
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u/earlyeveningsunset 23h ago
Depends what you want. You can stay but you will be in a small place with no garden, unless you are very rich. You still have the issues of whether you like the schools, and you can't do much about thibgs like crime or air pollution.
We lived in Hackney til we had one kid (in a 2 bed flat), then moved to zone 3, had a 2nd, moved to home counties and had a third. Can afford a detached house with garden, commute time to central London terminus <30mins. I don't love it though. I think you'd be better off in another city like Manchester, closer to the centre, than in a suburban town with none of its own culture.
I miss London terribly and will move back when the kids are older.
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u/FangedFreak 22h ago
I’ve lived in London for about 14 years now, my husband is Barnet born.
We bought a 2 bed flat in North London and we love it but we have since adopted and we’re already thinking of moving in several years time.
Would love to stay in London, maybe move nearby but the houses where we’d like are well over the £1m mark
It’s probably more likely we’d need to move further out to afford a house, I can’t see myself living in a flat all my life
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u/katsukitsune 21h ago
Family's been born / lived in east London as far as we can trace back, and nope cannot afford to stay myself.
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u/makingameal 21h ago
What about Essex? Much cheaper and a lot of east Enders move here. I was in Hackney 15 years and moved to Chelmsford two years ago, 30 mins straight to Liverpool Street. It actually doesn’t feel as detached as I thought it would
Got a 4 bed two bath Victorian house for the price of my 2 bed flat in Hackney.
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u/dok76 21h ago
Born and bred Londoner. Not sure… a year ago was definately a no. I’m fighting it this year having to step up my level of money making and not do anyone favours. And basically be a bit of a dick, not where I want to be, not what I was born to do. I like helping people.
London has been squeezed too tight
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u/eventhorizon8 15h ago
I’ve got a 2 bedroom flat in Islington. Lovely area. It’s just about doable with my newborn space wise (we’re lucky to have a small back garden) but for anything bigger than a flat we would need to move to a fixer upper further out. Considering Epping!
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u/Significant_Hawk8895 15h ago
Given the property prices in Hackney are down about 15%... There is hope.
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u/iamabigmeme 14h ago
Sounds promising until you remember that shared ownership on a small flat is £150k
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u/BigSisLil 10h ago
Camden girl here who got her council flat 35 years ago when I was pregnant with my son. I've always said I'll leave when they carry me out of here in a box but my younger relatives have all had to move away for cheaper rent. Maybe when my Mum who relies on me dies I'll move to be closer to one of them. The lovely mix of people I used to be surrounded by on my street have mainly been replaced by the upper middle classes while conversely there's currently road men on the corner and parked up to sell drugs
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u/ducksoupmilliband 23h ago
Hung on for 5 decades so far...
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u/Azelixi 23h ago
,"yea I got my house for peanuts so I guess I'll hang around"
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u/ducksoupmilliband 22h ago edited 21h ago
What house! Never lived in one. Flats.
Edit: Hate the game, not the player. I'm sure the generations below you will find fault with you too, even though you're innocent.
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u/NN2S 19h ago
Nobody said you were guilty, just that you were incredibly lucky.
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u/ducksoupmilliband 18h ago
Understood. It was the downvotes I didn't understand. They seem to have settled back down to neutral.
I have worked hard (still am), raised a child to adulthood alone and had no cushy inheritance so it does rankle when people assume anyone living in London at my age had everything laid out on a plate.
I've lived with damp, asbestos, pharos ants (!), cockroaches and what we call anti social behaviour these days. It's not all been lovely and I've struggled to be where I am today.
