When she moved to London a year ago Sorcha Ní Chonghaile was shocked by how competitive and expensive finding a room in a shared flat was. Since then things have only got worse. “Rents have skyrocketed,” she says.
Exorbitant rents are a capital-wide issue but Ní Chonghaile lives in Rotherhithe, close to the school she teaches at, and pressure there is especially high because it is on the doorstep of the monster, £4 billion Canada Water development, which will replace a 53-acre swathe of shopping centre, car parks and warehouses with a new town centre plus thousands of homes. “There is investment into the area, which is great, but because of it rents are going up, and local people aren’t seeing any benefit,” says Ní Chonghaile.
