If you're moving to London it can be daunting to find an area that you want to live in,
now I definitely can't tell you the best areas to live in
because everybody's situation and preferences are different, so there really is no such thing.
But I'll tell you how to figure out which areas will work for you.
First off, it's important to understand how London is divided because Londoners tend to like associate
themselves with the area that they live in, it's part of their identity.
So we can start with people who live north of the river and people who live south of the river,
there's kind of a joke that people who live south of the river never go north
and people who go north never go south and they kinda don't like the opposite areas,
but I definitely don't know North London as well as South London which is where I live.
Then we also have East London and West London,
West London is definitely more gentrified than East London, until a few years ago East London
wasn't the safest place to go to but it's really come into its own now, and it has a lot of diversity
it's also a really good place if you want like really cool, and interesting places to eat and drink
and lots of good nightlife.
There's definitely generally speaking a pretty big difference between the two.
Finally Londoners will associate themselves with the different, I guess corners of London,
so there's northwest, southwest... nope south is down there, southwest, southeast,
northeast and then south and north and west and east.
And the reason is because when you live somewhere in London your postcode will start with one of the letters
that's associated with area that you're in, for example if you live in the area of South East London then
your postcode will start with the letters SE,
so it's kind of like an identity thing because people say like I'm in South West or I live in South East...
Next it's good to know what you want out of the neighbourhood that you're gonna be in,
do you want to be by all the bars and clubs or do you want someplace more quiet,
maybe by the river,that's more family friendly.
Knowing what you want out of that area is gonna really help you to narrow down
what areas and neighbourhoods are gonna work best for you.
Before you set your heart on any areas you need to know what your budget is for renting,
my video about how much to live in London will start to help you figure out how much you can afford,
you can watch that by clicking the card popping up here.
But generally speaking the more central in London that you live the more money that you're going to spend
so if you don't have a lot of money and you think you're gonna end up in Notting Hill or Covent Garden,
sadly that's probably not gonna happen!
However for most people we can't afford to live there anyway, so you will not be alone.
Okay, once you know your budget and what you want out of the area you can use spare rooms
'where to live' wizard tool that will help you to figure out some areas that will work for you.
All you do is input what your budget is and also what kind of characteristics you want out of the areas
that you're living in and then it'll give you a nice list of places to check out.
I've tested it myself and it did list a great amount of areas that I actually would really love to live in.
Where will you be working? if you know where you're going to be commuting to every day
this is really important because this is going to affect which areas are going to work best for you to live in
because you will want to definitely take into account what your commute will be like.
Most people don't really end up living too close to work, especially if you work in central London
it's probably going to be too expensive for you to live near work,
even if you can't live super close you can work out which areas are going to give you a shorter commute
because you can afford to live close to a tube line or maybe there's like a specific tube line or a bus
that will take you straight to work without too much effort
and that's going to be a good area for you to live in.
For example, let's say you're going to work near Oxford Circus even if you end up living in Brixton,
just being able to hop on the Victoria Line and not get off till you get to Oxford Circus
will make for a bit of an easier commute.
Go visit your short list of areas, once you have a list of places that you think are going to work for you,
go and visit those areas yourself, try to go have some lunch there,
maybe you have a drink at the bar and just walk around and get a general feel for the area
and see if you feel like you could live there.
Finally talk to other Londoners, this is probably the best way to figure out
what areas are going to work really well for you is to get first-hand experience from people who have lived there
before or who live now, most Londoners tend to move areas like once every one or two or three years,
so you can usually just talk to a few people and they'll have a few different areas that they can give you
some insight on whether they liked it what they didn't like and if it might fit for you.
Now once you do all of this if you still have a good list of options of areas that you can live in that is a good thing
the more options that you have in terms of neighbourhoods that you're willing to live in
the more options you'll have for finding the flat or the house that's going to be perfect for you.
So keep your options open, be flexible and give yourself time and hopefully you will find a great place to live.
I have a video about how to find a place to live in London, you can watch that by clicking up there.
Which areas are you thinking of possibly living i, let me know down in the comments and
make sure you watch the rest of my 'Living in London' series,
you can do that by clicking on the videos popping up over here!