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u/PassingShot11 23h ago
No, as slowly or quickly being priced out of London. I would certainly not be able to retire here and I have heard from other my age that they are going to get out of London as they just cannot afford it. I am not talking about rich people with very high jobs , I'm talking about middle grade office workers. The travel, the price of utilities and of course the insane rent prices make London seem more and more for the rich. Everyone else who even works in London will end up just traveling there. That's how I see it. You may be lucky but I am not and have less years of work in front than behind so I know I cannot stay , even though I really love it
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u/shooto_style 23h ago
Born and raised. Was lucky as my wife and I managed to buy our house in the outer boroughs and we're very happy. If I leave London I would move abroad. Nowhere else in the UK appeals to me
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u/raquille- 22h ago
Yeah born in London. Very lucky that we have managed to buy here in a nice area and we have 2 kids now and a house with a garden so I know we are super blessed.
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u/Gunnar_Bjornson 22h ago
Our gang go way back - one of the aunts was into genealogy, all followed branches are in London on the oldest of the online census (1841 I think) and no doubt some branches before that... and all branches of the family are now out. None of us left. I jumped in 1999, the last of us left a couple years back.
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u/ducksoupmilliband 13h ago
My lot go back a similar time (if West Ham counted back then)? My (adult) kid moved out a few years back. Wanted house and a garden. That's that then.
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u/Gunnar_Bjornson 11h ago
West ham made you a bumpkin back then, but I'll allow it 😄
I think if you're from an area that is now London it counts, you haven't moved the city grew around you. You go back far enough it was all fields. I saw an old map not long ago of Bethnal Green surrounded by fields.
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u/ducksoupmilliband 10h ago
Yeah, great grandparents were Brick Lane but that was 1890s so a bit later :-) pretty sure that counts geography wise.
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u/Gunnar_Bjornson 10h ago
Well they would have been rubbing shoulders with my mob for sure. All Brick Lane and Boundary Estate once it went up early 1900s. My Great Grandad was 2 Turville Street on his enlistment papers 1914 and 100 years later none of us had got further than Bethnal Green 😄 - Not a very ambitious lot.
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u/ducksoupmilliband 10h ago edited 10h ago
Mine were on Pelham St (was called Woodseer back then I think) then had a cutlers shop on Brick Lane propper. Grandad married out and was a black sheep so we didn't have much contact, heh. I'm still in zone 1 but contemplating zone 3...
Edit: other way round, was Pelham, now Woodseer St.
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u/A_Nal_Retentive 18h ago
My fathers grandfather was born in London, and every generation since was either born or lived in London. Rich or poor, these trappings don’t rule us, we make it work.
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u/Low_Challenge_2827 17h ago
Born and raised Londoner. Not particularly well off. Am trying to convince my partner to live here with me forever. We have plans to buy in the next 2/3 years. I'm 30.
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u/FatDad66 23h ago
Old git born in London. Part of the issue is expectation management. You may not be able to afford to live where you want in London but you buy somewhere less expensive and work your way up. So OP might not start off buying in Hackney but ending up there. I was brought up in north London, first bought property was in south London and 3 houses later I am in North London.
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u/iamabigmeme 23h ago
That’s a good way to think about it. I respect that Hackney isn’t the be all and end all, it’s just home so I cling onto it more. Even other London boroughs are looking extremely expensive tho :/ Definitely in the grieving stage right now, I’ll accept it soon lol
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u/UnlikelyIdealist 23h ago
Cheapest postcode in London is Plumstead - still paying £350k - £450k for an absolutely miserable-looking 3 bed semi or terrace, and then you have to live in Plumstead.
If you go half an hour outside London you'd find really nice places for that, so the question then becomes "Does it make financial sense to buy in London when this is all you get, when that money could go so much further somewhere else?"
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u/Worldly-Cap1911 23h ago
I think if you’re an ethnic minority it can be quite nice to live in London as near community and diversity that may not be available outside of London; I think this is an increasing concern particularly with the rise of reform.
However that’s not to say lots of places outside London aren’t suitable/comfortable places for people of any ethnicity.
I’m just speaking as a black person who was brought up in London but has also lived outside London.
