[lucaspiller]

> Comfortable rooms appear on flatshare websites from time to time, at typical rents of £600 a month in areas such as Richmond.

Even if you are working at minimum wage* you are earning over £900 after tax. Assuming you spend £100 a month to get to work, that's still £200 to spend on food, the pub, whatever else takes your fancy. You could also save more by not trying to live in one of the most expensive areas of London. When I was there (ok nearly two years ago now), I was paying under £400 a month for a rather comfortable (and warm) house share in South Wimbledon. It was zone 3, and took 25 minutes to get to work in central London.

*A 'living wage' of £8.80 has been getting popular over the last few years, I'll use the UK minimum of £6.31 though. Also, yes I understand not everyone can get a full-time job, but bear with me for sake of argument.

[nitrogen]

Many US landlords I've seen will require the renter's income to be 3x the monthly rent. Is that not common in London?

[EliRivers]

That would require many landlords to cut the rent, reducing profit; it's not uncommon for people to be paying half or more of their income on the rent.

[g_lined]

Not in my experience. The requirement of 6 weeks' rent as a deposit is, however. I wouldn't be surprised if some ask for 8. This is partly what makes it so difficult to get in to the rental market for some people.

[tomp]

They might require as much as 6 moths (i.e. pay your rent in advance) if you cannot prove you have a (good?) job.

[lucaspiller]

It varies. I only had to pay a month up front, but as others said it depends on the landlord and situation. I believe a month is most common in the UK.