Living in London vs Living in Perth.

I first moved to Perth in 2007, when I was sixteen. We moved with my dad’s work, and were there for just under two years before we returned to London, so I could go to University in England.

I then moved back to Perth seven years later, in 2016, just for a couple of months, before I then moved to Sydney.

As well as living in Perth and going to high school out there, I’ve also been back there on holiday every year since moving back to London – sometimes twice a year (I used to spend all my university holidays back over there).

So I have a lot of experience of moving between the UK and Australia and the struggles that come with it. I like to call myself a boomerang expat because I keep moving back-and-forth. I figured it was about time I write a post comparing London and Perth, and who knows, maybe it’ll finally help me figure out where to live 😉

Is London better than Perth?

They are very, very different cities, and it really depends on what lifestyle you’re looking for!

London is a huuuge major city that’s incredibly vibrant and hectic. Perth is the most isolated city in the world. And when I tell you, it FEELS isolated. Especially in the winter months.

You really are aware of how far away it is from everything. I mean, it’s closer to Bali than any other Australian city.

However, the scenery and beaches in Perth are some of the best in the world, the lifestyle is crazy relaxed and laidback, and the food is very good!

Is London more expensive than Perth?

Yes, yes, one thousand times yes!

Property is far more expensive in London (although Perth is having a boom at the moment so the prices have skyrocketed lately, but still nowhere close to London prices), and I also think food is much more expensive in London, and both public transport and taxis are more expensive in London too.

But when it comes to travel, of course flights from London are much cheaper compared to Perth due to where they’re each located (i.e flights from London to Europe and the US are waaay cheaper than from Perth, but you’ll obviously get cheaper flights to Asia from Perth).

Is London bigger than Perth?

London is much bigger than Perth in population size (8.982 million in London vs 1.985 million in Perth), however Perth’s area size is 6,418 km² , while London’s is 1,572 km². London feels much bigger compared to Sydney though, as Perth’s CBD is just 8 km² while London’s centre is 45 km².

The centre of London takes well over an hour to walk from one end to the other (say, Harrods to Tower of London, whereas to walk from Elizabeth Quay to the State Library of WA only takes about 15-minutes.

How many hours ahead of London is Perth?

It depends on daylight savings! During the summer in the UK Perth is 7 hours ahead of London, but during the winter in the UK, Perth is 8 hours ahead of London.

Housing in London vs Perth

Winner: Perth

London’s houses/apartments tend to be much, much more expensive than housing in Perth and you get much less for your money.

For example, in London these days you can expect to pay £1000+ per week (£4,500 per month/$9,000 per month) for a two bedroom terraced house in the nice part of town, whereas in Perth you can expect to pay $700 per week (around $3000 per month/£1500 per month) for a two bedroom terraced house in the fancy part of Perth. As you can see from those numbers, Perth is around 67% cheaper than London when it comes to housing.

When it comes to apartments, in London you can expect to pay £500 per week for a two bedroom apartment in a less nice part of town, whereas in Perth you would expect to pay $600 per week (around £300) for a two bedroom apartment in a less nice part of town. The difference between apartments in both cities is less of a jump (40% cheaper) than a house in each city, but still a considerable amount of money saved.

Jobs in London vs Perth

Winner: London

There are naturally more jobs and job options in London due to it being a major city in Europe. It’s a big financial and creative hub, and very easy to travel to other areas of the UK and Europe to work as well.

However, Perth is one of the best places in the world for engineers and anyone who works in mining. I’ve also heard insane stories of chefs being paid $250,000+ per year (£125,000) for doing FIFO (fly-in-fly-out) work and cooking food for the miners.

When it comes to wages in London, according to The Times, £44,370 is the average wage in London for professionals (around $90,000).

The data for Western Australia is heavily skewed towards the FIFO workers, so while the average salary in WA is $109,600, the average salary in Perth itself i just $79,000. But, of course it’s much cheaper to live in Perth than in London.

Restaurants in London vs Perth

Winner: Tie between London & Perth

London’s foodie scene is insane. If you want any food from anywhere in the world, you’ll find it in London. From Syrian to Eritrean, to Filipino or Peruvian.

The amount of food choices on offer in London far surpasses Perth, and it’s one of the things I missed most when I lived in Australia.

But, Perth’s foodie scene is incredible and probably the best in Australia IMO.

A lot of the restaurants there create beautiful food using native Australian ingredients, and the brunch scene is unmatched. I actually think it’s better than Sydney and Melbourne’s food scenes.

Bars & Nightlife in London vs Perth

Winner: London

I won’t lie, Perth’s nightlife scene is horrendous.

Perth is not the place to go if you love a nightclub.

