Picture this.
It’s 9am on a cold monday morning in February 2020.
I’m rushing to get to work; my headphones are in and my eyes are closed as I attempt to block out the 20 other people crammed into my section of the tube carriage. I’m probably listening to a podcast about health and fitness but already planning what calorific sandwich I am going to buy from Pret that lunch time.
After work, it’s dark and cold. I’m tired but I’m not heading home yet.
Instead I head into soho to meet a friend from uni for wine and a catch up. We talk about our managers and how awful our meetings had been that day. We get through a whole bottle of wine each before stumbling away to make the last train home. I then awake at 8am the next day to do it all again.
Flash forward two months and everything has changed.
Instead of commuting into work, I’m still at home, in my pyjamas, getting ready to join a zoom call. I haven’t brushed my hair but it looks acceptable in my webcam video so I leave it.
That evening, the same as every other, I walk to Sainsburys to pick up dinner and probably a big bar of chocolate. I then relax in front of the TV watching Tiger King followed by endless episodes of Below Deck.
Eventually I decide it’s time for bed although I can’t sleep since I’ve barely moved the whole day.
It is now April 2021 and it has been over a year since I had to do the morning commute.
It’s been over a year since I saw anyone from work in real life and over a year since I met anyone for after work drinks.
Covid has affected all our lives and I am incredibly lucky to have come through the pandemic fit and healthy with a full time job and my friends and family unaffected. However my life has changed.
I’ve suddenly had a lot more time to be alone with my thoughts and it got me questioning many of my life choices.
Scary questions I’d always avoided like ‘where do you want to be in 5 years time?’, ‘when do you want to settle down?’ ‘do you want kids one day?’, have kept coming to the forefront of my mind and forced me to consider my future plans.
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One of these questions is around my choice to live in London.
I am originally from the north of England but made the move down south three years ago. Like many others, I wanted to pursue my career and enjoy the glamorous “London lifestyle”.
However for the last year of my life, that London lifestyle has involved spending ninety percent of my time trapped in my tiny London flat, spending almost half my monthly salary on rent to do so.
I have not been to shows, nice restaurants or concerts. In fact I’ve barely seen my friends aside from a few picnics during the summer months.
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All this got me thinking, if I were graduating this year, would I still be moving to London in 2021. And indeed, do I even want to stay myself?
If you are graduating university this year, perhaps you are also having second thoughts about moving to London in 2021. As someone who has lived in London before the pandemic and during the pandemic, let me break down the pros and cons.
1. There are still a large variety of Jobs…
Graduates have always flocked to London for both the lifestyle and the job opportunities.
For some careers it is difficult to find a similar job elsewhere in the country. And even if you can, there might be limited options for career progression or career moves.
Many professions are still looking to hire new graduates, especially technology and digital sectors.
…however there is lots of competition…
We are still in a pandemic and it’s a tough job market out there. Economists predict that it will take at least 2 years for the economy to recover from the effects of the pandemic.
The London jobs market has been particularly affected in the last year: less jobs are available but just as many grads are hoping to get one.
All this means you are likely to face more competition and it will likely be harder to find the right role for you.
…and you may have to work from home.
Many offices are still asking employees to work from home. As of April 2021, I am still working from home myself. In fact I have not been to an office in over a year.
If you are working from home, you could do the same job and get paid the same amount, to live anywhere in the country.
Just compare rent prices in London to rent prices in Newcastle and you can get an idea of how much money you would potentially be wasting by living in London.
Not all jobs are asking employees to work from home though so do some research on your chosen industry and see how often you would actually need to be in the office before making a decision.
2. There are currently lots of restrictions…
We are just coming out of the third national lockdown. I have spent the first 3 months of the year hardly leaving my flat and barely seeing my friends.
You can’t currently enjoy all the London tourist attractions or all the amazing restaurants. You can’t see shows on the west end or attend exciting social events.
If you are moving to London in 2021, even the most social butterfly is going to find it difficult to meet new people and may find themselves isolated and lonely.
… however the end of the pandemic is in sight
As of April 2021, many of us are hopeful that the country is about to open back up. Soon we could be back to eating out, going for drinks and attending social activities.
It is a gamble, but if you are moving to London in 2021 you could spend the first few months getting used to your local area and getting to know your flatmates. Then in a few months, when things open, you will be in a good place to get stuck into socialising.
…and London is still the best city in the world.
This is obviously down to personal preference, but I still recommend London as a fantastic place to live.
Pre-pandemic I would see tourists all the time walking around London admiring the architecture, history and culture and think about how much they have paid to come enjoy this city. A city that I get to enjoy all year round.
When big events or protests happen, you can actually go. When you see celebrity chefs talking about their restaurants on the TV, you can actually go to them. When a hit new musical comes to town, you actually have the opportunity to see it.
In addition, London is more than just activities and social events. There is a certain vibe you pick up from just living in London. Being in such a vibrant and multi-cultural place gives me so much inspiration and this exists no matter what restrictions are in force.
3. London is expensive to live in….
We all know London is an expensive place to live.
You may get offered a higher salary with London weighting but usually it doesn’t make up the difference in living costs.
Housing costs more, food and drink costs more, the price of theatre tickets can be truly scary and you are likely to spend a lot of your budget on transport. Especially as a graduate, you will have to keep to a tight budget and accept you are not able to do everything that you might want to.
Of course at the moment there is not much to do but you will, at the very least, be spending a large proportion of your salary on rent.
…. however average rental prices have dropped…
The cost of renting in London has dropped.
Many people are now working from home and desire more space. Some have made the move to the leafy suburbs and many more have chosen to leave London all together to work from home in more affordable areas.
The effect of this is that less people want to rent properties in zones 1 and 2. The average rental price of an inner city flat has been estimated to have fallen by as much as 25%. Hurrah!
Now could be a great time to move to London and take advantage of this.
…and you have the potential for higher earnings.
There are many opportunities for higher earning careers in London.
Of course there are opportunities elsewhere in the country but there is a reason the median salary in London is around £150 higher per week than the median for the UK as a whole.
Many believe that spending a few years skint as a graduate is worth it to be able to climb up the ladder faster and jump between jobs.
The Verdict
Moving to London is always a bit of a gamble for graduates.
However in 2021 you are gambling that the country will open up back to normal as well as that your future salary will make the initial cost worth it and that you will actually enjoy living here.
If working in London is going to be the best for your career but you don’t want to be stuck working from home. A good option might be to stay living with your family or in a cheaper city until your office reopens and then make the move.
If your job will involve going into the workplace, now may still be a good time to make the move despite ongoing restrictions. You can get a good price on somewhere to live and spend time making friends with your flatmates while you are all around the house.
Things are currently looking optimistic, but no-one knows what will happen in the future.
If things don’t go the way you hoped, there is always the option to leave and try something new. Ultimately, don’t let the current situation put you off moving to London in 2021 even if you choose to delay for a short while, to wait and see what happens.
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Are you considering moving to London in 2021? Let me know in the comments.
