[darrenf]

For my entire career (I'm a lifelong Londoner) I've been bemused by newcomers to the city who essentially refuse to even consider living beyond zone 2. I grew up on the border of Z3/4 and now live in Z6, but have worked either in zone 1 or beyond it (in travel terms) since late 1996. My gut feeling is that the horrific prices in the centre are very much tied to what seems to be a perception that the outskirts suck.

[bitL]

I knew a woman in her 50s in London that was commuting daily 6 hours from one of the outskirts to another outskirt on the opposite side for a low-paying SWEng job. Frankly, why do people even bother moving to London/UK? Unless you are a finance person, a money-laudering crook from abroad or a top-school PhD in a hot field, your prospects are slim.

[yardie]

Given their age and the commute I can imagine the company was in the city center, which was an ideal commute. Then, later, relocated to the city outskirts, an unideal commute. If she owns her home she may not want to move and sell.

[csomar]

> Unless you are a finance person, a money-laudering crook from abroad or a top-school PhD in a hot field

That's a very accurate description of London.

[darrenf]

There's almost 9 million people here, y'know.

[antihero]

Well the sensible option there would be to move which outskirt you work nearest? If she was going from outskirt to outskirt, why not like, go and live on the outskirt she was working in?

Luckily there's a lot of tech work is in or close to the East (Shoreditch, City), so I can live in the South East.

If I had to commute to west, I'd probably look to move to the outskirts on the west.

[bitL]

Unless you have a mortgage in one of those opposite outskirts and can't afford to switch...

[antihero]

Rent it out then?

[jamienicol]

I'm from Scotland but moved to London a few years ago for work. I very much have that perception. Like many people from other parts of the UK I moved to London for the excitement. I wouldn't want to live in Zone 1 but there's plenty of places in Zone 2/3 which are lively and fun to live in.

Maybe I just don't know the best places in Zone 6, but my perception is that they feel like small towns which just happen to be on a tube line, if you're lucky. Even in zone 3 it's a lot more suburban than where I used to live in Glasgow.

If one day I have to move to Zone 6 because it's cheaper, then I'd much rather move to somewhere like Glasgow or Manchester, live centrally with more space, and for cheaper still.

[gaius]

An outsider coming to London and not living in the centre needs to deal with the cognitive dissonance that they would actually be materially better off and generally happier in Manchester or Newcastle or Edinburgh.

[ghaff]

Lots of people who would have no problem accepting the fact that a house in, say, a beautiful coastal location is a luxury can't seem to accept that a central location in certain cities may be as well. SF/SV are something of an outlier in that there's very little that isn't very expensive within a reasonable distance. But many of the prime real estate cities have outlying areas that are reasonably priced.

[rwmj]

I love living next to the M25, but the unreliability of trains sucks the joy out of certain things. Zone 6 (on the tube) might be manageable though.

[loftyal]

Contracting in SWE is lucrative.