Claire Wilson
IT is cheaper to rent a three bedroom apartment in Barcelona and commute to London every day than to live in the big smoke, a study found.
Sam Cookney, a businessman in London and author of the blog Best Burger in North West London, recently posted about the extreme disparity between the cost of living in the two cities.
The average price for one-bed flat in West Hampstead is £1505 (€1767). Add to that council tax (another €88) and the monthly travel card to get around the city (€137), and the total cost is €1979 per month without even thinking about eating.
For Barcelona, in a similar “up market” residential district, a three bedroom apartment should cost in average €680 a month, with no council tax involved.
Now to look at the transport. Booked in advance, daily round trips from Barcelona to Stansted cost in average €34, plus an extra €57 a day in other commuting costs.
Based on Cookney´s four day working week, he calculates monthly travel expediture to be €912.
Add this to rent, and the final cost of living in Barcelona and working in London is €1,592, exactly €387 cheaper than actually living in London.
This is theoretically possible, but who wants in practice to spend 14 hours per day travelling? Indeed be it through Stansted, Gatwick or Luton, a center to center trip between Barcelona and London takes about 7 hours!
Bad math. If daily RT air +travel costs are 91 pounds (34 + 57) Then your montly costs from Barca to London is 1456 pounds (91 x 16 work day) not 912 pounds. Add 912 pounds + 680 pounds in rent is 2146 pounds! London is still at 1979 pounds ; )