Chris and Liv share a two-bedroom flat in Brixton with their two cats (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Yep, it’s What I Rent time.

That means it’s time for us to take you on another tour around someone’s rented property in London, so we can all attempt to make sense of the hellish housing market in London.

You know, the housing market that only has one home on sale in London for £100,000 or less.

Renting in London is a mess of massive deposits and fees, rent prices that make your parents gasp in horror, and endless viewings of terrible flats that still somehow managed to get snapped up in the hour it takes you to decide if you want them.




We’re hoping that by nosing around people’s rented places, we’ll have a clearer idea of what to expect, what’s normal, and at what point we’re getting ripped off.

This time we’re with 37-year-old freelance management consultant Chris and his wife, junior doctor Liv, 33. They rent a two bedroom flat in London with their two cats, Edward and Catsy, and have a baby due in December.

This is Chris and Liv’s first place together. They’ve been living there since January 2017 (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Hi Chris! How much do you and Liv pay to live here?

We pay £1,520pcm in rent. For council tax, water, electricity, gas, TV Licence, Sky TV (inc. Sports) and broadband, we pay around £440pcm. We also pay a cleaner £15 for one and a half hours each fortnight.

And what do you get for that price?

Our two-bedroom flat is on the ground floor of a Victorian mid-terraced house.

We have a large-ish, open-plan kitchen/living room at the front of the flat, and an east-facing master bedroom at the back, connected by a narrow corridor. Off that, there’s a spare bedroom and a bathroom.

We also have a cellar, which has proved to be an absolute godsend.

How did you find the flat?

This is our first flat together, but after years of renting in London and elsewhere, we were both sick of paying extortionate admin fees. We decided we were only going to look at places that were listed on OpenRent, and this is the first flat we viewed.

Spot the kitty treats (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

How long have you lived there?

We’ve been here since late January 2017.

What do you think of the area?

We’re in Brixton or Clapham, depending on how you look at the map! From our front door, it’s a 7-8 minute walk to Clapham North and Clapham High Street stations, and a 10-12 minute walk to Brixton station.

We’re very happy here – our local area has convenient travel links (bus and Tube), it’s affordable, and for the most part it feels safe and friendly.

We particularly like the proximity to great bars and restaurants in Clapham and Brixton, and how close we are to green spaces like Brockwell Park.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

In a way, that’s a difficult question as we’re both massive hoarders.



We definitely have enough space to live, and between the large built-in cupboards and proper cellar the flat has very generous storage capacity, but over time we’ve sort of expanded our footprint to fill it! More would always be better…

They’ve got a *lot* of stuff (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

How have you made the flat feel like home?

Like many people, we’ve largely chosen to decorate with books. Livvy loves photo college boards so we also have a couple of those on the walls, along with photos from our various adventures together dotted through the flat – including our wedding last year.

Beyond that, one benefit of being hoarders is that wherever we live very quickly feels like home, because it’s full of our stuff.

You’ve got two cats. Was it easy to find a flat that allowed that?

We rescued two cats from Celia Hammond Animal Trust – a ginger boy called Edward and a black and white girl called Catsy.

We’d checked with our landlord when we moved in that pets were allowed as it was important to us, and luckily he agreed. The previous tenants had a dog so we were pretty certain it would work out.

We haven’t had to make any adjustments yet, although we are planning to fit a cat flap before the baby comes – at the moment, the cats traipse in and out via our bedroom window.

The landlord is okay with cats, which is lucky (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

And you mentioned your landlord lives next door… what’s that like?

It’s actually fantastic! We knew that having him so close would be very helpful in the event of anything breaking or going wrong, but you hear so many stories about nightmare landlords that it did feel like a risk when we first moved in.


He isn’t at all intrusive though, he’s always super-friendly when we do see him in the street or over the fence, and in fact his family occasionally feed our cats when we’re away.

The way that he’s managed the gardens also works in our favour as he has taken the bulk of this flat’s garden for himself, leaving us with an enclosed space that’s a great size for two, and requires very little maintenance.

Let’s talk kids. You’ve got a baby due in December – what’s the plan, housing-wise? Will you need to move?

I expect we’ll need to move eventually – when she’s bigger and needs more space to run around – but for now and the baby/toddler stage, it’s perfect.

The layout of our spare room with the bed on a mezzanine level means that we can use the floor space for baby stuff and still have somewhere for guests to stay.

We will have to reorganise book shelves etc to create enough space for the mountain of equipment that babies seem to need, but that should be all…we hope.

And have you thought about buying a place?

We have certainly spoken about it – for the financial investment and the opportunity to make somewhere completely our own – but the timing is difficult.

As a junior doctor, Liv has had to change hospital each October for the last five years. That’s meant a choice between moving house every 12 months or basing herself somewhere within viable commuting distance of most London and Surrey hospitals.


By opting for the latter, we’ve ended up in a really expensive part of London – one where we certainly can’t afford to buy any time soon.

However, with the baby coming, we now have a chance to think more long-term, and hopefully to build up enough of a deposit to make buying somewhere a bit further out in the next two to three years a viable prospect.

The living room has plenty of space for a table, sofa, and beds for the cats (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

As we said, there’s a lot of stuff (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

The couple have made the flat their own with plenty of artwork (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

The spare bedroom has a mezzanine bed for guests, and can serve as the baby’s room (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

If you’re curious about the corkboard, it’s a record of the couple’s wine challenge (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi)

Here’s that spare bedroom from another angle (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Now the kitchen (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Everything you need, right? (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

A table and a laptop creates a makeshift office (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

With easy access to the kettle and snacks (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

The main bedroom is pretty lovely (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

The room leads out to the garden (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Behold the bathroom (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/ Metro.co.uk)

A good supply of medicines and dental care (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/ Metro.co.uk)

And many toothbrushes (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi/Metro.co.uk)

Oh, and here’s Chris in that garden area he mentioned (Picture: Sofia Bouzidi / 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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