Relocating to the UK

mapleleaf4ever
New Member



Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Ontario

Posted: Mon May 29, 2006 4:48 pm

 

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Hi All,

Can anyone provide an idea of what kind of salary is a good one in the Uk vs Canada? We are currently looking to relocate and with all the talk of high cost of living, I wonder what kind of salary you need to live comfortable as a family of three?

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Joanne
Senior Member



Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 99
Location: Stockport

Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 9:12 am

 

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it is difficult to answer this type of question.

First it depends where you intend to live in the UK.
London and the South is a lot more expensive then the north.

Also depends what you mean by comfortable.does it mean to be able to pay your basic bills, depends what you expect to rent (a 3 or 4 or 5 bedroom house?), depends if you want 1 car or 2 cars, depends if you go out a lot (restaurants) , depends of what you are used to.?

If you help me a little bit with what your expectations are (location, housing, car, life style,etc.) I will be more able to help !

And also what type of work are you looking for (and what do you consider to be a good salary in Canada?)

Joanne

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oohmercyme
Moderator



Joined: 21 Mar 2004
Posts: 312
Location: London, England

Posted: Tue May 30, 2006 9:43 am

 

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Mapleleaf4ever- welcome to the board!

Joanne asks a lot of good questions- I'm sure someone will be able to help you out if they know exactly what you are after.

You might also look at this cost of living thread http://www.canuckabroad.com/forums/cost-of-living-vt1194.html

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mapleleaf4ever
New Member



Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 2
Location: Ontario

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 5:18 pm

 

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Joanne,

Thanks for your reply and indeed some great questions, I should have been more specific - rookie!

Here are the details:

My company has an opening in the Midlands so I'm looking between Milton Keynes and Nottingham, they are flexible with where I am located.

Presently I make around $100k Cdn, and my wife is also a full time professional, so we have some savings and are able to afford most things we want. We would need to look for a three bedroom house as we have an 18 month old, so eating out isn't much of an option .

My company will pay for one car, but we would need another.

Thanks for the welcome and I really think the site is great!

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Kootenai
New Member



Joined: 31 May 2006
Posts: 6
Location: Duesseldorf

Posted: Wed May 31, 2006 10:05 pm

 

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I just finished studying in London so let me give you an idea of the lost of living. i had a studio apartment in a not-so-good neighborhood and I paid $1700 a month for it, without electricity. My transit pass was $40 a week. I never had a car but gasoline is 3 times as expensive in England than in Canada. The cost of cars is relative to canada. An average car is about 12k pounds, or 24k cnd$. I was up in the North briefly and the cost of housing goes down a little bit, but not much else. Now to give you an idea of Salaries, an average office worker will make about 12 500 pounds annually. A salary of 20k+ is considered a good wage for an average skilled worker. If you can manage to secure a salary over 50k ounds I would say you would be comfortable enough to ensure that you can have all the little luxuries that you have in Canada. I am not sure how people make ends meet in England. I know my neighbors in the studio had three girls sharing the one room.

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Joanne
Senior Member



Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 99
Location: Stockport

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 2:48 am

 

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Hi again,

Thanks for the info !

If you are earning about $100 000 in Canada I would say that to have the same kind of lifestyle here you will need to earn something like £65 000 - £70 000.
You should be able to rent a house in a nice area, have another car and make some saving !
Also don't forget that the houses here are a lot smaller than the ones in Canada.usually the bedrooms are just big enough to have a bed and a wardrobe but not much more ! (In my house one of the bedroom is not even big enough for a single bed so we use it as an office).

I will also give you a few links that can help you :
1- this one about the average salary(£22 411) and cost of living:
http://money.guardian.co.uk/pay/story/0,13871,1415864,00.html
(From my point of view £20 000 is not a good salary ,it is less than the average, I would say more like £35 000)
I'm a bit surprised when they say that the cost of living in the north is only a bit less than London because for example Kootenai mentionned that he paid £1700 a month for a flat in London but here for this price (and less) you can rent a huge house in a nice area .see : http://www.propertyfinder.com/2/pf/property/det...7455&from=map

You could also use this link to look for properties in the area where you are planning to live.

Here you can also find a link to see what type of salary you should expect for you profession (looks quite accurate for my profession):
http://www.salaryexpert.com/

I hope this helps

Joanne

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SaaraG
CanuckAbroad Regular



Joined: 17 Jan 2006
Posts: 37
Location: Bristol, UK

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:29 am

 

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I'm really surprised that you think the average is £35000! I work for a large insurance company (one of the largest in the UK and the world) and the highest paid person I know of is at about £40,000. The majority of people I know (aged 25-35) seem to earn between £14000 and £30000). Now, we do live in the Southwest and get paid a pittance, but it seems to be the average. And no, I'm not happy about that!

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Joanne
Senior Member



Joined: 18 Jul 2003
Posts: 99
Location: Stockport

Posted: Thu Jun 01, 2006 7:49 am

 

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Saarag,

I did not say that I thought the average is £35000 (It it £22 411 taking from the statistics) .I said a good salary it about £35 000 (from my point of view !)

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