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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.

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.

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.