here's why I moved out of my favourite city in the whole world the full truth all right let's
get into it if you follow me on any platform you'll know that I've been in London for the
past three and a half years I've been in the UK for a decade more than a decade actually
but super quick summary I first moved to London to get my degree then I went traveling for a bit
moved around the UK and then I came back in 2019. if we were to talk about London and its
pros and cons I think it's really important that we first defined what London is I know London is
London it's the capital of the UK but beyond that it is more of a subjective entity based
on your age how much money you make what you do for a job where you live Etc your London is going
to be different to my London in this video I'm talking about both the objective London and my
subjective London the first thing that drove me out of London is the rent situation I've lived
pretty much everywhere in London with the notable exception of the West which is a little too fancy
for me when I first came I lived in Bloomsbury in University accommodation then I moved to Turnpike
Lane slash Wood Green in the north then I moved to Kentish Town slash chalk Farm which is really
close to Camden after that I went travel and when I came back I first lived in shortage then I moved
to Peckham which I would say was my favourite and finally I moved to Layton which is where I
moved out of now Layton is not the most exciting part of London but I had a really good situation
I was living with my boyfriend and another couple two of our friends we had a garden we had loads of
space we had a study per couple and for all that I paid about 650 pounds worth of rent which for
London is pretty sick that doesn't include council tax and bills but we'll get in that
later now I want to talk about some hard numbers I got all these figures from Zoopla and they are
pretty scary London run has increased by 17 over the past year which is the biggest year and year
increase the city has recorded since 2007. on average single renter earners spent 48.4 of their
income on run versus in 2021 it was 42.7 that is a huge jump but not surprising when you realize that
the median asking rent for two bedroom Flats was 2 400 pounds compared to 1900 pounds per
free pandemic yeah a lot of people moved to London because it offers higher salaries more prestigious
jobs more opportunities which is completely fair but it's not my situation I'm self-employed so
my income is pretty fixed regardless of where I live if your income is fixed you are much better
off living somewhere where your expenses are low so that you can maximise the enjoyment and the
profit that you make but it's definitely not just about the money because as I said I was paying 650
pounds per month with maybe a hundred pounds worth of bills which is a lot but it's not wild it's not
crazy what really put me off was the idea or the thought of searching for another flat the rental
market right now is so competitive my last house hunt at the beginning of 2022 was genuinely Soul
crushing and it wasn't just me looking there were four of us which should make the process
easier but it wasn't the places in London right now are so overpriced they're so over subscribed
that you are competing for places that in normal circumstances you wouldn't even want to live with
in London you have to accept things that you normally wouldn't find acceptable I'm talking
mould faulty Plumbing wet stains and the paint or really shoddy carpet and it's fine it's not life
or death but it is annoying I mean don't get me wrong beautiful places absolutely exist in London
they're some of the most beautiful properties on the planet but I can't quite afford them and most
people your regular person in London can't either okay next category now here are a few things that
people might assume drove me out of London for example safety it can be a bit dangerous as all
big cities can for me not a factor similarly whether yes I like to complain about it a lot
but it wasn't the decisive factor in fact London gets a lot of flack for being really rainy and
it's not there are places in Europe that are far Rainier Amsterdam Moscow but what London
does have is a lot of Bleak days there's just a lot of Darkness slash lack of General Sunshine
but yes while that's annoying and I will enjoy a break from it that wasn't what drove me out my
next few points are related starting with number four commuting now I feel compelled to say you
nice words the public transport system in London is amazing it's the kind of public transport that
other cities could only dream of it actually works most of the time yes there are strikes
yes there are delays yes there are issues because it's the oldest I think it's the the oldest public
network underground sorry cheap system in the in the world in the world in the world now let me say
what I really want to say and that is that I hate it I despise it I abhor commuting I think it's the
worst part of every day this is not an objective truth this is amitrus I get panic attacks when I'm
stuck underground I don't like my nose in other people's armpits I don't like other people's
noses in my armpit it's just a whole thing and it very much ties as I foreshadowed earlier it
very much ties into my next point which is crowds now I sound like I hate people I sound like an
absolute misunderstood I'm not I like people I I love people people are great people are great
at an arm's distance people are not great when you're forced to be around them people are I I
I think I'm over caffeinated I think that's what's happening here in summary of those two points
I felt like I needed space to breathe and that wasn't possible and I'm not just talking about the
air pollution I'm talking more generally there's a sense of overwhelm that is tied with living in
any big city but for me London in particular now number six is more complaints about other people
and I know I come across really negative in this video but the entire premise of this video is
negative I'm trying to point out reasons why I moved out of London I could go on and on and
on talking about how much I love this city and I genuinely I'm just gonna just just a hard time I
