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Comment by mclightning | Hacker News Reader

I am a lead frontend engineer. I am in the very high salary percentile, probably top %2-3, excluding CEOs. I can barely save.

I don't have a car. I don't have any expensive hobbies, gym subscription or anything.

I am paying %50 of my salary to rent & bills in Zone 1, Angel, Islington. I keep looking for alternatives, but rents have gone further up since I got in 6 months ago.

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Maybe I don't understand the UK real estate market, but how in the world is this possible? I live in one of the most expensive retail and commercial areas in the world (NYC), and my rent is maybe 30% of my post-tax take-home.

UK salaries are low. Even lots of lead/senior devs working in London are on less than £100k. That’s high for the UK but not much compared to what junior devs can get in the Bay Area.

And if someone lives in Zone 1 or even in the city directly, then those £100k devs are competing for rent with £200k+ bankers and financiers, so yes, I can absolutely believe that.

this is possible since global money factory (the thing you are paid with) is in the us (nyc in fact) and so you are closer to the spigot

I don't think that's the reason. London is one of the world's financial centers.

Not only that, my place is not even fancy by any standards. It is actually a pretty old building with patches here and there.

If I wanted a nice newly built (newer than 15 years) place, I would have to pay around %70-90 of my salary.

London housing market is ,famously, a joke, literally. There is a whole trend of Tiktok videos making fun of housing ads in London.

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