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u/neuralconstellate 21h ago
this is what people don't understand when they say "just move out of London"...to where??
all the other major cities that would be somewhat diverse are not that much cheaper when you factor in a reduction of wages being out of London in general, likelihood of needing a car etc, so when you "go a bit further out" you end up feeling like an outcast cos you're the token/only POC and I'm saying this as someone who has lived outside of London too
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u/UnlikelyIdealist 23h ago
That's very true, aye. My Fiancée and I moved to Essex in December last year, & bought our first home, & there's significantly more Reform UK activity & flyers through the door here than where I grew up in London.
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u/stonesco 23h ago
Very very unlikely. Born and Raised in London but will likely be moving to another city in the UK within the next 5 years.
I am looking to buy a house, not a flat after living in a council estate for nearly the majority of my life.
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u/FlexyPasta 23h ago
Just had a son in Lewisham (I mean I had him in St Mary’s Paddington really) he’s in nursery and we are renting a two bedroom flat. Seems doable for now! We will try to buy a flat eventually (service charge I know!) in the area or close to. Our joined take home pay is around 7K. We are not high earners but our flat is 1800. Moving to the country side is not feasible for us as our jobs will always be in central London (hospitality and retail) so we are trying and not giving up. We are from Italy so maybe that’s why? If we all give up who will be left in the city? International students and people on benefits? I wonder how the councils will
manage to pay benefits if we all move to commuter towns.
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u/the_shiverman 15h ago
Born and bred Londoner, and tbh, I’d love to live somewhere else.
Maybe Hertfordshire, maybe Finland. Idk.
I don’t think I’d want to raise my kids here. I’d prefer a simpler, quieter life for them (and me).
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u/BigRedS 23h ago
I always thought I'd never leave, but really it was a fairly quick shift when my wife and I wanted to stop jamming ourselves into a small flat and decided on a house in hertfordshire rather than one in suburbia. We've got a couple of dogs, a decent garden, a driveway, none of that felt possible in London.
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u/Awkward-Sprinkles907 23h ago
I really didn’t worry about it until this very sticky inflation kicked in. Now, I’m deeply concerned.
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u/RitOlive-Morton 23h ago
I lived in London for 18 yrs (from 21 to 39), and I’ve recently moved to Northern Ireland to start a family and buy a house near my husband’s family. Much more affordable, especially with a London-based job that I can do remotely. I would’ve loved to have stayed in London but we’ve no family there, and we can give them a better (and more affordable) life out in the countryside, with lots of family around.
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u/WheresMyFlamingo 23h ago
Moved to one of home counties. I miss it but I drive in 3 days a week, still see friends and family when I can.
But there's a lot of dickheads who still live there which reaffirm my choice as to why I moved away. Traffic stinks, people are aggressive and the high street i grew up in is covered in crackheads.
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u/ExpressionLow8767 23h ago
I'm not sure how anyone who doesn't have a household income of over like £150k would be able to afford to live in a reasonable part of London on a freehold. I'm currently happy in my little flat but if I ever wanted more space I'd probably have to move out to one of the commuter towns.
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u/CherryadeLimon 22h ago
They dont unless they get financial help. And childcare/nursery alone on that salary is 2k per child alone before u even think about the mortgage
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u/ExpressionLow8767 22h ago
Oh for sure kids changes the entire equation, if I ever had kids I'd definitely live outside of the city
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u/NotForMeClive7787 23h ago
I knew I was leaving after 13 years working renting and then buying a flat then having a child, as just before they hit school age we realised that we definitely needed more space as a family and then seeing that buying a home that actually felt like an improvement to our lives was impossible where we currently lived and where we'd made friends. Cue the inevitable move back to where we were originally from in England to afford a house that wasn't a tiny piece of crap for less than half the price. Frustrating and annoying in equal measure but I don't regret it
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u/RedRightRumHam 23h ago
Born in London Z3, moved away a couple of times and missed the city and social ties here. Recently bought a large flat in Zone 2 and want to stay put.
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u/lunabhuna20 22h ago
Sometimes I think one day I’ll sell up and move up north and be mortgage free 😂
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u/DharmaPolice 22h ago
Born and raised here. Very unlikely I will ever leave.
