CAM Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 (edited) I'm looking to move out the family house and into a place of my own. Looking around a lot of places in my area are £600-£700 for an apartment when a third of my wage after deductions is closer to £550. How much is the recommended rent these days? Any tips for finding your first place? Reason I want to rent is flexibility and see where costs go before I commit to buying a place of my own. Edited August 1, 2014 by CAM
HarryMonkey Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I don't know that there is such a thing as a recommended rent these days. With more and more people being forced into rented accommodation, rents seem to be set at whatever the market will stand. That varies from area to area too. try looking away from the centre of town, maybe in one of the less popular villages, although often you save in rent but then spend that in fuel to get to work. 1
unixman_again Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Rent depends very much on where you live. I pay £450 per month for a two bedroom house in a very quiet street in the Black Country. I love the space! 1
CAM Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 I'm in the South East so sky high prices for me!
ICTDirect_Dave Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Up here in preston £550-£600 a month will get you a very nice 2/3 bed terrace with a couple of large rooms downstairs and a decent sized rear yard. Oddly if you were to spend the same amount on a flat you would be in something with less than half of the space and not nearly so nice. 1
arwen Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Renting is all depended on local demand. If you live in a heavily student area, private rent through agencies tend to be high. Try putting an add on gumtree/local paper/ etc, stating that you are a full time, working professional and you may get better offers. Alternatively, house sharing can work out great. My advice would be to have a live in landlord if you go this route, as then things get fixed quickly if they go wrong. 1
madurham Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 (edited) My tip would be get a deposit on a shared ownership. I pay £203pm (that's rent, mortgage and service charge) on a £70,000 house in a nice village. I have a mortgage on 35% and pay rent for the remaining 65% that is owned by the Housing Association. Great thing is that I get money back when I move out Link for Surrey: shared ownership surrey - Google Search Better link on the scheme: Shared ownership - Help to Buy Edited August 1, 2014 by madurham 1
CAM Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 That looks like quite an interesting scheme. You pay a fraction of the price, pay rent and slowly pay back the rest of it over time? Any catch to that?
Norphy Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I'm paying the better part of £900 in rent for a two bed flat in Harpenden. In London you'd probably pay at least 40-50% more. There are cheaper places around but they're not so nice. 1
eyetea Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 That looks like quite an interesting scheme. You pay a fraction of the price, pay rent and slowly pay back the rest of it over time? Any catch to that? I've heard good and bad things about shared ownership. My cousin over in Bracknell is on one of those schemes and she is getting on fine, however some of her friends have suffered on it (Can't remember any details). Surrey sucks for mortgages / rent, I feel your pain! I have friends in Egham paying ~£900 for a 1bed flat. My Dad was able to buy himself a 2bed terraced house towards Woking which he rents out for about £900 a month. Depending on how you feel you could look at house sharing as has been mentioned previously in the thread! A friend does it in our home town, and she's had good house mates and bad! 1
featured_spectre Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I rented in Surrey for 8 months (to be precise, Ashford). It cost me £650 for a 2 bedroom house, with council tax of £130 on top. The shared ownership is a good scheme for all involved as it can give you good deposit for a house later on which you can own fully.
rad Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Why not save the £600+bills each month into a savings account, so you can afford a good house when you come to buy. As you are living at home, its the best time to save up your deposit.
madurham Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 That looks like quite an interesting scheme. You pay a fraction of the price, pay rent and slowly pay back the rest of it over time? Any catch to that? Not that I've found. I think you get the same rights as if you were just renting. But that may be down to the HA. You can purchase more of the property if you come into money later on. This reduces your rent as that's calculated on how much you don't own. Depending on the HA, they may allow you to buy 100% of the property, viola! You own a house.
CAM Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 Because I'm running out of time. They retire soon so I need to look at options now, I don't want to be an anchor dragging them down and stopping them from downgrading to a smaller house in a nice location for their retirement years. 1
BKGarry Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 It is always worth shopping around I found, I live in Gravesend, the last stop on HS1 domestically so it takes 21minutes to get into St Pancras by train (at a cost) which has uped the rent costs quite a bit, but if I go to the town next door, which there really is no boudnary just one big urban merge through, it is much less. I have had to recently have had to give up my flat due to a family issue I have ended up in the middle of (which was a large 1 bed self enclosed flat above a shop for £470 a month plus £75 counil tax) and I can't believe how much cheaper it is, I am seriously looking at saving up and seeing how much it would cost me for a shared ownership of somewhere, but you are looking for 120k minimum value on flats around here. Flats above shops are cheaper as people dont seem to like them, but I find them great as when you are out during the day there is always someone below and during the winter the heating from the shop heats up the flat, making bills cheaper, but I would say check the area out first, I was lucky as noone hangs around outside these shops so it was really quiet but some maybe a bit too busy and noisy for you. 1
laserblazer Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 My son has just started work in Egham and rents a bedroom with shared kitchen and exclusive use of the bathroom for £100 a month.
BKGarry Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 If you want to look at sharong a room SpareRoom is a good place to start, I have seen lovely ones on there
visioN Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Depends totally on location, and what you want. Student areas / young professionals house share in Leeds, usually £300-£400 a month, all in, including bills etc. Renting on your own can be cheap £400ish up to whatever £2000+. Depends on area! I used to be in a large detached house which was £900, but heating such a large property, council tax etc was a killer. Now in a 2bed apartment £600 rent and bills are really low!
HarryMonkey Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 My son has just started work in Egham and rents a bedroom with shared kitchen and exclusive use of the bathroom for £100 a month. Bl**dy hell. I was paying £350 for a room with shared kitchen and bathroom in MK.
Gibbo Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 If you want to look at sharong a room SpareRoom is a good place to start, I have seen lovely ones on there Agree, I've used them before. I once got a three bedroom detached house all to myself for £350 a month (including all bills), the owner had moved in with her boyfriend and the other two rooms were for her sons who were at uni so never home.
LincolnE Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 £650 for an end terraced 2 bed house in Alcester, Warwickshire. I could get it cheaper a couple of miles down the road, bringing it down to £550 or so, but I'd rather pay more and live somewhere nice.
Chris_ Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 Bl**dy hell. I was paying £350 for a room with shared kitchen and bathroom in MK. I was paying £500 for a small en-suite room and shared kitchen/lounge/laundry etc! Admittedly it was a very nice house
CAM Posted August 1, 2014 Author Posted August 1, 2014 What's it like living in a place like that? Might be cheaper...
HarryMonkey Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 I found it ok, the other housemates were nice enough ... older professional types. It had the advantage of a garden and a garage for storing stuff in. We all left at different times in the morning so there was never a queue for the bathroom. You just need to be a bit tolerant/creative around cooking times and organize times between you. Nice to not have to worry about the next gas bill etc.
Edu-IT Posted August 1, 2014 Posted August 1, 2014 My tip would be get a deposit on a shared ownership. I pay £203pm (that's rent, mortgage and service charge) on a £70,000 house in a nice village. I have a mortgage on 35% and pay rent for the remaining 65% that is owned by the Housing Association. Great thing is that I get money back when I move out Link for Surrey: shared ownership surrey - Google Search Better link on the scheme: Shared ownership - Help to Buy A £70,000 house? Seems cheap? The one across the road from me has just gone up for £800 a month. A mortgage would be less than that that on a house of equivalent size.
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