Recently, I had an eye-opening experience with my house that really brought home what London is all about—and just how expensive it can be. A window in my place cracked, and what seemed like a minor issue quickly turned into a lesson about London’s housing market reality.
The London Housing Demand Crisis
Here’s what I’ve realized about London: getting a house is incredibly difficult, and money isn’t even the main problem. The demand for housing is so intense that when someone leaves a property, landlords are practically guaranteed to find a replacement tenant within days—not months, but days.
I knew that keeping that broken window unfixed wouldn’t look good when my landlord came to visit, so I needed to prioritize getting it repaired quickly.
The Great Tradesman Hunt
Let me tell you, finding a handyman or tradesman in London is ridiculously challenging. You know what? I think they lied to us when they said:
- “Go to university”
- “Get a degree”
- “Follow the traditional path”
If you learn a trade, you’ll make serious money. Maybe I’m just realizing this now, but the demand is clearly there.
The Sticker Shock
After the struggle of finding someone available, here comes the real kicker: they charged me £270 just to fix that glass.
I was looking at that bill thinking, “Oh my God.” One of the realities of being African in a foreign country is that you’re constantly converting back to your local currency for context. When I did the math, I was like, “Wow, this is absolutely crazy money.”
The Bottom Line
The window is repaired now, but this whole experience gave me a completely different perspective on some of the day-to-day realities of living here in London. Sometimes it takes a broken window to break open your understanding of a place.