genuinely do I think London is incredible and as I said earlier it's my favorite city in the whole
world I'm definitely definitely not ruling out the possibility of me moving back to London at a
later stage and maybe not too far down the line maybe in like a year's time but for now I need
a break and these are the reasons that's why I'm being negative that's why I'm being hard London is
fabulous if you're watching this video because you're thinking of moving there use these as
potential downsides but definitely don't let this put you off London's great okay the London's great
I'm the problem now let the complaints resume please I have made a thorough list of things that
I hate about London mentality I'm just going to read it out to you it starts with not a warm place
that's what I've written down and what I mean by that is people are in naturally forthcoming
like they are in some other cultures for example I was in Mexico about three months ago now and
I loved it I was there for a month everyone was very spontaneous and they are outspoken they say
what they mean they don't skirt around different topics they are more upfront and sometimes I find
that really refreshing sometimes I really crave that and I can find the English British general
mentality a bit draining and I love Fritz I'm dating one he's fantastic he's the best person
I know but sometimes Brits as a general entity sometimes I find it exhausting the next complaint
I wrote down here is living for the weekend now this is true of the subsection of society that I
belong to I would say a lot of young professionals I don't think I found a good way of articulating
this yet but sometimes I find it exhausting having to blend really far in advance if you want to see
people in London everyone's really really busy and this includes me so this is a bit hypocritical but
you will need to put a date in the calendar maybe three weeks in advance if you want to hang out
with people who aren't like your best friend that you see on a regular basis and for me that is a
level of planning that I don't enjoy I'm someone who's very spontaneous sometimes that works to
my detriments and it's not necessarily always a good quality but it's something I personally
enjoy and in London it's not always possible and my final point on this topic of London mentality
is I don't want where I live to become a huge part of who I am I don't want it to be a big part of my
personality I want to be a human a person in my own right and I don't need these external
things like my postcode to Define me to the extent that they do for a lot of people in London when I
was in my early 20s I really liked boxes I I like being vegetarian later I like being vegan I liked
being left wing I liked all these things about myself I loved compartmentalising so that I could
relate to people on a deeper level but I realised obviously that that actually precludes you from
connecting on a deeper level putting yourself in those boxes isn't productive it doesn't let your
personality flourish and for me being a Londoner was becoming one of those boxes that I was putting
myself into so I'm putting myself in timeout okay I now I'm Sabina The Londoner no more and let's
see where that takes me which very nicely feeds into my final point which begins with a quote
when a man is tired of London he is tired of life for there is in London all that life can afford
I probably would have moved out of London sooner than I did if that code didn't exist genuinely it
held so much power over me and I kept thinking well if I can't be happy here then clearly the
issue lies with me it's not nothing to do with London it's all about me I need to learn to be
happy in this environment because this is the best I'm gonna get I think it's really close-minded to
assume that one place could ever meet all of your needs as a human being and I also think
it's close-minded to assume that staying in one place forever will help you grow as a person yes
there may be in London all that life can afford it's an incredibly exciting Cosmopolitan city with
a rich history there's so much to do and you will never exhaust all of the city's possibilities but
once you have explored that lifestyle it might benefit you as a person to try something new to
keep pushing the boundaries if you just keep doing the same thing over and over you have heard this
quote before it's the definition of insanity expecting a new outcome you can't grow if you
don't step outside your comfort zone I'm talking in awful cliches here but there are cliches for
a reason there's a quote in the book that I'm currently reading it's the glass hotel by Emily
St John Mandel she's one of my favorite writers she's absolutely fabulous if you want to read more
station 11. one of the best books I've read last year or two years ago anyway here's the quote I
don't know it just seems like such a cliche living in New York City for your 20s and then leaving
and it made me think because this is very much true of London as well I thought well am I just
doing what everyone else is doing and then I saw it further and I realized hey maybe everyone is
doing that because there is a good reason for it number two not always bad to go with the crowd
and number three if I'm having these feelings I should probably just honor them and see what else
is out there see what other Lifestyles I haven't tried that might suit my personality better that
might suit the current direction that my life is going in and what the hell maybe I am just
getting too old for London and that's okay if you've ever lived in London if you loved it if
you hated it I would really like to hear more about your experience this by the way is where
I'm staying right now my boyfriend and I are traveling all around the UK we are spending
two to three weeks in an Airbnb in a new city and then moving on and currently I'm really
enjoying the itinerary lifestyle it definitely has many downsides as well but no situation is
perfect and this is working for me right now if you would like to hear more about this
this General setup we're also house sitting let me know we can talk about it otherwise
thanks so much for watching and maybe I'll see you next week if you enjoyed this maybe not