The Best LA Neighborhoods for Brits Making the Move
I made this move myself, London to Los Angeles, over a decade ago. And honestly, nothing fully prepares you for it. Not the sunshine (though that part you adjust to very quickly), not the size of it, and definitely not the driving. But it's one of the best decisions I ever made, and I've watched a lot of other Brits make it too.
The question I get asked most is: where do I actually live? Because LA is enormous, and the neighborhood you choose will completely shape your experience here. Get it right and you'll feel at home faster than you expected. Get it wrong and you'll spend your first year feeling lost and slightly resentful of the traffic.
So here's what I'd tell any Brit before they start their search.
The things that will genuinely surprise you
You need a car. Full stop. I know you're thinking about it the same way I did, wondering if you can make it work without one. You cannot. Even in the most walkable pockets of LA, you'll need a car for anything beyond a coffee run. This isn't London with its Oyster card and a Tube every two minutes. Budget for it.
The other big one: everything is further away than it looks on Google Maps. LA runs on different distance logic. Locals measure in time, not miles, and what looks like a 10-minute drive can be 45 minutes on a bad traffic day. Where you live relative to where you work matters enormously.
The good news: the weather is genuinely as good as everyone says. You will stop talking about it eventually, but it takes about three years.
Where Brits tend to land
Santa Monica
Santa Monica - a significant number of Brits end up here, and it's easy to see why. It has a more European quality than most of LA: walkable streets, a proper promenade, farmers markets, a pub with attached British shop, so you can stock up on chocolate and Marmite, and the beach right there. If you're coming from London and you want to feel like you're still living in a city rather than a suburb, Santa Monica delivers that more than almost anywhere else in LA. It's also home to a well-established British expat community, so you'll find your people quickly. The trade-off is price, it's among the most expensive areas in greater LA, and you'll be giving up space for location. But for the right person it makes complete sense.
Sherman Oaks and Studio City
This is where I'd point most Brits, if you're coming with a family or you want space without sacrificing a sense of community. The San Fernando Valley, and these two neighborhoods in particular, offer proper houses with gardens, good schools, and a real neighborhood feel that central London never really gave you.
Sherman Oaks has a main high street feel along Ventura Boulevard, with independent restaurants, coffee shops, and enough going on that you don't feel like you've moved to the suburbs in the American sense of the word. Studio City is a notch more polished, with a slightly higher price point and a very loyal community of people who moved there and never left.
Both are about 20 minutes from Hollywood and West Hollywood, which matters when you're still figuring out the city.
West Hollywood
If you're coming from a central London neighborhood and you want that same energy, West Hollywood is probably your answer. It's walkable by LA standards, it's dense, it has great restaurants and nightlife, and it attracts a lot of international people. The trade-off is price. You're paying significantly more per square foot here than you would in the Valley, and the homes are smaller.
If you work in entertainment, tech, or anything in West Hollywood or Beverly Hills, it can absolutely make sense. Just go in knowing what you're getting. I lived here for my first ten years, pre-baby! I loved it and reluctantly moved to the Valley, and truly it’s where alot of the action is!
Los Feliz and Silver Lake
These neighborhoods have a vibe that a lot of Brits respond to immediately. Slightly creative, slightly scruffy in a good way, independent shops, interesting restaurants, hilly streets with character. Los Feliz in particular has beautiful older homes and feels genuinely distinct from the rest of LA.
The architecture is different here too, more Craftsman and Spanish Revival than the modern farmhouse style you see everywhere in the Valley. If you care about that sort of thing, it matters.
Toluca Lake
This one is a quiet gem that not enough people know about. It's small, genuinely walkable along Riverside Drive, tucked between Burbank and Studio City. It has a village quality that's rare in LA. If you're working in entertainment (and a lot of Brits here are), Burbank's studios are right there.
What about price?
This varies enormously by neighborhood. In the San Fernando Valley, a three or four bedroom house with a garden currently runs anywhere from around $1.2M to $2M+ depending on condition, street, and whether it's been renovated. West Hollywood condos and smaller homes start higher and go well above that.
One thing that surprises most Brits: what your money gets you here compared to London is remarkable. The space, the outdoor areas, the light. It genuinely changes how you live day to day.
A few practical notes
The school system works very differently here. Public schools are district-based and quality varies significantly by neighborhood. If schools matter to your decision, which they should, that needs to be part of the conversation from day one, not something you figure out after you've already fallen in love with a house. I work through this with every family I work with.
Also: earthquake insurance is a real thing here. Your UK homeowners insurance instincts don't transfer directly. We'll talk through all of this when the time comes.
If you're at the early stages of figuring out where to land, I'm happy to talk it through. I've done this move, I know the neighborhoods well, and I work with a lot of people coming from the UK.
Reach out at hello@anjinla.com or 310.404.6955.
