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Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#41

Post by madeofpalk »

bitL wrote: post #6

Alright, so Collective privatised what used to be a student dorm, decreasing affordable housing to students, and now offers a bed in crammed rooms with other people for at least 1000GBP/month. For some reason this is considered a good deal (for Collective I guess?)... Is this the prosperous future?

Is that actually what happened? Or did the student accommodation close down for its own reasons, and Collective jumped on the opportunity and bought it?

I'm unsure - but I didn't read anything in the article to draw the same conclusion you did.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#42

Post by williamdclt »

corobo wrote: post #12

Three grand a month for a cage! You can almost rent six 3 bedroom semi-detached houses for that where I am! (~150 miles north of London). Sublet or rent with others if you need the company Don't embrace the cage, embrace remote working

A lot of people (me included) hate remote working

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#43

Post by ataturk »

mayniac wrote: post #31
dx034 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For students a flatshare is normal but all Germans I know that work full-time live in their own flat. In London, living on your own after university is basically impossible (unless you live very far out).

> In London, living on your own after university is basically impossible (unless you live very far out). Disagree, since I'm doing it right now 3 years after uni. I'm not paid amazingly, below average salary for London but above average for the rest of the UK. However half my paycheck goes on rent. My commute is about 45 minutes by tube or 20 minutes by motorbike so it's not too far out. The trick is to find an area…

What's your long-term plan, though? I was young once and could sustain long commutes on public transit and did stupid things with money, too. But eventually if you want to have a family you have to have a plan.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#44

Post by Symbiote »

dx034 wrote: post #17
bitL wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Germany seems to be doing way better.

That is because it's less focused on one city so that demand is a bit better distributed. Zoning law is also more helpful than in London, where laws prevent from building on one of the numerous golf courses in the city.

I have no interest at all in golf, but I'd like London to keep the green space it has.

London just needs to build taller. It happens, but very slowly. Middle class British people don't like anything other than houses, so compared to any German city there are very few 4-6 story apartment blocks in London.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#45

Post by dbbk »

bitL wrote: post #6

Alright, so Collective privatised what used to be a student dorm, decreasing affordable housing to students, and now offers a bed in crammed rooms with other people for at least 1000GBP/month. For some reason this is considered a good deal (for Collective I guess?)... Is this the prosperous future?

I've had a look round this place. It's definitely not a good deal. The core concept is a good idea, but this particular building is just the worst execution of it.

Also it never opened as a student dorm, I think that's what the architects had in mind, but The Collective opened it as a co-living building from the start.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#46

Post by the_mitsuhiko »

mayniac wrote: post #31
dx034 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For students a flatshare is normal but all Germans I know that work full-time live in their own flat. In London, living on your own after university is basically impossible (unless you live very far out).

> In London, living on your own after university is basically impossible (unless you live very far out). Disagree, since I'm doing it right now 3 years after uni. I'm not paid amazingly, below average salary for London but above average for the rest of the UK. However half my paycheck goes on rent. My commute is about 45 minutes by tube or 20 minutes by motorbike so it's not too far out. The trick is to find an area…

Can you fill in some actual numbers and a location here? Because that seems just atypical from this description.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#47

Post by pjc50 »

corobo wrote: post #12

Three grand a month for a cage! You can almost rent six 3 bedroom semi-detached houses for that where I am! (~150 miles north of London). Sublet or rent with others if you need the company Don't embrace the cage, embrace remote working

Where's the HN-preferred route to finding good remote jobs?

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#48

Post by dbbk »

clearly wrote: post #15
paulbjensen wrote: post #11

£1000pm for that is crazy. I did flat shares ranging from £440pm in Stoke Newington. I imagine the going rate might have climbed to £650pm, but this is just bonkers.

Indeed, this should not be portrayed as a competitive rate really, it's just the price of super convenience.

It's not even priced for convenience. It's not in a well-connected area, and you can get basically any other flatshare with all bills included for equal or less price.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#49

Post by laurieg »

Japan shows an interesting contrast to the UK housing market. In Japan there are many small single occupancy apartments. I rent one right in the middle of a large city for around 300GBP per month. Sharing is almost non-existant outside of families.

Recently however, so called "share houses" have started popping up. They are usually centered around an idea: "English language immersion house", "pet lovers house". You pay a small premium for extra services related to the house.

It seems that most people choose to live alone, and London's house shares are just caused by the economics of the situation.

Re: Co-living in London: Friendship, fines and frustration

#50

Post by mayniac »

csomar wrote: post #37
mayniac wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In London, living on your own after university is basically impossible (unless you live very far out). Disagree, since I'm doing it right now 3 years after uni. I'm not paid amazingly, below average salary for London but above average for the rest of the UK. However half my paycheck goes on rent. My commute is about 45 minutes by tube or 20 minutes by motorbike so it's not too far out. The trick is to find an area…

> However half my paycheck goes on rent. My commute is about 45 minutes by tube or 20 minutes by motorbike so it's not too far out. I don't know how you manages your finances but for me anything above 25% of your income going for rent is absurd . And you are not making it up in distance, either. 45 minutes by tube is a lots of time. (I assume motorbike is not a favorable option given London weather).

My choice is between living close to work, living alone, or cheap rent. I can pick two. All three if I choose to live in a room which fits no more than a single bed.

I'm counting 45 minutes tube/20 minutes motorbike as close because for London that's honestly quite good. About half of the people I know have commutes over an hour each way, at least one above two hours, and I can cut my public transport commute to 35 minutes if I time everything right. Biking is actually the favourable option but not possible if I'm drinking, and the miserable weather doesn't bother me.

I would love to cut my rent down to 25% of income but it's honestly not possible without increasing travel costs and time. Plus I work in computer security, London is one ofthe few places in the UK with any job mobility in my field.

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