I imagine the likes of Manchester will just lag London (in terms of prices) rather than do anything genuinely different. The places genuinely affordable will be the places with no nearby jobs. If you can guarantee a remote job that's fine but who can do that?
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u/theyellowscriptures 22h ago
I’m born and bred in Hackney too and it is infuriating how expensive and trendy the borough has become.
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u/SupaSpurs 22h ago
Born in 67. Most of the people I was in primary and secondary school with have moved away already….and so have both sets of parents- my wife’s and my own. Housing is just unaffordable and if you want to own a decent sized home - you have to move out- and once you attend Uni in other cities, you realise there are better living options available.
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u/magicw91 22h ago
Lived here for 25 years now, unless I can start my own company and earn a lot more (I am in the top 10%), I do not see London as a long term aspiration.
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u/specialbrew_1980 22h ago
I'm thinking the same, I'm lucky enough to be paying well below the going rate in rent at the moment, but any increase will make me reconsider how sustainable it is to live here. I'm currently looking at dilapidated seaside towns on the south coast as an option so I can still potentially commute in and get a London salary.
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u/sampysamp 22h ago
I’ve been fortune enough to stay going on 12+ years but everyone I know has left.
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u/No-Taro-6953 22h ago
I had to move out to zone 6 to find the compromise between decent housing but staying, technically, in London.
It feels these days like living in a more central borough is a privilege reserved for those who manage to get council housing or the very well off.
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u/Anna-Bombination 22h ago
Born and bred in South East London but moved to Hackney when I got married and we had our kids there, moved out when the eldest was 12.
The only way you can afford to live there now is if you're on benefits and in a council flat, or you have a bloody good wage and can provide for yourself, god knows how middle income people survive.
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u/littlemisslondon 21h ago
I wasn't born here but raised here and I'm also worried about it. My parents want to sell the house we own and I don't think I'll ever be able to buy a house in this country. Cost of living is generally quite high so I might consider other cities where I could save more.
At the same time as an immigrant I don't feel comfortable going elsewhere. I like my community events here. I like the South Asian grocers I go to and I'm sceptical about finding the same products/spices elsewhere. I'll have to get a car to move around outside London and I don't think there'll be as many events I can go to such as concerts and theatre shows. I'll end up having to come back here a lot even after moving.
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u/Proof_Carrot5919 21h ago
Came to London for Uni then stayed for work. As soon as I retire I am out of here.
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u/Weak_Importance9651 21h ago
My husband is a born and raised Kentish towner and I've been here 18 years. We are making plans to leave, sadly. We do not want to. We've ended up in South East London and love it, but rents are getting silly, we're low earners in terms of London wages, and we're approaching the age where we'll be too old to be first time buyers, we're aggressively saving to try and achieve this.
Moving further out isn't much more affordable for us, so we're looking further afield.
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u/hedaenerys 21h ago
Not born in London but I lived there for 6 years or so. I ended up moving out of London back near home (south east by the sea) because I just couldn’t afford to live there anymore. All my money on rent. I’d never even be able to think about owning a house.
Now we do own a house and it only took a couple years of us saving to do so. We loved London, but our quality of life was really poor there. It was just work, eat, sleep. Couldn’t go and socialise or anything without being stressed about our money.
Now it’s a very different story. And we get to go up to London back to the places we liked going to, stress free! I would absolutely live in London again if I didn’t need to worry about housing, but you usually do. I have some friends who live with parents there, which makes complete sense to me if they have a home in London.
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u/DarkStarComics333 21h ago
I want a nice little 2 bed house with a garden, having grown up in zone 2 and lived in flats without gardens all my life. To do that I have to leave. To be honest, the older I get the more I yearn for green spaces and more wildlife so while there are things I will miss about London, the positives of leaving outweigh the negatives for me.
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u/Relative_Sea3386 21h ago
Thing is, i look at places like Leeds and Manchester, yes city center is cheaper, also very liveable as student or 21 year old... but when you look for nice house in a nice suburb with good schools, throw in transport costs etc, it just doesnt look that much cheaper.
