In my case my profession is centered on London so I need to spend some time there. If I were there longer term, I could be a property guardian (one of the few ways to make it affordable), but I don’t want to be there long term - the weather is dreadful and that may be my number one reason - so I am stuck with trying to find short-term house-sits and filling the gaps with Air B&B. The problem here is that London house-sits are very popular and London has the most expensive Air B&B offerings I’ve seen, with the ‘cheap’ rooms (if you can call them that) tending to be horrid. Hostels are no good - they drive me bonkers, and they’re not exactly cheap either. London is a real problem, although it’s my base and the place I go back to throughout the year. Sigh.

Yep, have just updated my reply. I’d be hard-pressed to spend £1000 a month unless I were trying to give my money away. Maybe on Air B&B, but not securing a long-term furnished room rental via Spare Room. Anyone who’s charging £1000 a month there is either on the game or in a very posh neighbourhood.

I paid £420 plus my share of utilities for a very large room in a nice warm house in Barnes, just off the river, in 2010-2011. I know prices have gone up since then, but they can’t have gone up THAT much. Mind you, it was a good deal, but there are always good deals around if you take the time to find them.

£1000 should be plenty for a room, I’m a little surprised people are telling you otherwise. I pay just under 1k, and that’s for a room slap bang in the middle of Shoreditch.

Shoreditch is fun, but I wouldn’t recommend living here. Aim for Dalston, Hackney, Stoke Newington, I think average rent for a room is around £850. In my opinion, price is only half of the battle, competition for the rooms is frustratingly tough!

If you want cheaper, but decent location… then you can look around Clapton. It’s a bit rougher, but it’s common in London for council flats to be mixed among high cost housing. Here’s a music vid to get you in the mood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIuQM_q0IUU

@magalhini @Ani - Thanks to you both! Funny you mention Gumtree as I have noticed some odd postings lately! I actually hadn’t heard of Spareroom, but it sounds good. I’m looking into the premium membership.

@magalhini you’re spot on - I’m def looking to cycle to work, so I’ll will keep this in mind.

Thanks again to everyone. The information provided here has helped tremendously. I can’t begin to imagine how long it would have taken to gather all of these nuggets of info on my own!

I agree about avoiding Gumtree. It used to be a better resource, but the many (would-be?) scam artists make it a pain to use. When I was living in London and I knew I was going to move, I would go ahead and pay for Spare Room’s short-term premium membership (or whatever it’s called) and get myself sorted. There is more of a screening process on Spare Room; Gumtree is a free for all.

Hey there!

I strongly suggest you to try websites like Spareroom, and to stay away from Gumtree where a big percentage of the ads are scams. Every room I found in London was through Spareroom, you can pay a small fee to have early access to the newest ads and it seems to be worth it.

East London, like everyone else said, is a great place to be, but it’s getting harder and harder to find a decently priced room in the area. You can get away with paying 500 ~ 600£, but you’ll have to be willing to share a house with 3 or 4 other people… it can go very well, but it also can go very wrong.

If you stay around Hackney/Brick Lane, I can recommend the co-working space my company uses, called East One Studios. Not expensive and quite cheerful the benefit of this area is also having places like Google Campus relatively near. Free wifi and working areas, although they can get quite busy (it’s London after all).

It’s definitely a challenge to save money in London, but after a while you learn the tricks. I’d strongly recommend to be in cycling distance from whatever working space you choose to be in. This is the best way to save money on transportation, which is a good chunk of money per month.

Good luck!

I lived in Haggerston/Hoxton for a couple of years (left 2 years ago). Definitely a fun and interesting area.

Agree with @NenaDodi , If I was to go back I would be looking at areas near London Field and Victoria Park. The connections aren’t the best but its such a good area. Followed by Stoke Newington!

@FootprintsImprints - Thanks again for the info and advice. I’ll check those places out and you’re prob right about the flat sharing situation.

@levelsio - I totally get it

I’ve spent some time doing just that… now I’m in a special position

@NenaDodi - Thank you. It looks like East London is it. I’ll be sure to check out those areas and I really appreciate the links. Cheers!

Hi ! I think London is great for Digital Nomads. Expensive but very interesting for all that is around new tech, startups and digital platforms.

East London is the best place to be if you are a tech savvy (Shoreditch, Hackney, Haggerston, Stoke Newington)

Coworking wise check: copass.org/ it’s a global platform where you can find cool coworking places (ex. 90mainyard.co.uk)

If you need to look around the first days: cohome.space

have a remarkable stay!

I’d suggest East and Southeast London. East London is getting gentrified though and has become ‘hip’. BUT it also has lots of warehouses-turned-co-working/startup spaces. It’s also lots of fun and creative, with markets, amazing cafes and street food.

SE is very cheap, but with lots of problematic and ‘poor’ areas. It’s not very well connected either (no tube, but there is overground and railway). Because of lots of immigrants, it’s culturally diverse, with small shops and food places.

If you don’t want in those areas, try NW or N, but mostly zone 3 <, if you want a whole place to yourself. SW and W is posh.

Btw, £1000 for a whole place or in a shared space?

Thank you all for the sincere and thorough responses.

@levelsio - To give a bit of background info. I spent the last 3.5 years in SE Asia and just need a change in the direction of 'living where things work" for a change. Call it burnout or whatever… it’s just what I need at the moment.

I’m a dual national (German/US), so visas aren’t a problem and I do have a partner, so expenses will be shared for the most part.

@Ani - Thank you very much for the suggestions. I will look into these.

@Shayna , @jerriep & @Oskar - London is great! Perhaps a reason why it’s so expensive =) I agree that having a bit a of pressure is a good thing. "Necessity is the mother of innovation!"
Also, I feel like I’m stagnating a bit and want to be in a place where I can renew/expand my current skill set. Again, @Shayna thank you for the detailed information. I’ve been looking around Shoreditch, but it is indeed a bit expensive. I’ll start scouring the the borderlines. Hopefully, something will turn up! Totally agreed about your point on the number of flatmates. Funny, 10 years ago it wouldn’t have made a difference!

I guess for those who have made the transition to more expensive places. What strategies have you employed to increase business? Anyone outsourcing/referring in order to handle more business?

I’m in London currently and yes its expensive, but if you can afford go for it. Its the greatest city in europe where you can do and find whatever you could think of.
I’m from South America so i will only stay no more than a couple of months because of UK rules.Remember the saying “When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”

Yes, it is possible to pay low levels of rent in London. Check out Camelot Guardians and other property guardian arrangements - I got by on around £300 a month, and I had an enormous room, etc. Otherwise look at Spare Room - you can get a room in a shared flat/house for around £500 - £600 a month. If you need your own flat, it will cost much more.

That budget sounds like very entry level for London. Student level budget. Or you’re sharing with a partner and s/he is footing a similar or higher budget.

You won’t be finding great places to live for much less than 900£ within any of the creative neighbourhoods.

Not to be facetious here, but I think for any digital nomad the goal would be to leave London rather than go there.

Not sure if you’re British or not, but if you’re from outside Europe, I’d strongly suggest any other place in Europe than UK right now. Unless you make great money, it’s pretty much scraping by with the cost of living being so high.

Since you mentioned “cheap”, I’d recommend to reconsider moving to London.

P.S. I love London for its culture, music scene (dnb head here ).