Balham or bust

Postcodes, pubs and property – recent graduate Rick Pearson describes his search for a flat to rent in London

Rick Pearson

“We needed to focus on our basic requirements: three decent-sized bedrooms, a lounge and a kitchen at an affordable price.”

They may not be paved with gold, but London’s streets are still an attraction for many would-be renters. Whether it’s the nightlife, career opportunities or culture that attracts young professionals to the capital, they continue to come in their hoards – and many are willing to pay a premium rate for a place in the city.

Jon, Joseph and I were no different. After graduating from Cardiff University we set our sights on renting a place in London. Since many of our friends already lived south of the river, we concentrated our house hunt in Putney, Clapham and Balham – three lively hubs with the essentials: easy access to central London and a bevy of popular bars.

Early signs, however, were not encouraging. After registering online with a number of property websites, we received notice of a place for rent in Putney Heath – apparently a moment’s walk from East Putney tube station.

Building site bedrooms

When we arrived at the flat it resembled a building site. None of the rooms were close to completion, walls were in the process of being knocked down in an attempt to transform a two-bedroom flat into a three-bedroom, and as the agent tried in vain to accentuate the flat’s one big selling point – the fact that it was in Putney – we silently vowed to research properties more carefully.

We also realised another important thing: in the more desirable parts of South London, we would essentially be paying for a postcode – not something that our status as recent graduates could really afford us. We needed, instead, to focus on the more basic requirements of living: three decent-sized bedrooms, a lounge and a kitchen, all at an affordable price. Postcodes would have to wait.

Who wants the box room?

Our next stop took us to Wandsworth Common. This time, we had done our research more carefully and were pleased with what we saw: a fully furnished affordable flat, equidistant between Clapham South tube station and Wandsworth Common overground station. Unfortunately, a more thorough investigation revealed one box-sized bedroom and a lounge with very little room for lounging.

Encouraged by what we saw, we continued to look in South-West London – this time, focusing our search on Balham. Cheaper than Putney and Clapham but still a popular base for graduates, Balham had always seemed like a good bet. It also had, to my mind at least, two distinct selling points: a fantastic local pub in The Bedford and easy access to Selhurst Park, Crystal Palace football club’s home ground. While a proximity to lower-league football may not be a priority for all renters (it certainly didn’t seem to rank very highly on Jon and Joseph’s lists), to me it seemed yet another reason to move to Balham.

What’s more, the first place we saw, a spacious three-bedroom house on Rossiter Road, was head and shoulders above anything we had seen previously. First, there were the bedrooms: two large doubles and one slightly smaller room. Then there was the kitchen: newly kitted-out with a decent cooker and washing machine. And finally there was the lounge: large, open-planned and ready-made for the copious amounts of lounging that was bound to go on.

At £1,600 a month, however, the house wasn’t coming cheap. Our original budget of £1,500 had seemed realistic – lavish even, compared with rental prices in Cardiff – but further investigation had shown us that, in South-West London at least, we would have to pay a little more to get a house that met all our needs. Past experience had also taught us a golden rule of renting property in London: if you like somewhere, snap it up quick. And that’s exactly what we did.

We’ve now been living at the property for nearly a month and we’re all very pleased with our decision. Who knows, I might even be able to drag them along to Selhurst Park soon.

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