LivingCountry

As London prices keep getting higher, living there becomes less and less a sound investment. Still, when you work in London, you have to be there generally 5 days a week. If you don't want to rent of buy there, this leaves you with 4 possibilities.

• Commute from afar
  This is an expensive proposition in both time and money. The commute passes can get very expensive. A collegue of mine actually pays more than I do a year - and I travel internationally -- more on that later.
• Rent (or buy) a city pad
  Still very expensive, whichever way you look at it. Buying a new city pad around Canary Wharf goes for GBP350,000 and up.
• Live in a hotel.
  Finding the right deal can be a real money saver. The downside is the finding. You have to be very careful when using the comparison sites, as these do give you the price, but almost never any indication of the state of the hotel. Especially the touristy ones in the West side must be investigated before you sign up. Not to put too fine a point on it, but let's just say that both UK government and private inspections revealed less than pleasant surroundings.
• Telecommute.
  If your employer offers this opportunity, it may be for you. Telecommuting has its own down and upsides, but you have to have the right job for it. Your employer may have a policy in place.

There is a new option now. A new website has started up called www.mondaytofriday.com. A quick search for a place near Canary Wharf did not turn up that many matches though. SE1 gave me the biggest list. The prices do sound good though and rival those of a hotel stay (based on 2 nights a week), so they are truly good value for money.

The navigation is a bit off, but we'll put that down to growing pains and it does not detract from the main value proposition, which is keeping more money in your pocket.

So, what do I do? I travel in from mainland Europe (Belgium) on the Eurostar. My employer has graciously agreed to 2 days telecommuting. This means I leave the house at an ungodly hour on Tuesday morning, to return around 9:00pm on Thursday evening.  I could do this using VLM Airlines and then instead of 5 hours, it would take me 2 hours door to door. The difference ofcourse is price. The Eurostar will take me for EUR80,00 per roundtrip. VLM Airlines charges around EUR300 for the same trip around the same time. You could go at different times to get a cheaper, but then it becomes awkward to walk into the office at 3pm to start the day..

I use the hotel solution, which is almost unbeatable if you have a telecommuting solution in place. If a room with ensuite were to become available close to Canary Wharf at around GBP350-400 per month (all in), I think many people would consider the option.

Update in 2008. I was part of a reduction round at my office. This had nothing to do with the telecommuting. And actually, it turns out I'm one of the lucky ones. Now I'm with another company, albeit back on a trial basis and no more telecommunting.