What I Rent: Rebecca and Marcus, £1,600 a month for a one-bedroom flat in Kentish Town

What’s it like to rent in London?

Expensive, frustrating, and a little bleak, for the most part.

If you’re lucky enough to find a place to live with a decent commute and space to sleep, shower, and eat, you’ll likely need to adjust any hopes of saving money for the future, as a massive chunk of your pay is getting thrown into the rent pile.

And what do you get in return for that cash? A place that’s not quite right but will do for now, or that’s great apart from the mould in the bathroom, or that’s lovely but comes with a terrible landlord.

There are some people who are #blessed enough to rent a property they actually enjoy coming home to.

But that can feel like a rarity, and it’s hard to achieve when you have no concept of what you should be getting for what you’re paying.

To take some of the mystery out of the equation, we launched What I Rent, a weekly series that takes you inside someone’s rented property to show exactly how they live and how much they pay for it.

This week we’re hanging out with Rebecca, who lives with her husband, Marcus, in Kentish Town.

Oh hey, Rebecca. You live with your husband, Marcus. How much rent are you paying?

Our rent is £1,600. I pay £700 and Marcus pays £900. Our bills are council tax, water, gas and electric, Sky internet and TV and the cleaner.

I pay £40 a month for sky and £30 every other week for the cleaner. I don’t actually know how much the rest of the bills are because Marcus handles them. About £150?

And what do you get for that cash?

One bed, one bath, one living room, a decent sized kitchen and a balcony. It’s pretty teeny but it has really high ceilings so feels bigger.

How did you find this place?

Parkheath estate agents (who are really great).

How long have you been here? 

Nearly two years.

Do you like it?

I love it so much. The architecture of the houses around here is gorgeous, the views from all of the windows are really green and it feels like a calm place to live, despite being very central.

I love the mix of private and council tenants, and the fact that we have chichi restaurants but also family owned butchers and green grocers.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

For the moment, yes. We have a storage room downstairs for suitcases and stuff which really helps. But it’s too small for a family so when we have a baby we’ll have to move.

How have you made the place your own?

I rearranged all the furniture, hung loads of art, and filled it with a ridiculous number of books. In a dream world we’d also be allowed to paint or add wallpaper.

What’s it like living with your husband versus living with random housemates?

I’ve never lived with randoms. Before I moved in with Marcus I lived in a 6 person house share in a dilapidated mansion in north London which was amazing fun but also frustrating in terms of cleaning and there being massive parties until 3am when I wanted a night in.

Are there any problems with the flat? 

They totally gutted the hall recently which meant intermittently living without power or hot water.

But we’re really lucky, our landlady is a dream and our estate agents fix anything that goes wrong in a heartbeat.

Any plans to move again?

Not at the moment. It’s such a happy place, we spend most of the summer drinking wine on the balcony and in the winter we squeeze loads of people in for Sunday lunches.

We need somewhere bigger for our next house but I don’t think we’ll be able to afford that in Kentish Town.

And what about buying a place? 

We’re working on it and hoping that we’ll have our own place by the end of next year, but it depends on being able to get a mortgage which is much harder because I’m freelance.

I’m desperate to put down roots and be able to decorate a home in our own taste. But I’ll be incredibly sad to leave here. It’s the first rented place I’ve ever lived which really feels like home.

Nice. Let’s take a look at the flat Rebecca and Marcus call home. 

What I Rent is a weekly series that’s out every Tuesday at 10am. Check back next week to have a nose around another rented property in London. 

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