I went to view two apartments with my friend Maureen today. She is looking to buy a one bedroom in London. The prices seem reasonable until you convert them into U.S. dollars and realized you’re thinking of paying nearly $400,000 for a one bedroom. But that is the going rate in this city. The one bedrooms tend to run in the ₤230,000, which is $423,200.
The rule of thumb is to drop three zeros and that is how much the weekly rent would be. So, I tried to figure out how much one of the bedrooms (with kitchen and common room access) is worth in our building. Let’s say that a bed in our building costs about ₤140/week. To buy the whole room would then be ₤280/week. That translates to ₤280,000 to buy the room.
My apartment is made up of two double rooms and two single rooms. So that works out to be ₤280,000 + ₤280,000 + ₤200,000 (a single is around ₤200/week) + ₤200,000 = ₤960,000 to buy my apartment.
My two bedroom apartment on the King’s Road is worth ₤960,000. In dollars? $1, 766,400. Man, I wish I’d known that before the young alumni event. Then I could have said, “Yawn, I’m so sorry. I have jet lag, you know, I live in London. Oh no, just a little ₤1,000,000 apartment in Chelsea.” And I would have exaggerated my syllables and sounded very posh.
Very, very posh.
AMMENDMENT: I calculated this at an exchange rate of 1.84, but the rate has since risen to 1.90. The current worth of my apartment is now $1,824,000. Even more posh.
Jealous, aren’t you?
Comments