Hi All,I will move to london roughly in the late Sep. to start working for a consulting firm. I found some early posts about the rent in london in this form, but I still have no clue where to accommodate myself in the big smoke. Apparently, London is so big to "scare" me :-), haha, although I have quite some experience in this accom.-huntng and house-sharing business . I will still have to share accom. with others, I guess, considering my budget (max. £600/per month). As far the location, I actually opt to West London (but don't know where exactly) , but I find that a lot of professionals working in the IB or MC(especially after chatting with some consultants in the same firm) choose East London. Why? Is that because the potential clients site are mostly nearby (i.e. in the City)? or the average rent is cheaper over there under the same standards (e.g. facilities, surrounding area, etc.)Moreover, I did some research on the Internet, browsing many adverts from different flat share websites. The more I saw, the more I got confused :-(. Any advices about how to start hunting a place to rent in london will be much appreciated.PS: has anyone shared the accom. with colleagues at all?

They probably live in East London because it is cheaper, in some cases has better transport links and (depending on taste) has more going on. It is much handier for the City and Canary Wharf - both are some distance from West London (5 and 8 miles respectively from West Ken, I reckon)and the commute could be a bit of a trudge.Places like Ealing, Acton, Hammersmith, West Kensington, are also all fairly dull. Admittedly there is stuff to do in Notting Hill and Fulham... at a cost, and it won't be to everyone's taste.On the other hand such areas are as a whole slightly less grotty (although there are tidy and messy corners either side of town and the West is by no means crime-free). West is better for travel out of London though - easy access to Heathrow, Paddington (and also Gatwick via Olympia station).There are other suggestions for 'where to live' on this forum. Suggest you take a tour one free weekend and see where you like the look of, from a shortlist of accessible places.Best places to look are probably Loot and Gumtree (if a bit dominated by colonials), Guardian if you are that way inclined and also sites like Easyroommate.

"easyroommate" .... is this to find a room easily, or to find a roommate with questionable morals?

Many thanks, DCF. I did read a couple of previous posts on this topic in this forum (more than once, I guess), haha...It seems that East London may be good for the work convenience. I have to change my preference then, hehe (can't afford to live the areas in West london that "attract" me, anyway) ...By the way, in average, how early would you give to yourself to find a decent (shared) accom. in london? OK, it differs but I would like to have a feeling from most ppl's experience, what time should I start this business (looking at to move around early Oct.)...:-) thanks...

I wouldn't worry until about a month before. Perhaps start a few enquiries with six weeks or so to go.

One other point is that your budget should be more than adequate for a nice room. If you preferred, you should be able to find a 1 bed flat S of the river. It would very likely be a less good property / less good an area than the £500+ houseshare, and less sociable, but it suits some people better.

really appreciate your kind advices. In that case, I will leave this business to late August (the problem is that I will be away most of Sep. and therefore have to get the accom. sorted before that) :-)I did consider the chance of renting a one-bed room flat (any recommodations?)...well, it is again a tradeoff concern. South bank is definitely OK as long as I don't need to spend too much time on the travelling. Being stuck in the tube (esp. in the summer) is not what I want.

Well, I was "naively" thinking I could find a place that allows me to walk or cycle to work :-)...It seems quite unlikely due to the job requirements for MC...walkable? -- working on different projects at different clients cites with time being...cycleable? -- a smart bike could be invented, at least, to carry a suit and a pair of shoe neatly...:0)