Pippa and Michael (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Welcome to What I Rent – our weekly look at where people live in London.

It’s your chance to be nosy (look out for the toothbrush shots) but more importantly, it’s an honest picture of what renting actually looks like – the good, the bad, and the miserably overpriced.

Renting isn’t easy – it’s expensive, hard to find somewhere nice and space is tight.

But adding your own touches, can make it feel like home, even if you can’t paint the walls.


This week we’re seeing how couple Pippa, 27, who works in marketing, and consultant Michael, 32, live in their two-bedroom house in Walthamstow.



We chatted to them both about what it’s like living there.

They pay £1500 in rent and bills are about £200 (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Hey Pippa and Michael. How much rent do you pay?

Michael: We pay £1500 a month

How much do you have to pay in bills?

Pippa: We’ve just moved so we don’t know how much it will fluctuate, but everything comes to about £200 a month.

What do you get for that?

Pippa: We officially have two bedrooms, but one of the bedrooms is across two floors as we have a mezzanine, so it is three spaces.

How long have you lived in your place?

Michael: We’ve just moved into this house! We’ve been here just over a month.

Are you happy where you live? What do you like about it?

Pippa: We love living here, especially in our little house. Walthamstow is such a great area and really commutable for both of us.

It’s got a huge range of shops on our doorstep, a reliable tube and Overground, lovely restaurants and bars, and lots of open green spaces.

When we don’t have plans we could happily entertain ourselves by staying in Walthamstow all weekend.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

Michael: We feel fortunate with our house as we have a good amount of space for London, but we are paying quite a bit for it.

We could definitely fill somewhere bigger, but for the budget we had we thought this was a very good option for all our stuff.

The house has two bedrooms but the mezzanine level makes it feel like three (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

How did you find this place?

Pippa: We found it on Rightmove. When we decided to move I downloaded the app and started to get notifications for places that fit with our criteria.

It was actually relatively easy, which was a surprise. The only difficulty we had was the fact that we weren’t looking to move until quite a while after we began searching and only a few properties came up with lots of notice.

My advice: do a quick search every day just to check you haven’t missed anything as in London they go quickly.

What’s it like living together?

Pippa: So far so good. We each have different things we care about in the house so it’s just about making sure we take note of that. Michael is a better cook, and I don’t mind doing the washing up, so that is a perfect partnership.



Michael: We both have lots going on and it’s nice to come home to each other every night and feel like you’re home, even if it is rented.

How have you made the flat feel like home?

Pippa: As soon as we knew where we were going to live I started planning how I thought we could make it look.

Pinterest definitely played a big part in this. We sourced most of our furniture from gumtree, eBay, friends and family and a few bits from IKEA, and we’ve managed to do it cheaper than we thought we would be able to.

Filling an unfurnished place is a certainly daunting task. I think the blankets, pillows, art, candles and flowers make it feel like home to me as these are the things I always think of from my childhood home.

Michael: I thought she was becoming interiors obsessed before we moved in here, but it has come together so nicely and does feel very homely rather than too trendy. There’s so much more we still want to do, but the art, records, and having elements of our personalities spread across the house definitely make it homely.

See, the mezzanine above their living area (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Are there any major issues with the house you have to put up with?

Pippa: We’ve not had anything major, but the previous tenants didn’t really clean it very well so we had to get the agency to get a professional cleaner in at short notice. Considering the state of some people’s rental properties in London we feel like we’ve been let off from anything big. The house was quite a blank canvas beforehand, and any issues we’ve mainly been able to cover up.


Michael: There were a few things broken when we got here, but the agency has been good at coming out when we’ve mentioned it to them. No holes in the walls or leaks as of yet.

Are you planning to move again? When? What would you be looking for?

Michael: Not for a few years, we like it here so unless things change for us then I imagine we’ll stay for a while.

Have you considered buying a place?

Pippa: What Londoner hasn’t considered the idea of buying a house? But then you get hit with a pretty big bit of reality when you remember that the London housing market is extortionate and we can get a much nicer and bigger place renting than we can if we attempted to try and buy. That is a dream we’ll look at again in a few years.

Shall we have a look around?

The kitchen has plenty of space for Michael who loves cooking (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Obligatory succulents (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Quite a varied selection of books (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Toothbrushes of course (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

They moved in a month ago, which explains the cards (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

The view from the mezzanine (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

The bathroom (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

They even have space under the stairs (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Pippa turned to Pinterest for decoration tips (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

The bedroom (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

Wine, books and records. What more do you need? (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

The spare bedroom with mezzanine level (Picture: Joe Newman for Metro.co.uk)

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.

How to get involved in What I Rent What I Rent is Metro.co.uk's weekly series that takes you inside the places people are renting, to give us all a better sense of what's normal and how much we should be paying. If you fancy taking part, please email whatirent@metro.co.uk. You'll need to have pictures taken of your kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, plus a few photos of you in your room. Make sure you get permission for your housemates! You'll also need to be okay with sharing how much you're paying for rent, as that's pretty important.

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