nightwolf Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 London is definitely the place to be, in terms of employment, I'm finding that 99% of the job offers I receive for QA are for London or the surrounding area. I was lucky to find a couple of decent jobs here in Cambridge, but like @MoogleViper its still incredibly expensive and I'm finding that the pay to rent ratio is quite low compared to other cities, I'd need a raise of 5 grand to be able to live on my own here and I'd still be struggling month to month. I'm jealous of @Ashley to live in a big city would be wonderful, I miss it very much (especially after New York, its too quiet here), but I couldn't afford it.
Jamba Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 London is definitely the place to be, in terms of employment, I'm finding that 99% of the job offers I receive for QA are for London or the surrounding area. Sheeeet girl, those are like from the same 3 companies. Plus many of them are not London. Surrey is not London. You should check out the Midlands scene. Oxford, Leamington, Coventry and the surrounding have a ton of companies. In fact Leamington is fast becoming the one area in the UK most densely populated by developers.
Rummy Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 (edited) I've been fortunate in mortgage matters - I switched to a lifetime tracker mortgage just before the bank rates started falling. My mortgage is at 2% above the Bank of England rate, so that's 2.49%. We have a 3 bed semi-detached (in a nice area) and our mortgage is £575. This is our second house (as in, the second that we bought together - we don't have two houses), so we built up equity in the first then sold it and managed to scrape together enough for this one. It's disgusting realizing how much less I would get from a property for that price around here (which I couldn't see at work earlier) Btw on this whole london scene/debate - the only reason I'm here/staying here is because it's always been my ends. Work, too, but I know this all well etc. It's a price to pay, but it's properly home etc. If I had enough not going on and a reason to move far far away to somewhere cheaper, I probably would. Edited November 18, 2013 by Rummy
nightwolf Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 Sheeeet girl, those are like from the same 3 companies. Plus many of them are not London. Surrey is not London. You should check out the Midlands scene. Oxford, Leamington, Coventry and the surrounding have a ton of companies. In fact Leamington is fast becoming the one area in the UK most densely populated by developers. Haha, I wasn't saying there weren't any development companies outside of London, only that I was finding that most of what I do seem to be London area.
Rummy Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 I like London and through London I can get anywhere I need to pretty quickly. That's a good thing. Let's see how fast you manage to get from London to...LONDON! Only the southeast bit. Royally fucking neglected we are! Zone 2 for our closest tube? Ripoff! (this thread is now about london)
Jamba Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 Haha, I wasn't saying there weren't any development companies outside of London, only that I was finding that most of what I do seem to be London area. Can pretty much guarantee that a tester's salary will not cut a wage properly in London. PM me about what you're looking for and will keep my ear to the ground for you.
Rummy Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 Sheeeet girl, those are like from the same 3 companies. Plus many of them are not London. Surrey is not London. You should check out the Midlands scene. Oxford, Leamington, Coventry and the surrounding have a ton of companies. In fact Leamington is fast becoming the one area in the UK most densely populated by developers. Ykno, Birmingham's somewhere I wouldn't mind being. I don't know why, just been there a few times years back visiting my friend when she was at uni, but I kinda liked it there. That's midlands right? My actual geography is shit(hence why I like here...as I know it now). We got any brummy folk here? What's the rent and prices like up that way? Not that I'd be moving there anytime soon, but ykno.
Jamba Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 Ykno, Birmingham's somewhere I wouldn't mind being. I don't know why, just been there a few times years back visiting my friend when she was at uni, but I kinda liked it there. That's midlands right? My actual geography is shit(hence why I like here...as I know it now). We got any brummy folk here? What's the rent and prices like up that way? Not that I'd be moving there anytime soon, but ykno. I think it varies massively. Inner city is expensive even for Zone 2-3 London but if you get out to say Solihull way it can get pretty reasonable. Basically it has a large spectrum from city to suburb and cheap dump to pricey nice in a pretty big myriad.
Emma Posted November 18, 2013 Posted November 18, 2013 @Shorty I knew you'd post in here and make me jealous of your cheap, lovely house with your nice fireplace and pretty bathroom sink. p.s Nandos sucks
Jimbob Posted November 19, 2013 Posted November 19, 2013 All this makes me thankful i'm still living at home. A friend in work keeps telling me to move out of my place in Caldicot and move to Cardiff and rent a place as it will be cheaper to live, looking at rental prices i'd be in the same boat as you guys and gals. I'm not saying i'm comfortable (or afraid to move out), it's just more affordable to remain at home especially on a temp contract i'm on. And based on her knowledge (and financial situation as she tells me), she's got no money left by the middle of the month. I was chatting to a chap on the train tonight who says EU rent prices are a heck of a lot cheaper than what you get in Britain. He's got a friend moving to Portugal who's renting a place for the equivalent of £250 a month which covers council tax as well. And then you look at British prices, and you think wow.
Dog-amoto Posted November 19, 2013 Posted November 19, 2013 I did pretty well house-wise. I bought a 2 bedroom semi in Bolton in 2000 for just under £30k. Mortgage payment at the time was about £210 a month. Since then, I've remortgaged and borrowed about £50k about six years ago to make home improvements etc, now my mortgage payments are about £420 a month which is about 25% of my wage. I'd say the house is now worth about £80k and I have six years and about £25k left to pay off which I'm hoping to have done with overpayments by the time I'm 40 in four years. Then I may buy another house and rent this one out, or just stay here getting rich
jayseven Posted November 20, 2013 Author Posted November 20, 2013 In my job I read a lot of mortgage applications and statements and all sorts of malarky. I've seen mortgages from the 80s where they were paying £6 a month, including house insurance and PPI. Sick. It was up north, of course!
MoogleViper Posted November 20, 2013 Posted November 20, 2013 In my job I read a lot of mortgage applications and statements and all sorts of malarky. I've seen mortgages from the 80s where they were paying £6 a month, including house insurance and PPI. Sick. It was up north, of course! I remember (bear in mind I was born in 1990) houses that cost less than £10,000.
rizz Posted November 20, 2013 Posted November 20, 2013 When I was little I used to think £40k was a really expensive house price! Pretty sure when I eventually get a job that I will be unable to afford to live alone, even being in the North.
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