> Also I'd argue that London hasn't fixed crime

Or pollution. The city is a cesspit. I can't wait to get out.

Wow, this is a very categorical view that does not provide any additional data or useful information.

As somebody who a few years ago was looking to move to London and was getting depressed reading all sorts of alarmist comments I feel the need to respond. This place is wonderful!

Concrete data:

* I pay a bit over 1/8 of my salary (_excluding_ stock, I consider that extra) on rent. I live in a nice two bedroom apartment in zone 1 and share a room with my GF; the second bedroom is rented by a friend of ours.

* I walk to work; pay nothing for transport unless I want to go visit something. I don't own a car and don't need it.

* The culture is awesome. For example, I like music a lot and I constantly find stuff I love that I can see live. I go to at least one concert a month. I don't think there's another city that tops London on music (at least for the genres I like).

* The food is awesome, quality is way, _way_ better than anything I've had in the US. Super varied and affordable - there are plenty of street markets selling delicious food for £5-8 / portion during lunchtime in the week. I don't have catered food at work, but I think I would still prefer the street food.

* I didn't realise how _green_ the city is. There are a lot of trees, parks and nice places to walk around.

* The weather's nice enough that I can run outside a few days a week for the duration of the year. The summer's lovely and there are loads of places to spend time outside.

* I don't have kids and am not interested, in the short term at least.

* I was lucky enough not to need any medical assistance / GP services so can't comment on that.

Please stop with these baseless categorizations. I lived in Slough for almost a year so I understand that there are places less than perfect here but let's try and base the discussion on objective facts.

Median London salary is ~£35,000, or £2,247.27/month after tax - 1/8th of which is £280. Most people are paying a lot more than that, even for a room share, way outside of Zone 1. I would suggest yours isn't a representative financial situation.

Schools in London were getting a lot of attention, I got the impression they had improved significantly in recent years.

> 1 bedroom apartment in bad areas where your car insurance will be at the highest cause of thefts etc costs around £250k.

> Towards central London you are looking at around £750-900k for an 1 bedroom apartment.

GBP 250 == USD 312

GBP 750 == USD 938

GBP 900 == USD 1124

Man, apparently rent is a LOT cheaper in the UK. Cause I'm positive you can't get a one-bedroom apartment in even the _worst_ parts of NYC or SF for $310 (not a single one I bet), and $900-$1100 for a one bedroom would be considered a deal in even the _worst_ parts of NYC or SF. (exceptions for long-time tenants with rent control)

A one-bedroom in NYC or SF is like $2000 and up. Way way up. A new construction-ish one-bedroom is going to start at $3000 (if you're 'lucky') and go way up.

Indeed, these rental prices are not typical of other US cities, just as I'm sure London is untypically high rent for the UK.

So my main takeaway is, woah, I had no idea rent was so cheap in London!

And I'm not sure people who don't live there (especially who live overseas) realize quite what we're talking about when we talk about how expensive rent has gotten in NYC or SF.

You missed "k" in his prices. He talks about buying, not renting.

Umm, he means the total price, not the monthly rent.

You missed the k which means thousand

I believe he is talking about buying condos; those prices are in thousands of dollars. Based on friends of mine living in London, my understanding is that rent is much more expensive that that (and more or less in line with NYC rental prices).