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Moving to central london, keep car or sell?
It's been a pain in the ass looking for apartments with parking, every… So my wife and I are moving deeper into london, tentative areas on our list are Shoreditch, London Bridge, Angel, Canary Wharf.
It's been a pain in the ass looking for apartments with parking, every single one we like has no parking. Thinking of selling it but kind of on the fence since it's a dream car of mine but then again I only use it for a weekly shop and to visit the family who live further away (commutable via public transport though)
Anyone else who sold their car when moving deeper into London, how have you faired?
honestly i'd sell it. i moved to angel 3 years ago and kept my car for the first 6 months, ended up using it maybe 4 times. the stress of parking alone wasnt worth it, especially around old street where you're constantly moving it for cleanings or residents permits. plus your list of areas is all well served by tube and overground, so visiting family is doable even if it takes an extra 20 mins
if it's a real dream car maybe look at a storage unit near the outskirts, there's a few around wembley that do monthly rates for about 150 quid. then you can still take it out for sunday drives or trips home without the daily headache of finding a spot in shoreditch
yeah i sold mine when i moved to bermondsey and tbh i dont regret it at all. the money from the sale plus not paying for insurance and congestion charge basically paid for a years worth of ubers and trains. plus you can always hire a car for the weekend if you really
Parking permits in those areas are a total nightmare. You'll spend more time moving the car for street cleaning than you will driving it.
What are some innovative ways to anonymously compare rental prices in a city?
SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.
Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.
Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.
the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking
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