Questions about life in London ------------------------------------------------------

Thats a shame Ryan, I dont think I could name someone who's regretted moving to London. I know a few dont stay too long, but few regret it.

All the best in LV

 

And there I was waiting for the reaction to your first fuel bill at the "gas" station lol

 

The cost of living in London is comparable to New York City - goods are more expensive in London but services in my experience are cheaper; sales tax is 17.5%, marginal rate of income tax is 41%. But, we don't (currently) pay property taxes assessed on possessions like Americans or the outrageous wealth tax in France or the tax rates in places like Norway and Sweden, so while tax rates are higher than the US, they are not as high as they have been in the past. US tax take is 28 - 30% of GDP, the UK is 38 - 40%, Sweden is an eye popping 55%.

No idea what mortgage rates or durations are, but 5.5%/25 years sounds sensible.

I paid £25k for an extra parking space in my London condo, much better than parking on the street. Commuting is a pretty miserable experience, so you should choose an area to live where your trip to work is short, if you can walk, so much the better, plus, London's attractions (theatre, museums, concerts, restaurants, bars, clubs) are concentrated in the centre. The band of suburbia which surrounds the centre is pretty awful.

As for travel to Europe, weekend trips away to entirely different countries are one of the delights, Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Stockholm, Amsterdam to name but some. Contrast that with the US where everywhere is so uniform. Wake up in a US hotel and you could be anywhere.

 

I just filled up, how does US$5.99 a gallon sound? because thats what I just paid ...

 

Dear Americans,
Note - this is for unleaded (91p a litre approx...)
You should try filling up with Leaded 4 star (I paid 122p a litre before Christmas) = $8 a gallon.

...and there's people out there thinking that Ferraris have low mileage to retain their value...

 

Try running a 400/412 everyday .........which is why I now prefer to use something like my little saxo most days (and 911 most of the other time!), £35 to fill it up to the brim as opposed to the best part of £100!....and around the same range

 

Ouch! My 308 takes about £60 to fill up and I find that quite distressing.
Still you have the joy of a V12 up front - as the great man intended.
Is it carb'd?

 

Currently don't have a 400, sold the last one last month, have been offered a couple over the last few weeks but nothing sensible (will happily buy peoples 400's off them, but they have to be sensibly priced!)
very tempted to find a manual gearbox car, strip it out, stick a set of straight through pipes on it (still have a jig from the last set we made) and have some fun doing a few track days or hill climbs (must look into the handicap benefits )

 

I hope day to end up in London. Never been to it, but it seems to have a certain hold on me. Sydney, Australia is the other city, but it's distance from the rest of the world is something I'm not sure I could deal with on, and the high taxes (47% rate on the top income earners, and all the GTS taxes and that?). What is it about London that makes it such a desireable place to live? Must be better if you have quite of bit of money. New York City does not have that appeal at all to me. A cool city to spend a weekend and do business and that, but I cannot imagine living in a place like that. Too crowded, driving a car is something I want, and just lacks the charm.

 

How far would it take to get from one end of the city to another? So, basically taxes are pretty much the same level on the US, and better then most of Europe, when you add all them up? Plus, you have a much wider social program then us? Will the UK move to a lower tax base anytime soon, escp. with Ireland and other developing countries in Europe being very aggressive with it taxes? Don't foreigners get a special tax break or something (I remember reading a lot of wealthy people flock to the UK because of the tax deals). If that's one thing I think our country, and cities in general lacks, is the "charm" of Europe. Don't get me wrong, we got a lot of cool places. But it doesn't have that appeal that other international destinations have.

 

I think the attractions are pretty much spread out now, especially the restaurants. I used to travel well out in the suburbs to go to good restaurants when I was living there. 'The band of suburbia' is where things are getting really trendy (and quite expensive too) now, mainly due to the fact that 'good areas' are over-saturated and just spreading outwards. The areas you thought were absolutely awful several years ago are now quite fashionable and expensive (I can think of places like Hackney and Peckham, etc, etc).

Yes, parking can be a nightmare. You have to have a resident parking permit to park on the street (which you don't really want to do with your Ferraris!) in many of the boroughs. I used to live in Kensington & Chelsea and the parking permit is around £100 per year, but it was convenient as you could park anywhere in the borough (as long as you find a parking space, which is a different problem altogether).

 

Difficult to say because heavily dependent on the route and especially time of day. London is a oval shaped, 22 miles north-south, 30 miles east-west, avarage speeds during the rush hour are 7 - 8 mph.

I don't think the UK is on a tax-cutting agenda or will be anytime soon. The ever increasing demands on social services of an ageing population see to that. As an employer, the cost of employing people here is much lower than elsewhere in Europe with lower social security taxes paid by the employer of 12.2%. Some employers may provide subsidised private medical insurance but there's not the cost of providing the dental and other medical benefits to employees which are commonplace in the US.

Our medical system is typically good when you are really sick, emergency room type stuff. Where it fails is in the elective procedures, "it would nice to have this done", long waiting lists and that's when you go private. Oh, and our hospitals are filthy, 1 patient in 10 picks up an infection and 5000 people a year die from them. Not good.

I agree with you about US cities. Many are spectacular to look at and great to do business in but only a few compete with European cities as a place to spend leisure time. And I hate the tipping culture in NYC, it seems they have their hands out all the time!

 

Yes, you are right - the whole process of "gentrification" (smartening up previously shabby areas) pulls in the weatlh which in turn encourages the shops, restaurants, delis and the rest. My London neighbourhood (Hampstead) is going the other way; full of capital rich, cash poor old people (your present correspondent excepted), the local businesses (which are mainly estate agents/realtors) reflect that and it's a less attractive place to live now than 20 years ago.