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Are non Londonders the actual ones living in a bubble?
We're constantly accused of living in a bubble by those outside the capital. Go outside the country and we're perceived as al… Do you feel that non Londonders are actually the ones living in a bubble?
We're constantly accused of living in a bubble by those outside the capital. Go outside the country and we're perceived as all living high and mighty with high incomes, living the banker's dreams or enjoying that top city firm lawyer's salary. Ignoring that minimum wage, entry level wage and non tech graduate salaries are either basically the same, or fairly similar. Yet outside the capital cost of living is much lower. £2.5 pint, £350-500 monthly rent, £80-150k for starter homes.
I feel like we're used as a Scape goat. Brexit being a fine example. Let's vote Brexit, not because it's sound policy, but because we just hate London.
honestly the bubble thing cuts both ways. i grew up in a small town in kent and moved to london for uni, and the amount of people back home who think i'm swimming in cash is wild. meanwhile i'm eating tesco meal deals for lunch and sharing a flat in zone 3 with three other people.
the weird part is how many people outside london think the city is just the square mile and canary wharf. like mate, have you been to romford or brixton on a tuesday afternoon? it's not all black cabs and champagne. most of us are just trying to survive the central line without having a breakdown.
the brexit thing was definitely about resentment though. i remember my grandad saying "london voted remain because they don't care about real england" while sitting in his house worth £180k that he bought for £12k in 1970. there's a disconnect on both sides tbh
the salary thing is a myth that hurts everyone. i work in hospitality near liverpool street and half my colleagues commute from essex or kent because they can't afford to live anywhere near central london. meanwhile people in those towns think we're all earning city bonuses.
the real divide is that both sides think the other has it easy. someone in sunderland paying £400 rent sees my london rent and assumes i'm rich, but they don't see i'm working 50 hours a week just to afford a room in a flat share in zone 4. we're all getting squeezed, just in different ways.
You've hit on something that doesn't get said enough. The cost of living gap isn't as wide as people think when you factor in transport, especially if you're in a zone 2-3 area needing a tube pass. I know mates in Manchester paying £700 for a room in a shared house near the centre, which isn't far off what you'd pay in parts of Lewisham or Walthamstow.
The real bubble is the assumption that everyone in London is on a six-figure salary. Walk down Oxford Street or sit on the Central Line at 8am and you're surrounded by people working in retail, hospitality, or admin jobs that pay barely above minimum wage. The bankers and lawyers exist, sure, but they're a tiny slice of a city with nine million people.
I think the Brexit thing was more about people feeling ignored by Westminster than specifically hating London, but London is an easy target because it's visible and wealthy in parts. It's easier to blame the city than to untangle decades of regional inequality that governments of all stripes have let fester.
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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