Elly and Alex share a one-bedroom flat in New Cross (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

It can be tricky finding a decent place to live with someone you’re dating.

If you’d like enough privacy to smooch on the sofa without p*ssing off your housemates, you might need to up your budget.

If you don’t have a load of cash to spare, you’ll either need to put up with some strangers sighing every time you do date night in the kitchen, accept the tiny size of a studio, give up and move out of London, or be one of those very, very lucky few who manage to find an affordable flat with enough breathing space for two people.



Eleanor (known as Elly) and Alex are two people in that lucky few… sort of.


They’ve managed to find a flat in London with a bedroom, a kitchen, and even some outdoor space, for £600 each a month.

That’s not cheap compared to anywhere else in the country, but it’s alright for London – even if it is a bit of a trek to get to New Cross.

They have a kitchen/living room combo, though, and their bedroom is on the smaller side.

We chatted to the couple as part of What I Rent, our weekly series in which we take you around different people’s rented properties in the city.

They pay £1,200 a month, so £600 each (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Hi Elly and Alex! Let’s dive right in. How much are you paying for this place?

Elly: £1,200 a month – so £600 each excluding any bills.

We’re on a meter for our gas, and recently our electric. We reckon we get through £20 for gas and £25 for electric a month, although we only check it once a week and top up in turn so that’s not really accurate.

Water £25, wifi £20 and council tax £75, split in half. So £57.50 each plus gas and lecky. We split the £150 for the TV licence when we moved in.

And what do you get for that price?

Elly: Three rooms – the living room/kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom. Plus the bonus outdoor bit.

How did you find the flat?

Elly: I take personal umbridge with agency fees after a certain agency taking the Michael. I don’t know if you can say which agency it was. Can you? Foxtons. It was Foxtons.

We found this place on Open Rent, and met with the landlord together when we saw the flat. He said when we first saw it, if other people offered more money who viewed after us, he wouldn’t just give it to the highest bidder. He’s pretty sound.

We moved in on 1 April. Six and a half months, but it feels a bit like we just moved in. Is that a good thing?

The couple have been living in the flat since April, but say it still feels new (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

And are you happy where you live?

Alex: Yes! Greenwich and Deptford aren’t far away, as well as all the leafy suburbs around Brockley and Telegraph Hill. And of course New Cross feels very happening, with all the students milling around, and the trendy music nights I never go to.



I used to live just off Stratford High Street, in the shadow of the Olympic Park, and it had no sense of place at all, only the feeling of being between other places. Here you feel much closer to the community.

Elly: I’m really happy, near the station, big supermarket, plus lots of independent places, and decent pubs. I like being able to walk to Greenwich and Deptford, and it’s surprisingly quiet despite being spitting distance from the A2.

And, because I’m bougie, there’s also a farmer’s market round the corner if I’m in need of purple potatoes. It’s a really nice balance.

I lived in Primrose Hill after graduating so I was pretty wedded to North London, but the combination of New Cross and our friends in South makes it a decent switch.

Do you feel like you have enough space?

Elly: Personally, I reckon we’re at a stage in our life where we don’t need much more than this. I don’t want to acquire too much gubbins to carry round in my late 20s if we need to move again.

Having no toaster and no microwave is surprisingly alright, but the inability to find a nook to cram a food processor into has thrown my soup based dreams out of the window. You make do.

Alex: No, but only because in my dream I have a computer battlestation like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. If I had that, though, we’d have no room for the kitchen table, which you can only fit a few plates on. But at the moment, that’s all we need!

They’ve been clever with the limited storage options (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

What’s it like living together?


Elly: He brings me a cup of coffee nearly every morning, so I think this is the closest I’ll get to having a butler.

For a while we worked different hours so we barely saw each other during the week, like ships in the night.

I’ve never lived with a romantic partner before, and so I feel really lucky it hasn’t gone up the swanney and both had vastly different ideas of what ‘clean’ meant or something. If we have a barney I can just go out to a chicken shop until we’ve both calmed down.

Alex: There is nothing more relaxing than settling into bed together at the end of the day with her, even if my side of the bed has a sizeable divot in it, because I was impatient when we were setting up the mattress when we first moved in.

How have I spent this long describing the divot? I love her very much.

Are there any issues with the flat you’re putting up with?

Elly: Our landlord can be pretty DIY, for better or worse…

He replaced our tap because it leaked and the new one is a bit too big, so if you get it at the right angle, it will actually overshoot the tiny sink entirely and go straight onto your feet.

There are a couple of quirks to the flat for sure, but nothing abominable. Except when our shower leaked into the flat below, but it wasn’t us that had to put up with it, and it was fixed pretty sharpish. And at least out of that we met our downstairs neighbours, who seem very nice.


Alex: I’m 6’3, so the extractor fan of our cooker is exactly the same height as the dome of my head. I’m forever bumping into it, but Elly says I’m not allowed to put little bits of sponge there to cushion my clumsy bonce.

Elly’s in charge of the decorating (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

How have you made the flat feel like home?

Elly: I’m very aware most of the decoration in our flat is mine, rather than Alex’s. We do have a picture of Jurgen Klopp we’ve been meaning to put up for ages though.

Our bedside table was made by my late father and I found our yellow kitchen chair on the street. There’s a picture of me sitting on it on a tube platform somewhere when we moved.

I’ve made it my personal mission to cover every piece of IKEA flatpack with a loud piece of fabric. Alex’s mum has made us TWO set of curtains, but we’ve only put up one pair so far – hopefully she’ll forgive us when she sees this.

I’ve also become weirdly attached to the piggy bank I put my spare change in which I’ve had since I was eight, that feels like a very personal thing. Saving for a house!

Alex: Elly is much more into interior design and I’m happy to let her do that.

But when I was growing up, there was a radio in every room and I’ve tried to do that here as well. I listened to it to fall asleep as a kid, and somehow a home just doesn’t feel right when there isn’t a voice coming out of a speaker somewhere. Plus, we met while studying radio and it’s a nice reminder of the beginning of our relationship, when we spent hours in a windowless room talking about The Archers.

Her piggy bank is a favourite piece (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Any plans to move again?

Elly: I’ve moved 11 times in six years so I really don’t want to move again for a while.

Then again if Alex or I start making the big bucks then I’d like a living room. Is stairs too much? Two whole floors! God, that would be exciting. But I wouldn’t move for a microwave/toaster combo.

Alex: I was extraordinarily lucky to live with my aunt in Palmers Green for six months, while I saved up enough for the deposit for this place. The dream would be to have something like she has; three stories, high ceilings, an Actual Living Room, and a big kitchen for Elly.

Have you considered buying a place?

Elly: Unless a secretly rich distant relative I don’t know about passes away and makes an ill-judged will in which I am the sole beneficiary, not in London.

Alex: In this economy?

Fair point. Shall we have a look around the flat?

As with lots of flats in London, the ‘living room’ is the addition of a sofa to the kitchen (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

The ‘dining area’ is a similar deal (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Alex likes to have a radio in every room (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

The good news is you can watch TV while you’re cooking dinner (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Elly has jazzed up Ikea furniture by throwing jazzy fabrics on top (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Pretty, right? (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

We’re big fans of the biscuit tin (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Here’s that outdoor space Elly mentioned (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

The bedroom isn’t massive, but Elly says it’s enough (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

A storage nook (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

The bathroom (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Ah, the good old ‘chipped mug for toothbrush storage’ trick (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Metro.co.uk)

Extra points for the fake grass soap dish (Picture: Susannah Ireland/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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