[sw00pur]

All I've heard about London from fellow expats is: 1) it's laughably expensive, and it forces you to spend a big part of your salary just for a room in a cramped apartment unless you want to live hours away from your office, 2) it's a hellhole full of scum.

[irpapakons]

Ok, I know I might be relatively lucky, but just to provide a different anecdote: I spend 34% of my take-home income to live in a big studio in a leafy neighbourhood with Edwardian houses, 35 minutes from work door to door taking the tube, next to 2 parks. I'm pretty happy. Like all big cities London has better and worse neighbourhoods and the experience you get living in them varies greatly.

[Nursie]

34% to live in a studio sounds ludicrous to someone paying 25% to live in a townhouse (in a smaller city in the south).

[switch007]

Yes... Perhaps it's because so much other housing is so expensive in London, relatively many other properties can look like a bargain

[user5994461]

25% on the studio, and another 25% on utilities, car and food.

[SirHound]

A hellhole full of scum... I don't know where these people have been, but that isn't the London I know.

[caoilte]

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.