London Flat hunting

[pinkymoo]

Hey everyone, I wondered if you guys could give me a hand here please!

I have a friend, who has just been offered a grown-up job down in London, Canary Wharf. Basically starts on the 1st September and has to find her own flat (room to rent in one). Since we are Dundonian and know practically nothing about London, I was wondering if anyone has any websites that are useful or that advertise rooms, and also, dodgy/non-dodgy areas. We have no idea!

Cheers!

[El Rey Rojo]

gumtree is always a good start...

[TheUnixKid]

Ignoring the previous totally useless comment here is a bit of information you may or may not find useful.

I think Canary Wharf may be too expensive to live but it's worth a look. It's a nice place however not a lot goes on there once everyone who works there goes home.

Dodgy areas not to end up in: Elephant and Castle, Shadwell, Bermondsey, New Cross. I'm sure people who've spent time there will say they aren't that bad to live in, which they aren't, you get bad areas in even the best places in London but from my experience I wouldn't want to live there.

If your friend is working in Canary Wharf I'd recommend perhaps looking in Greenwich, it's just over the river and has a nice park and some cool shops and restaurants. Rent is also fairly reasonable for London. You can get the Docklands Light Railway directly to Canary Wharf, or even the boat which is a lot of fun. Blackheath is also really nice and worth a look.

West and SW London are clearly the best but rent will be high and it's miles away from Canary Whaf.

North London (Angel etc) is also quite nice but I don't have much experience of that area.

Foxtons.co.uk (although a bit of a shitty company) is a good place to start looking to get an idea of the sort of rent you'll be paying per week. It's not that disimilar from St Andrews, it would be better if you could share with someone you know who may also be moving down there.

I hope this helps!

[Icarus]

Having just got back from flat hunting in London, the best advice I could give would be to set aside a couple of days and go round on foot to look for a place. There's a real limit to how much you can do online, and while the internet can be very useful for getting some idea about the prices of different areas, you absolutely need to explore the different areas you're considering yourself to get a real feel for them. It's especially useful for getting an idea of things like commuting times, ease of accessibility, what sort of area it is etc.

As the previous poster said, Foxtons' website is quite handy and there are definitely some nice places to be found there, especially if your budget can stretch that far. However, the fees they charge for actually signing and ending a contract are absolutely criminal, so watch out if you're actually considering getting a place through them, and be sure to add their fees to how ever much they say a property will cost. There's a reason they can afford to drive around in those Minis and give you free drinks every time you go to see them!

Not knowing London really at all yet, I couldn't say where would be a good place to live to get into Canary Wharf every day. But wherever you're considering just go around on foot, stick your head into all the estate agents, pick up local papers, that kind of thing. It's really amazing how much difference there can be in terms of how much house you get for your money just by moving one stop down a tube line, so also don't rule anywhere out without giving it a look. We're living in Brixton next year, and I sure as hell didn't think I'd be saying that before we went down to look for a place. Imagine our surprise when we discovered there were parts that were packed with amazing houses at decent prices in perfectly safe neighbourhoods. Aside from all that, good luck!

[pinkymoo]

Thank you very much guys, thats really helpful.. Its just a bit like aaaah she literally was just told she had the job so things are a bit like shiiiit finding time to get down there between now and Sept but yeah we will try that website!

Thanks again

[TheUnixKid]

No problem! I second Icarus' suggestion that going to look at places is the best idea. It may seem a bit OTT to travel all that way but it's the only way to get a good idea of a place.

Good luck!

[El Rey Rojo]

see...gumtree avoids estate agents and has guides to areas of London as well.

Perhaps not so useless as your passive-aggressive statement might suggest.

Boludo

[TheUnixKid]

sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. It wasn't supposed to be passive aggressive at all. Just truthful.

[El Rey Rojo]

and entirely unnecessary

[Stephanie]

So this is kind of along the same lines as the first poster. I am moving to London in early September, and don't really know the areas that well. I'm not too bothered about being close to work or anything like that. I just basically want to know where is highest on the cost-to-safety ratio? A friend of mine recommended Battersea. Is that a good area? Are there others like that?