Revealed: how much it costs to rent a flat in each London borough
The average price of a home in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, over the last year was £1,257,514, according to Zoopla. Situated on the edge of the Chiltern Hills area, Beaconsfield offers world-class natural beauty and an attractive blend of Tudor and Georgian architecture. It also boasts great transport links, with direct train service to London Marylebone and Birmingham Snow Hill.
We’ve also used this data to help you find out Will an extension increase the value of my house?
Food spending is one of those monthly expenses in London that depends heavily on your tastes and habits. If you’re hitting up the farmer’s market for organic produce every week, your grocery bill will be far higher than a thrifty shopper who gets everything from Lidl.
We’ve also used this data to help you find out Will an extension increase the value of my house?
The map serves to put London’s outrageous property prices into perspective.
Most Londoners don’t drive. Instead, we rely on public transit to get around, whether that be the bus, tube, or train.
For a 1 bedroom flat, you can expect to pay around £143/month for energy from January 2023. Of course, the exact amount can vary based on if you’re in a basement/top floor flat, if your windows have double glazing, if you do a lot of cooking at home, etc.
Mayfair recently overtook Knightsbridge as the most expensive area of London. However, had the game of Monopoly been invented in the 17th century, the most valuable square on the board would not have been Mayfair. Just over 400 years ago, many of the Blue Plaques that decorate the walls of the Mayfair District did not exist. In fact, Mayfair was originally an unwanted and nameless muddy field. At the time, the most popular areas of London for the privileged and wealthy were Soho, Whitehall and the City.
Lambeth: £2,027
Just know that most people who have to travel across zones for work buy a monthly or annual travel card. Travelcards are like passes you add to your Oyster card that provide unlimited travel by bus, train, and tube within certain zones.
Mayfair recently overtook Knightsbridge as the most expensive area of London. However, had the game of Monopoly been invented in the 17th century, the most valuable square on the board would not have been Mayfair. Just over 400 years ago, many of the Blue Plaques that decorate the walls of the Mayfair District did not exist. In fact, Mayfair was originally an unwanted and nameless muddy field. At the time, the most popular areas of London for the privileged and wealthy were Soho, Whitehall and the City.
I pay £15/month for 5GB of data, 1000 texts, and 500 talk minutes. I can even use my data in a bunch of European countries without paying a fee.
The figures confirm what we know already: moving to a tube zone further out will probably help save hundreds of pounds of your hard-earned cash. Obviously, that means more to spend on seven pound pints, sourdough and avocados.
As we reached the mid-Victorian era, the aristocrats who were exclusively ruling Mayfair were joined by those who generated their money through business, rather than statehood, land or inheritance.
Thames Water has a bunch of payment plans ranging from weekly to annually, so you won’t necessarily pay a bill each month. Our bill comes annually, but we set aside money each month for the day we get the yearly bill.
How much you pay depends on your borough and property value. KFH has a useful council tax tool that will show you tax bands by borough. Fortunately, students don’t have to pay council tax, and single occupants get a 25% discount.
Telly Tax
We’ve used ONS data on property prices per square metre to help you find out what extra floor space could be worth in your area.
That being said, here’s what you can expect in terms of monthly expenses in London.
Most London landlords will require you to take out renter’s insurance as part of your tenancy agreement. We were required to show proof of our insurance within 30 days of moving into our flat.
Barking and Dagenham: £1,410
Curious to know how much it will cost you to live in London’s most expensive streets? Luxury estate agent Vyomm has released a list of the top five streets with the highest property prices — and Knightsbridge and Ashburton Place come in at the top.
Richmond upon Thames: £1,939
Before we moved to London, I made a spreadsheet of all our hair and beauty products and estimated haircut costs in GBP. I even included an annual facial! And then I divided that number by 12 to get my average monthly personal care cost for London.
My 2022 personal care spend averaged out to £50 per month, and I expect that to continue into 2023. That included haircuts, a fancy spa facial, a bit of makeup, and several nice skincare products.
Now that we’re well past the first year living in London, I can share my insight into the various monthly costs (and a few annual ones, too). But before we get to that, here are a few things to keep in mind:
Our properties
We used the uSwitch website to find the best deals from the service providers in our area. I highly suggest you do the same to make the most of your monthly budget.
The plutocrats who were now flooding into the area decided to redesign, and classic, understated properties with pulled down and replaced by lavish mansions. The business moguls were pumping millions into the area and were outspending the aristocracy on every level. By the Edwardian era, Mayfair was home to more business owners who had only recently started moving to the area, than the old gentry who originally rehomed there.
Because I get paid in multiple currencies, I opened a Wise Multi Currency Account , which lets me send and receive money in over different 40 currencies. It even comes with a multi-currency debit card!
South Wales and Lancashire are the cheapest places to buy property. In Blaenau Gwent, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath Port Talbot, Burnley and Hyndburn, homes cost less than £1,000 per square metre.
Like Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster is another very affluent area and is where you’ll find most of the capital’s major landmarks and attractions, such as the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral as well as the West End and Oxford Street.
Camden: £2,499
The second coming
If you’re looking to buy a place on a budget, but don’t want to spend hours on the tube each morning, you should be looking around Bromley-by-Bow or North Acton.
Instead of offering a monthly amount to budget, here’s what I suggest: look at what you currently spend in this area and add 20%.
For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial.
Curious to know how much it will cost you to live in London’s most expensive streets? Luxury estate agent Vyomm has released a list of the top five streets with the highest property prices — and Knightsbridge and Ashburton Place come in at the top.
The Grosvenor Square construction was the game changer, it was the cream of the crop and put everything else in its shadow. The aristocracy had their eyes set on this extravagant new location and decided to depart their outdated houses and relocate to the wonders of Mayfair. Of the initial 227 houses built in Mayfair, 117 had titled owners such as Dukes, Duchesses, Marquesses and Earls.
