Opinion: 7 things that leaving London taught me about money

With record numbers of renters moving out of the capital, our writer reveals the reasons she fell out of love with London.

Almost a year ago, I moved from London to my hometown of Hull – making the transition from the country’s capital to its now city of culture and former laughing stock.

Friends, colleagues and family thought I was crazy to abandon my life in London, but if I’m crazy, I’m not alone.

According to estate agent Countrywide, renters are making the exodus from London at the highest rate since 2007. Clearly, the once-glamorous capital has lost its lustre for many in their twenties and thirties.

Why? For me, family reasons provided the catalyst when my mother who lives in Hull became unwell and I decided to take a more active role in family life.

But this move had been on the horizon for years. While living in London was fantastic in my twenties, there were plenty of signs it was time to leave when I hit my thirties – some money related, others not.

REASON ONE: I’d had enough of 12-hour days

Landing in the capital at 23, I was full of ambition and happy to put all my energy into becoming a journalist. Even if I had to spend 14 hours a day in the office, career came first.

While I derived tremendous satisfaction from my workaholic ways in my twenties, my priorities started to shift once at 30. Suddenly, I was aware of everything I’d missed by staying in the office until 9pm most nights… the novel I didn’t write, the cookery class I didn’t take.

Alas, this treadmill of unpaid overtime does seem pretty common in London. Moving up north has definitely helped with my work/life balance.

REASON TWO: The cost of commuting

On top of gruelling working hours in London, there’s the crippling cost of getting into work in the first place.

Never able to afford to live in central London, I rented in a suburb of Kent. This meant cheaper rent, but also an astronomical travel bill – if I needed to venture into the city during rush hour, the bill would typically be more than £10 per day.

If you buy rail season tickets, read our guide to cutting costs.

REASON THREE: The drinking culture gets boring (and expensive) 

When you’re in your twenties, you can swap anecdotes with strangers in a bar until three am on Friday night and tuck into a fry-up on Saturday morning with no hint of a hangover.

By your thirties, London’s drinking culture begins to feel like a booze-fuelled Groundhog Day: you’ve been to all the bars before and don’t have much to show for your nights out, except mounting credit card bills.

After 10 years, the physical and fiscal hangovers are too much to take.

REASON FOUR: The £500,000 property gap

While returning to my northern roots hasn’t instantly put me in a position to buy my own home, the prospect certainly feels more feasible than during my 13 years as a Londoner.

The average price of a house in London is £663,837, according to property website Zoopla.

In Hull, this figure is £138,199 – a difference of £525,638. Outside the South East, such prices are far from unusual. That’s more than half a million reasons to leave London.

Then, there’s stamp duty. Let’s take a typical London property at £663,837 – even if you’re a first-time buyer, you’d still pay £23,191 in stamp duty.

Under current legislation, however, the threshold at which you start paying stamp duty as a first home buyer is £300,000 – meaning a huge number of homes in Hull will be exempt.

Learn more about stamp duty in loveMONEY’s guide.

REASON FIVE: I got tired of being ripped off

After spending my formative years in Hull, I was never quite able to get my head around the price tag for day-to-day London living.

The final straw came one Tuesday night. I decided to treat myself to a Terry’s Chocolate Orange from the local garage. £4.99!

Errr, they’re a quid in most supermarkets (more on supermarket deals here).

REASON SIX: The resurgence of the north

When I was 18, moving out of Hull felt like breaking free from a cultural backwater. At the time, it wasn’t long since a best-selling book had famously crowned us the UK’s crappest town.

By 2017, Hull had gone from crap town to city of culture. My social media feeds were full of art exhibitions and silent film festivals I was yearning to attend – at a fraction of the price they would have been in London.

REASON SEVEN: Leaving London can be good for your mental health

While I have friends and family who are fabulously happy after decades in London, the drinking culture, financial problems and long hours can start to take their toll.

People who can’t fathom my decision to decamp from the capital remind me that when you’re tired of London, you’re tired of life.

Not in my case. After 13 years, I was more tired of being constantly skint and stuck on foul-smelling commuter trains, while knowing a more rewarding, affordable life awaited me up north.

Sick of the capital? Read our guide on how to cut costs when moving home