London Blogger Claims It'd Be Cheaper For Him To Commute From Spain Than Live In His Own City
The cost of living in London has always been high, but recently it has been getting out of control, with real estate asking prices jumping a shocking 10% in October, for example.
This level of housing insanity has prompted some crazy solutions to the horrible expense of London life. For example, Sam Cookney, a blogger based in London, theorized on Twitter that it'd be cheaper for him to rent a two-bedroom in Barcelona, Spain, and commute to work four days a week than live in a one-bedroom in the U.K. capital:
Done the sums. Would actually be cheaper for me to rent 2 bed flat in Barcelona+commute to London, than get 1 bed here. Genuinely. Blog it?
— Sam Cookney (@Sam_Cookney) October 24, 2013
Cookney decided to publish his theories in a blog post, and it appears that he's right — in fact, he might be able to afford a three bedroom apartment in Spain.
Cookney reasons that he'd need around £1,697 a month for rent in the area he'd ideally live (the admittedly fairly nice West Hampstead), if he includes tax and travel. That's €1,979 a month or $2,700.
How far would that money go in Barcelona? Well, Cookney looked towards the upscale Les Corts and found a fairly average three bedroom apartment for a flat rate of €680 ($933) a month. He found cheap flights from a nearby airport worked out to around €57 ($78) a day, even factoring in the costs to and from the airport.
In total, Cookney claims, he would live in Barcelona and commute to London four days a week for around €1,592 a month — a €387 discount ($530) on life in London, with two extra bedrooms.
Whatever the logic of Cookney's argument (four hours of flying every day is not an ideal lifestyle, certainly), it has hit a nerve. His original blog post has now been shared seven thousand times at the time of writing and picked up by the Daily Mail and even appeared in Spain — a bit surreal for a blog devoted to finding "the best burger in North West London."
Unfortunately, this does seem to be the new reality of the largest city in Europe — a London where Londoners dream of commuting from Spain, and Spanish expats with multiple college degrees live cleaning toilets.
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