Above is a map from Mapping London co-editor Dr Cheshire’s new book The Information Capital that appeared in this week’s Time Out (print & online).
It dramatically shows how unaffordable large parts of London have become – areas where the median price of a flat (i.e as many flats above this price locally as below it) is over £250,000 have completely burnt away. As the local level approaches that threshold, the colours get increasingly firey, suggesting that, if prices continue to rise, the burnt edge will continue to expand. (Some of the white areas in the suburbs indicate where flats are not generally sold, regardless of price).
On a similar theme, Splittable uses similar colours to show where you are really going to have to share if you are looking to rent, and where you can live on your own – for £130/week budget, the yellow colours in the excerpt below show that there is only a small pocket in south-east London where such a place is unaffordable.
These two maps may be alarming to look at if you are setting to buy or rent, but remember they are just the median – there are plenty of places in “good” areas for a lot less than the values shown – you’ll probably have to compromise on something else though…
Wow, simply unbelievable prices for flats, though an average, but even so! I would opt for a luftballoon; living in a derigible gives one the best view, can be tethered to any antennae in the area one wishes to live near, and only incurs docking fees – like a house boat, only better. What would the early Britons think, knowing their lovely city now costs a King’s ransom just to rent in? Thanks for this infographic, quite an eye-opener to those of us from other places.
Love the luftballoon idea, please drop me a line.
Ollie – would love to talk to you about this, please email me nick@locatable.com. We will be launching another widget for the London market soon, as well as our new app for http://www.splittable.co which we’d love to tell you about. You can use the mobile web version now signing up above to manage your household finances.