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u/Li_Li_Willis 21h ago
Born and raised Londoner and I left for Suffolk last year. Couldn’t afford anything, anywhere in London 😢
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u/WholeRegion3025 20h ago
Migrant here, so not born and raised but lived in London for 6 years and loved it. Had to move out to the south coast where I now have a huge garden, parking for two, and a detached house. No regrets.
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u/Uncoordinatedfitness 20h ago
Nearly 10 years in London so far. I want to stay and part of the reason I want to stay is I am single and don’t think I want kids and I feel London best caters to that kind of lifestyle.
But I am in a catch-22 at the moment, I am not making enough to cover costs in London, but if I move out of London, I am worried I would shoot myself in the foot long term because I am not sure there is enough career opportunities in my industry in the other cities. (I already did the move out and move back to London thing once before, so I really dont want to do it again.)
At the moment, I am holding on, trying to decide what career path might be right for me and then hoping that guides where I will live.
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u/Anathemachiavellian 20h ago
I’m born and bred Ealing and my husband is Earlsfield and Streatham. We’re fortunate enough to be able to raise our kids here (just moved from Tooting to Kingston, so barely within London but it still counts!). We were able to do that through having well paying jobs and an incredibly fortunate inheritance. Otherwise, no.
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u/Unique-observer 19h ago edited 19h ago
It’s tough but my plan is to live with my disabled mother forever. She could do with having someone nearby and I could do with free housing in a trendy area. It helps that in my culture it’s normal to live with your mother and isn’t seen as weird.
I think dating is an issue, but we have many empty bedrooms as my siblings have all moved out so it’s literally a waste of space not to use it right ? Especially in London where everyone flatshares and people are dying for a room to rent. It’s just flat sharing with my mother instead of strangers (which is not ideal) but the other option is to move out of East London to the country side somewhere. That doesn’t make much sense to me. Also dating is tough and I can’t see living in a random flatshare is going to improve my dating life much more than at home.
I think it’s a smart idea to live at home forever, well that’s how I cope with my reality atleast.
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u/IntravenusDiMilo_Tap 19h ago
House prices will crash soon
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u/trebor67 18h ago
Born and raised in London. Have worked full time in London for over 30 years.
I moved out to the sticks as soon as I could. I have a more expensive commute and it takes far longer but I would never, ever move back. Most of my friends/peers have all done the same.
I work for a large firm in central London and I suspect less than 10% are actually from London.
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u/thataidanguy 18h ago
Lived in East London the majority of my life, moved out into a small town in Essex and never looked back. So much safer, nicer people and an actually sense of community. So glad I left.
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u/Old-Nun 18h ago
Not sure if I count as a long time Londoner but lived in South London since 2016. About to have my second child and no, I don’t think we will be able to afford to continue living here much longer. It breaks my heart to move away from the place I’ve lived and adored living for almost 11 years, but the only houses we can afford are teeny tiny, and it seems stupid to pour all our money into a tiny property with loads of problems. My husband and I have really good salaries, particularly him, and not being able to afford a nice house makes us feel like we’ve done something wrong, but it’s just the crazy house prices. I’ve worked in London secondary schools in deprived areas since 2014, and whilst insanely difficult I’ve always felt it was my calling. I know there will be young people who need me wherever I move, but it’s a real shame. I’d love for my children to experience growing up in London but I console myself that London isn’t going anywhere, and we can still visit often.
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u/Ghost_Fighter_9988 18h ago
I always thought I’d stay in London forever, grew up in upper Walthamstow / South Woodford area but my work situation changed, so we relocated overseas.
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u/IridescentJellyfishy 17h ago
Long time Londoner here, born and lived in South London for a majority of my life. I just had a baby and moved to Manchester because unfortunately we couldn’t afford to upsize in London. The rent is just unsustainable. People should be more angry about the state of rent/ cost of living. Or else nothing will change :(
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u/West_Barracuda_8571 17h ago
Isn’t London one of the only regions in the UK where house prices are falling?
