Not sure what you can get for £800 a month, but I doubt it's a flat, even in Brighton it will cost you that much, plus the travel expense.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?search...
Cheapest 1 bedroom I could find is 725/month.
Here's a 1 bedroom for 750/month ca. 10 minutes walk (or a choice of 3 buses) from East Croydon station, zone 5. The 50/month drop from 800 makes up for the majority of the increased cost over a zone 1 travel card:
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-4164892...
The second, judging by the photos, is a small living room which has been converted into an 'open plan' studio. Doesn't even look like there's room for a double bed.
Both are in Croydon, so you get all the downsides of living in London, with virtually none of the upsides.
There are doubtless other catches to both properties, as decent properties never make it online.
Neither property is remotely commensurate with a young professional earning £50k.
The second one is a one bedroom flat. The last picture is the bedroom, at the back of the house. I live down the road from that row of flats. They're not fantastic, but they're proper 1 bedroom flats of perfectly adequate quality.
> Both are in Croydon, so you get all the downsides of living in London, with virtually none of the upsides.
From that flat it'd take ~25 minutes to be at London Victoria. ~25-30 minutes to be at London Bridge. ~20 minutes to Clapham Junction. Having lived about as centrally as you can in London, yes, it takes you longer to get "to the centre". But if you are going somewhere specific, it's not at all given that you won't get there in the same amount of time.
> Neither property is remotely commensurate with a young professional earning £50k.
In London, they can choose between something like that, and have money to save and invest for the future, or they can spend all their money now, and screw themselves over. A "young professional" who can't deal with living like that for a few years does not have any sympathy from me - they are spoiled.