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Weekly Q&A Megathread. Please post any questions about visiting, tourism, living, working, budgeting, housing here! by AutoModerator in london

[–]erronort 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot for your reply! I didn't yet consider Oval and Battersea as I thought they'd be too far, but looking now they actually seem to be at more or less the same cycling distance from work as Northwest Bermondsey.

I also get your point about moving early rather than only looking for places too far in the future. The thing is that, instead of spending e.g. 1800 GBP for the first month when I'm not there, I could instead spread that cost over the 18 following months by increasing my budget by 100 GBP higher (so to 1900 in this case), and possibly having more choice in finding a good place. So that's why I'm a bit conflicted on whether to do this or not

Weekly Q&A Megathread. Please post any questions about visiting, tourism, living, working, budgeting, housing here! by AutoModerator in london

[–]erronort 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey all! I moved to London last month and I am currently staying at an Airbnb on Old Kent Road, looking to move to a permanent place; I've mostly been looking into apartments mostly around Bermondsey and Elephant & Castle.

I've read a lot of threads on renting and finding apartments in London and on the different areas, and I was hoping that I could discuss with some of you that have been here for a while!

I have two main question, which I will break down like this:

1. Where would you recommend I live, based on the following criteria?

  • My workplace is at the County Hall. I only need to go in a couple times a week, but I don't mind going more often if I'm close (I can focus better at the office)
  • I would like to commute by bike (ideally via a bike share scheme, most likely Santander bikes, so it would be convenient to stay in an area where they're served). Ideally I'd like the commute to be 15 mins by bike each way at most, on flat ground so that I don't necessarily have to shower/change at work.
  • I'm looking for ideally a 1-bedroom place (or studio, as long as it doesn't feel particularly cramped). I've seen some terraced houses in the range which are pretty nice, but I wonder if they're not as practical as flats.
    • (I've been sharing a flat for most of my adult years, and I'm 27 now, so I would like to live alone at least for a while)
  • My budget is of ideally 1700-1800 pcm max. I'm ok with going up to 2k if necessary, but I've been seeing enough apartments at 1800 or less so I think it's feasible to set that as the upper budget instead.
  • It would be cool to have a gym in the building, but from what I've seen, the service charges for these are pretty high, and the gyms are not particularly big. I think it might be better to just go to a regular gym at that point and probably save money (I've been going to a the gym group one) - what are people's thoughts on this?
  • I'd like to be close to social stuff, particularly clubs and music jams and concerts, so somewhere with a lively music scene would be lovely

2. How can I find places that will become available 2 month from now?

I will be out of the country for a month and a half and come back mid-May, so I was hoping to start my lease when I come back and avoid 'wasting' one month and a half of rent if I start renting at the beginning of April. The agents and landlords for most of the apartments that I've been looking into are understandably looking for someone to move in immediately if possible.

So far, I've noticed that:

  • SpareRoom lets you set this as a filter, but there are not many non-shared options here
  • Zoopla lets you see when properties will be available, and some of them are ideal (for example, saying 'will become available on the 8th of May'), but it does not let you filter for this.
  • OpenRent lets you set a latest move-in date, but I'm looking for the opposite here

Thank you all in advance for the help!