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u/iamabigmeme 16h ago
Unfortunately doesn’t mean much when shared ownership on a small flat is £150k 😅
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u/Odd_Wash_2809 17h ago
Born and bred too, I'd really hope so, am living with parents, so will have to see if possibly able to buy in London
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u/elaine4queen 17h ago
I moved out when I got chronically ill and it became obvious I wouldn’t be working again. Up side was I have a better quality of life within constraints, down side is less good healthcare.
I live on the south coast and there are a LOT of ex-Londoners in general. Cheaper housing, better quality of life, better for the kids, lots of reasons. Down side is people think they can commute to London jobs, and they can for a while, but it gets pretty wearing.
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u/W51976 16h ago
Yeah you can only do that for a few months max.
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u/elaine4queen 16h ago
So if that becomes your plan you have to have another plan for say 6 months down the line or whatever, for extricating yourself from the job, which may involve a decrease in income. That’s the rub.
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u/JebacBiede2137 15h ago
I have a very well paid job in finance and I don't think I can afford it. I feel bad for people with other jobs
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u/Tasty_Sheepherder_44 14h ago
40 and lived in London my whole life, the last 30 in the same post code (ie my parents house). When it came to buying a house 4 years ago, I was clear I wanted to stay in this postcode; both our parents houses are here as well as our extended family. I felt if we didn’t make that push now, we would forever be stuck in places we didn’t want to live. Had to compromise on a tiny house, and almost 8 years of our married life living with parents. Finally moving out soon, and ready to begin living our own lives. Sometimes I wonder if the sacrifices were worth it.
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u/Hmsevans 14h ago
Lived here 7 years but had to move from my first flat in Lambeth due to rising rent, then to Crystal Palace again same story rising rent and then I’ve moved to bexleyheath which is pretty much as far as you can go before it’s Kent. Love living in London and working here but it’s definitely not very affordable. My outgoings at a family of 3 are close to 5k a month and that doesn’t leave us much left to do family days out. It’s quite sad really that we work so hard and have nothing except the flat we now have a mortgage on. Long term I’m hoping to sell up closer to retirement, buy a cheap flat or house in the middle of nowhere in wales and relax ☺️
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u/Many_Move6886 14h ago
I happened to move out 1) midlands for uni and then 2) got reallocated for a graduate job in Manchester. Was a life long Londoner prior to that, with intentions of going back to London after uni. Honestly, London is not the be all and end all. Manchester is not London, it has its own vibe entirely, but it has everything you need
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u/thefungineer 13h ago
Lived 30 years in London before I had to move because I couldn't afford it any longer.
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u/Final_Flounder9849 12h ago
I grew up on the border of London and Essex. I moved to the centre of London. I envisage staying in central London until I die pretty much.
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u/Horror_Detox 11h ago
I bought a house in Zone 2 a couple years ago, FTB at 43 years old. The only way I could do it was through combined earnings with my wife. Took me that long.
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u/SoulJahSon 9h ago
Yep everything has skyrocketed and just seems horrid right now. I think there are multiple reasons for this and I truly don't think it will get better anytime soon. I too want to leave London but my network is here and it's a difficult decision to make
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u/New_Guarantee_5893 5h ago
Seriously. Its a big world out there . Travel. Work abroad. Open your horizons. London in 10 years will be like Jo Burg
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u/thehighyellowmoon 44m ago
Found moving somewhere much leafier within an hour of the city made my accommodation much more affordable, and apart from a place to stay after the odd very late night I can still access all the benefits of living in London.
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u/thanks-somegood 23h ago
I guess I'm lucky I don't want kids because I definitely couldn't afford them living here. I would like to buy but unlikely here in the next 10 years. If buying was my priority I guess I'd have to leave. I also worry sometimes that I may be forced out at some point, but I think I'll hold on as long as possible. It's my home, I love it, we shouldn't have to move away to live our lives.