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London is an amazing place to live, and (painfully cognisant of how this sounds) if you get a chance to live there for a while, I'd heartily recommend it. Thou

by Jedd 7y ago

London is an amazing place to live, and (painfully cognisant of how this sounds) if you get a chance to live there for a while, I'd heartily recommend it. Though of course much of the shine has indubitably disappeared since Brexit. I was there 2008 through 2013 - and in 2010 we rented a relatively new 1 bedroom flat, on the 2nd floor (of 13), overlooking the Thames, around the Docklands (east London, near the secondary financial sector) on a clean, safe estate with a concierge. This was £280 / week. A decade later, and doubtless having spent quite some time to find a highly unpleasant flat in a ridiculously inflated part of town (Camden) and TFA are citing £375 / week for a shared bedroom & toilet. Like any metropolis, London is immense, with huge variations in quality and cost -- everything is a tradeoff against how close you want to be to the center versus how long you want to spend commuting. FWIW when we moved from London UK to Sydney Australia in 2013 we went from river views, 40 minute commute to city center in London at £280 (~ AUD475) / week , to 60 minute commute to city center, highway views, for AUD500 / week, for the same quality apartment. Never move to Sydney if you can avoid it. EDIT: Oh, one of the problems with high-rises around London is the fact the whole place is a few metres above sea level, and the ground water levels are insanely high. I had engineer friends who worked on the underground (tube) extension years earlier, who told me that if the bilge pumps stop working, tracts of the underground lines would be flooded within fifteen minutes. The Thames Barrier (worth a google if you don't know of it) is unlikely to be effective within 10 to 20 years. Plus they've got lots of real estate locked up by investors who simply never occupy it -- all of this does brutally wonky things to real estate pricing there.

sgt 7y ago
Never been to Sydney although I have heard good things about Perth. Nice and open, not that I'd consider moving to Australia, but looks like a nice and interesting country for a vacation.
- NewLogic 7y ago
  Make sure you come check out South East Queensland!
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
eeh 7y ago
Also London -> Sydney. 2 bedroom, $450/week, water view, 30 minute cycle to city. That said, I'm not sure I recommend moving to Sydney either. London has an energy that Sydney lacks. :)
- Jedd 7y ago
  At that commute time and cycle-ability, I'm guessing inner west, Balmain through Homebush area? Either way, I'm very impressed you found a 2b/r at $450, let alone with water views. I'm in the upper northern suburbs -- between the hills, absence of bike lanes, my general unfitness, and rampantly anti-bicycle mentality of most Sydney drivers, it'd be inviting an early and moderately unpleasant death to consider a bike commute from here, even before considering the 6 months of >30C days.
avianlyric 7y ago
> The Thames Barrier (worth a google if you don't know of it) is unlikely to be effective within 10 to 20 years. Not quite true. The Thames Barrier is expected to remain effective for the next 70 years (till 2070). There’s a plan to figure out it’s replacement sometime around 2050. You read more about it here if you’re interested: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/thames-estuary-2100-te2100/thames-estuary-2100-te2100 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/thames-estuary-21...
- Jedd 7y ago
  Thank you. I'd had in my mind that 2040 was when it approached (effective) EOL, and from the country that had 40 years to plan for the Concorde replacement, I was not overly optimistic. Seems there has been a general trend of increasing need to use the barrier, though the 2014 'blip' threw this number upwards. I'm seeing some references to 'it's fine until 2050-2070', but OTOH I'm not seeing a lot of 'we've underestimated global warming effects, so sea level won't be as bad as we thought' stories -- so presumably we should be looking towards the lower end of that 2050-2070 range. I read through the v.interesting link you provided -- it reads very gov.uk. Sadly, after the past couple of years of gov.uk activity I'm not particularly sanguine that they will actually attend to this work.
dzhiurgis 7y ago
I've went from Londons zone 2 street view for 740 GBP pm to Aucklands street view, ensuite and a living room for 650 GBP pm 5 years ago. Commute by walking. Although more recently I've moved to a farm about 25-50 minutes drive away from downtown. Same cost, 10x quality of life.
- Jedd 7y ago
  After London, I traipsed around APJ for five years with a vendor -- NZ was the only place that I really liked. Absent a hard commit locally it'd be a serious consideration. Great climate, population, soil, culture, space, costs - I'm wary about recommending it in case people listen to me.

by Jedd 7y ago

sgt 7y ago

Never been to Sydney although I have heard good things about Perth. Nice and open, not that I'd consider moving to Australia, but looks like a nice and interesting country for a vacation.

NewLogic 7y ago
Make sure you come check out South East Queensland!
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]

eeh 7y ago

Also London -> Sydney. 2 bedroom, $450/week, water view, 30 minute cycle to city. That said, I'm not sure I recommend moving to Sydney either. London has an energy that Sydney lacks. :)

Jedd 7y ago
At that commute time and cycle-ability, I'm guessing inner west, Balmain through Homebush area? Either way, I'm very impressed you found a 2b/r at $450, let alone with water views. I'm in the upper northern suburbs -- between the hills, absence of bike lanes, my general unfitness, and rampantly anti-bicycle mentality of most Sydney drivers, it'd be inviting an early and moderately unpleasant death to consider a bike commute from here, even before considering the 6 months of >30C days.

avianlyric 7y ago

> The Thames Barrier (worth a google if you don't know of it) is unlikely to be effective within 10 to 20 years. Not quite true. The Thames Barrier is expected to remain effective for the next 70 years (till 2070). There’s a plan to figure out it’s replacement sometime around 2050. You read more about it here if you’re interested: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/thames-estuary-2100-te2100/thames-estuary-2100-te2100 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/thames-estuary-21...

Jedd 7y ago
Thank you. I'd had in my mind that 2040 was when it approached (effective) EOL, and from the country that had 40 years to plan for the Concorde replacement, I was not overly optimistic. Seems there has been a general trend of increasing need to use the barrier, though the 2014 'blip' threw this number upwards. I'm seeing some references to 'it's fine until 2050-2070', but OTOH I'm not seeing a lot of 'we've underestimated global warming effects, so sea level won't be as bad as we thought' stories -- so presumably we should be looking towards the lower end of that 2050-2070 range. I read through the v.interesting link you provided -- it reads very gov.uk. Sadly, after the past couple of years of gov.uk activity I'm not particularly sanguine that they will actually attend to this work.

dzhiurgis 7y ago

I've went from Londons zone 2 street view for 740 GBP pm to Aucklands street view, ensuite and a living room for 650 GBP pm 5 years ago. Commute by walking. Although more recently I've moved to a farm about 25-50 minutes drive away from downtown. Same cost, 10x quality of life.

Jedd 7y ago
After London, I traipsed around APJ for five years with a vendor -- NZ was the only place that I really liked. Absent a hard commit locally it'd be a serious consideration. Great climate, population, soil, culture, space, costs - I'm wary about recommending it in case people listen to me.