Don’t get me wrong, Perth has a pretty incredible small bar scene, but typical nightclubs with bottle-service and pumping music are almost non-existent. The only nightclubs around are a handful in Northbridge and Freo that are usually occupied by juvies (teenagers), and bogans.

Meanwhile, London’s nightlife is second to none, there are thousands of bars to choose from and hundreds of nightclubs to suit everyone’s music taste and budget. You can go out every night of the week if you want to, whereas Perth’s bars only stay open late on Fridays and Saturdays.

Nightclubs were one of the things I missed most about London and really struggled with in Perth, as I was still in that mid-twenties phase of wanting to go out drinking and dancing every weekend!

If it’s nightlife you love, London wins hands down.

Things To Do In London vs Perth

Winner: London

It’s hard to compare things to do in London vs Perth because it depends what you enjoy doing.

But if you enjoy going to art galleries, museums, the theatre, concerts and gigs, then London absolutely wins.

If you love going to the beach, sailing, surfing, and generally being outdoors and living a very active lifestyle, then Perth would definitely be better for you.

But, this is hard to do in the winter months.

If you’re planning on living in Perth, I’d definitely say to try and visit both in the summer (around Jan/Feb time) and also in the winter (July/August) before you make your decision. It’s a very different place in the winter (it rains and it does get cold), and there really is nothing to do other than go to the movies or go to the shopping mall.

Perth really only has a few very small museums and art galleries, whereas London has plenty to do in all weathers, and has dozens of world class tourist attractions as well as an obscene amount of galleries and museums.

There’s always something exciting going on in London and there’s always a new concert or show on in the West End (and dozens to choose from at all times), whereas Perth really struggles with that sort of thing. Also, not many music artists visit Perth, whereas you’re guaranteed that any music artist tour will always come to London.

In Perth there’s generally only one touring show on at a time and even then you might go weeks or months until the next show starts, and the amount of gigs and concerts is lacking compared to London.

Honestly, I love Perth so much, but the one thing stopping me from moving back there is the lack of things to do and the lack of theatre and shows.

Layout and Style of London vs Perth

Winner: Perth

London is a proper city. It’s huge, claustrophobic, smoggy, polluted, stressful, and cramped.

But it has beautiful old buildings and is aching with history, and the public transport is probably one of the best in the world (but, although it gets you from a-to-b ridiculously fast, let’s face it, it’s hot and disgusting on the tube).

Perth on the other hand is beautiful and small. The city itself is smaller and more spaced out, but most of Perth is sprawling suburbs, and people very much congregate in the suburbs rather than the city.

No one ever really goes into the city as it’s just the central business district and doesn’t have a huge amount going on. To be honest, Fremantle (Freo) is more of a place to hang out and visit.

I think Perth is one of the few cities that has really interesting suburbs, with great restaurants and bars.

But, you really need a car in Perth because of the poor public transport and the way everything is spread out. But even so, I love it. I love the roads in Perth, I love the fact that parking is free in most places, I love the uniqueness of each suburb and the local restaurants and bars that pop up.

So for me, Perth (especially Freo and the suburbs) wins on layout.

Overall Lifestyle in London vs Perth

Winner: Perth

We all know how much I adore London, it has a soul and vibrancy to it that Australia just doesn’t have. The list of things to do in London is endless, the restaurant options limitless, and the nightlife can easily rival that of New York or Dubai.

But.

It’s also a high-stress city and I know that being here impacts my mind and body in ways Perth just doesn’t.

For overall lifestyle I think the winner has to be Perth. They have beautiful beaches and a healthy, active lifestyle focused on wellness, incredible restaurants and small bars, and it’s also easy to get out and about and explore the rest of Western Australia.

Places to Travel from London vs Perth

Winner: London

Travelling to other places from Perth is not easy at all.

It’s a 5-hour flight to Sydney and a 5-hour flight to Singapore. The closest place is Bali, which is a 3-hour flight. It’s also really expensive to get anywhere from Perth.

Now of course, Perth is in Western Australia, which is home to some of the most beautiful places and landscapes in the world. So it’s a great city for roadtripping from…but even then the length of the drive is looong.

With Perth you’re so limited to where you can go for a quick weekend away, whereas from London you can go anywhere in Europe (and the US) easily and cheaply. I’ve even done day trips to Paris and one-night trips to Europe before! You just can’t do that from Perth as it’s so far from everywhere and super expensive.

Overall Winner: London vs Perth

I do really think it depends on the sort of lifestyle you enjoy when it comes to choosing between London vs Perth.

If you love the theatre, culture, museums, going out etc, and need more job opportunities then London is the clear winner.

But if you’re more of a wellness, laid-back lifestyle sorta person and are looking to save money on housing and other living costs, Perth will be the perfect place for you.

I love visiting Perth, but for me, it just can’t compare to London when it comes to the cultural side of things.