Finding a flat in London
and other forms of self-flagellation
A short marination as I ease back into consistency in this space.
Once upon a time, I dreamed of living in a house, or a flat, or really anywhere with a roof over my head. I was naive and aspirational, and I dreamed of a dishwasher, laundry, maybe even south-facing windows.
When I moved to London, I was infatuated with the idea of living somewhere like this— a beautiful Victorian terrace in East London:
but only rich people are allowed to live in such places! I didn’t realise it was a pipe dream. I went to a viewing for a property that had 60 viewings on the first day, and the already absurd asking price for rent was bid up by 30% within hours. This is a dysfunctional system. I found options still on the market and in a more reasonable price range similar to this:
This may be the bottom of the barrel or may actually be mid.. but think the London housing market has reached a new level of dysfunction. To live in a semi-desirable place in a semi-desirable, reasonably well-connected area is an extreme luxury.
The broader context is telling —buying a home is impossible, interest rates are high, and landlords are hiking rent as far as humanly possible. At the same time, the UK is fully in a cost of living crisis, with food prices soaring, millions of people likely being pushed into poverty, and no real change to wages.
Having a place to live that you like is a privilege. Most people don’t love where they live, or tolerate it, at best, but I don’t think it should be an obscene luxury. I think about a tweet I saw a few months ago that asked if children were a luxury item.
I chuckled by how out of touch it was because people of all income levels have been having children for all of time, but for a set of people who want to maintain a certain standard of individual living, the monthly outlay for raising a child could be comparable to purchasing luxury items on the regular. I think good housing has started to be a luxury for people who never had to think about it before.
I don’t know where to end this because I don’t have a solution, but the state of things is untenable and sad. I know that I’m an extremely privileged person relative to the average UK resident, so its challenging to fathom how the majority of country is dealing with the crisis at hand.
I read an article about Vienna, and it’s long-term strategy to create affordable rental housing for everyone. I was inspired by that imagination and the idea that having a nice place to live shouldn’t only be a pipe dream for the rich.
