Reasonable to move from Leeds to London?

Is it reasonable to move from Leeds to London ? I mean ...i have some opportunity for better paid job and because it's capital city it must be a lot better prospect for future to start living in London .. but the costs of living doing my headache. Am I thinking right ? Any help please.

As a rough rule of thumb you are going to need your gross salary to go up around 30% to make the move to London worthwhile. (this assumes you don't plan to buy a place to live down here or that you want to rent a place of your own in the centre. If you do then 30% isn't going to be enough) On the plus side the opportunities to move jobs quickly to progress further are probably greater in London. Obviously this depends upon the sort of work that you do so it's a bit of a generalisation.

Thanx Szarlotka. It was quite helpful. Further to your post: I'm going to settle in south-west outskirts of City and obviously not going to buy a house (i know the prices :/). I'm a qualified CAD technician in building technology sector and as i know there's a massive shortage of people of this proffession in UK. So i hope moving to London may be good start to boost my career. Will see shortly.

Not really, I worked with quite a few at my old company, maybe less in the south east, in my neck of woods I know quite a few.

As for London - a mate of mine moved there and he commanded a salary of £55K in your profession


Thats actually quite funny because we have masses of southeners moving to my city because the salaries are good and the standard of living it better = more for you money in a great city :)

But I suppose more cheap flights to Poland in the south

nope. the correct expression is, the cost of living is doing my head in.

(sorry, couldn't resist :)

Szarlotka's reply pretty much answers your question. London is expensive compared to Leeds or Manchester. A deciding factor should be what kind of job & salary you're hoping to land in London and then there's the cost of accommodation to take into account.

My cousin lives in Drewsbury and she swears that life is less hectic up there, she spends less money and the air is less polluted.

Amathyst, where are you live then ?
To be honest with you, am not thinking 'bout cheap flights cos am not travelling to poland that much. Anyway in friday next week i'll have a interview with my possible future employer. Will see the place, what is like and finally make my decision.

Thanks for response.

I live in Manchester. There is a boom in the construction industry so your profession is in great demand, property prices are within the grasp of a mere mortal, unlike London..

Just have a look at this web site and see the ratio of jobs in M/c to London, also you will see that the salaries in Manchester are comparable to those in London.

Feel free to mail me if you want any more information, I worked for a Engineering consultancy for a few years so know the various different companies in Manchester.

www .bromak.co.uk/jobseekers

I noticed some of the City Centre apartments were becoming quite pricey now ?

Some parts of South Manchester are on a par with London, including rental prices.

But you are right there does appear to be a large choice for everyone. I love Manchester, haven't been there for a few years, until I went in there last Friday. Hasn't changed that much apart from all the foreigners <grin>

You can get a 2 bed both en suite for about 175K in the city centre, what could you get in London for that?

I dont really like South M/c so prices over there would never bother me.

You can get a nice 3 bed semi for about £150K in Prestwich which is a nice area...so you get a lot more for your money in nice locations.


Didnt you notice all the bars, apartments and offices that have gone up, M/c is a just a large construction site with loads of news bars and the end result will be amazing...

Yes, I periodically go into Manchester. I meant it hadn't changed that much since I was last there. I was in the Deansgate area last week, there's quite a lot changed around there, i.e Spinningfields. But the older parts, Albert Square etc still very much the same.

Those property prices you mention sound cheap :) It's true you can get much better value in some parts around Manchester than others.