Barnet: £1,683
Flats averaged 49 metres squared (excluding bathrooms, corridors, hallways and landings) – that’s just over four times bigger than a typical car-parking space.
Waltham Forest: £1,595
Homes in the most expensive area of England and Wales cost 25 times as much as in the cheapest area, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysis of 2016 property prices.
2) Ashburton Place
In second place is Ashburton Place in Mayfair, close to Green Park. The average house price in this area is £12.6 million, but expect beautiful grand properties with long gardens and decadent interiors.
From rags…
The average price per square foot for properties near Bromley-by-Bow is £447 and for North Acton £487.
Hammersmith and Fulham: £2,384
It should be noted that this map only covers areas of London close to a tube station, and there are still areas of London that do not have a local tube station. Property prices are known to dramatically increase when a station is opened nearby, however there are other very expensive areas of London which are not connected to the London Underground.
Residential Land offers a number of luxury one, two and three bedroom apartments to rent across Mayfair, with property on Duke Street, Green Street, Hill Street and Grosvenor Hill.
Camden: £2,499
From rags…
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The Grosvenor Square construction was the game changer, it was the cream of the crop and put everything else in its shadow. The aristocracy had their eyes set on this extravagant new location and decided to depart their outdated houses and relocate to the wonders of Mayfair. Of the initial 227 houses built in Mayfair, 117 had titled owners such as Dukes, Duchesses, Marquesses and Earls.
Before we moved to London, I made a spreadsheet of all our hair and beauty products and estimated haircut costs in GBP. I even included an annual facial! And then I divided that number by 12 to get my average monthly personal care cost for London.
Median floor space: 48 square metres
If you’re looking for delicious food that won’t break the bank, check out my guide on cheap eats in London.
In 2004, it was reported that residential property in Mayfair was more valuable than commercial property for the first time in decades. And in August 2018, it was announced that Mayfair had overtaken Knightsbridge as the most expensive area in London. Mayfair had gone full circle.
Thames Water has a bunch of payment plans ranging from weekly to annually, so you won’t necessarily pay a bill each month. Our bill comes annually, but we set aside money each month for the day we get the yearly bill.
If your flat has a water meter, you’ll pay for your exact usage, plus a fixed amount for things like wastewater. If you don’t have a water meter (we don’t), you’ll pay a certain amount based on the “charge area” (i. e. borough) where you live, and the size of your property.
Feeling overwhelmed yet?
Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section.
According to HomeLet, the average rent in London was £2,007 in January 2023 . But depending on where you live in London, a one bedroom flat can cost anywhere from £1,200 to £2,000+ per month.
Bromley: £1,436
Also, you can reduce that monthly cost dramatically if you decide to flat/house share, as you’ll be saving on rent costs and splitting utilities.
Residential Land offers a number of luxury one, two and three bedroom apartments to rent across Mayfair, with property on Duke Street, Green Street, Hill Street and Grosvenor Hill.
Islington: £2,203
In 2023, our average food delivery order cost £35 (plus a £2 tip). We don’t dine out often, but when we do, it’s close to the £35 average cost of a mid-range meal in London.
One amazing difference between living in the US vs UK is how easy it is to compare prices on things like insurance, broadband, and energy.
Research by the Evening Standard has revealed the average cost of renting a flat in each London borough, and damn, some of it ain’t pretty.
One square metre of floor space – an area about the size of a red phone box – costs almost £19,439 in Kensington and Chelsea, while in Blaenau Gwent in the South Wales valleys, the same amount of space costs £777.
Like Kensington & Chelsea, Westminster is another very affluent area and is where you’ll find most of the capital’s major landmarks and attractions, such as the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral as well as the West End and Oxford Street.
The second coming
The tube line with the most expensive average property price, at £1,125 per square foot, is the Hammersmith and City line. On the other hand the Metropolitan Line has the cheapest average property price – just £504 per square foot. However this is because the Metropolitan line stretches right out into Buckinghamshire.
Telly Tax
Topping the chart of pricey places to live is (probably unsurprisingly) Kensington and Chelsea, where it costs an average of £3,300 per calendar month to rent a flat. Close behind is Westminster, where it costs an average of £2,950 per month to rent. In third place, and costing a bit less, is Camden, where flats cost an average of £2,499 per month in rent.
If you’re looking to buy a place on a budget, but don’t want to spend hours on the tube each morning, you should be looking around Bromley-by-Bow or North Acton.
For the record, we currently pay £180/month for gas and electric in our small 3 bedroom house .
Driving in the city is a major hassle and one of the things I hate about London . Most people who live and work in London won’t need a car unless they have multiple children or need to travel the country for work.
Just as an example: a monthly travelcard for Zones 1-3 costs £174/month in 2023. Use this handy single fare and travelcard calculator to figure out your personal monthly commute cost.
Now, I realize none of that is helpful when you’re trying to estimate your food budget in London! So let’s assume you cook most of your meals at home and bring your own lunch to work most days. And let’s also assume you shop at Sainsbury’s, a mid-range grocery store.
As I’ve mentioned, rent is one expense that varies so wildly, it doesn’t make sense to include it in this calculation. I’ll dive more into that cost later.
While groceries are fairly affordable in London, restaurant prices are pretty inflated. And nowhere is this more true than drinks. It’s not uncommon to pay £6 for a pint of beer and £12 for a cocktail.
Now, I realize none of that is helpful when you’re trying to estimate your food budget in London! So let’s assume you cook most of your meals at home and bring your own lunch to work most days. And let’s also assume you shop at Sainsbury’s, a mid-range grocery store.
