No chimney sweeps here: London's cost of living soars | NowPublic News Coverage

No chimney sweeps here: London's cost of living soars

by Kaitlin | May 9, 2007 at 12:08 pm

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Chim-chimeree it's not: gone are the rag-tag days of orphans, chimney sweeps and pickpockets (if those days ever existed outside the pages of Dickens). Today if you want to live in London you need to be more of a Mr. Brownlow type...or a "HNWI" (high net worth individual) as officials are calling them.

Residential property in the British capital costs on average 2,300 pounds per square foot, or 36,800 euros (49,889 dollars) per square metre, according to the 'Wealth Report 2007.'

That beat nearest competitor Monaco, where property costs an average of 2,190 pounds per metre or 35,000 euros per square metre.

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Jordan Yerman

at 12:13 on May 9th, 2007

Even when I lived there (six years ago), the cost of living was such that Zone 1 was but a dream for most residents. I lived in some "transitional neighbourhoods" for the duration of my visit, except for one cushy month in Holborn. The recent real-estate boom has shoved home ownership beyond the reach of the vast majority of Londoners.