, who are living in grotty shared housing It's quite a big difference I've noticed since coming to London - that just about eveyone in their late 20s / early 30s is still living in shared houses.
In Edinburgh, quite a few of my friends rented places on their own (not in the plushest of locales, but certainly quite ok) and were prepared to pay a high % of their salaries to do this (e.g. rent of £350 - £425pcm when on £15 - 18k pa gross), not necessarily expecting that they would be buying in a few years' time whether they shared or not. They always seemed to feel as if they had a higher quality of life than people in flatshares, even if they didn't spend as much on some other things.
Whereas here, pretty much everyone I know, many of them with significantly higher salaries than the friends in Edinburgh, is living in a shared house and paying a rent which could get a studio or small 1-bed flat in another part of town. (I've recently seen several ads for rooms in the NWs at the same price as my whole flat.)
I'm not arguing for one way or the other being better (after all, communal living is better for the environment, it might be nice having people around, and I'm wondering about sharing again). But I do wonder about this difference, especially whenever someone says that they wish they had a flat to themselves. Is it habit? Do people want to have more money for all the things there are to do in London?
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, who are living in grotty shared housing
It's quite a big difference I've noticed since coming to London - that just about eveyone in their late 20s / early 30s is still living in shared houses.
In Edinburgh, quite a few of my friends rented places on their own (not in the plushest of locales, but certainly quite ok) and were prepared to pay a high % of their salaries to do this (e.g. rent of £350 - £425pcm when on £15 - 18k pa gross), not necessarily expecting that they would be buying in a few years' time whether they shared or not. They always seemed to feel as if they had a higher quality of life than people in flatshares, even if they didn't spend as much on some other things.
Whereas here, pretty much everyone I know, many of them with significantly higher salaries than the friends in Edinburgh, is living in a shared house and paying a rent which could get a studio or small 1-bed flat in another part of town. (I've recently seen several ads for rooms in the NWs at the same price as my whole flat.)
I'm not arguing for one way or the other being better (after all, communal living is better for the environment, it might be nice having people around, and I'm wondering about sharing again). But I do wonder about this difference, especially whenever someone says that they wish they had a flat to themselves.
Is it habit? Do people want to have more money for all the things there are to do in London?