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SUMMARY
Expats moving to London should sort out the visa, take-home salary, housing budget and commute before they move, because those four choices now determine whether the city feels full of opportunity or simply too expensive.
The biggest hurdle comes before arrival. The normal Skilled Worker route starts at £41,700 or the occupation's going rate, so plenty of jobs that look respectable on paper still do not clear the sponsorship bar.
Immigration costs are no longer a small administrative extra either. A standard three-year Skilled Worker visa plus the health surcharge comes to about £3,924 before flights, housing deposits or day-to-day relocation costs.
London salaries are higher than the British average, but the housing premium is much larger. Median full-time pay is about 18% higher than across Great Britain, while average London rent is roughly 67% above the UK average.
That mismatch explains why a £50,000 salary can sound strong and still feel tight in London. Living alone at the citywide average rent would absorb about 70% of take-home pay at that salary.
The rental market is still expensive, but it is no longer deteriorating at the same speed. Average London rent is up 3.0% year on year, far below the jumps tenants faced earlier in the decade.
At the same time, the legal position of tenants has improved. The end of Section 21 no-fault eviction, periodic tenancies and tighter limits on rent increases and large advance payments make renting less precarious for newcomers than it used to be.
For many expats, the smarter housing decision is to buy a fast commute rather than a prestigious postcode. The annual rent saving from moving farther out can dwarf the extra cost of travelling through more zones.
London also works unusually well without a car, which removes one cost that can partly offset the housing burden. The Tube, buses, Elizabeth line, Overground and National Rail make car ownership optional for a large share of newcomers.
The city remains most compelling when the career upside is genuinely London-specific. A high-value professional who can switch between global employers in the same labour market gets something very different from London than someone taking an ordinary salary for a job available almost anywhere.
Families need a separate calculation because school location, rent and childcare interact. Catchment areas can restrict where parents live, while childcare support can disappear once either parent's adjusted net income moves above £100,000.
London is still a strong expat destination, but it rewards preparation much more than improvisation. The city works best for people who arrive with a secure immigration route, enough cash for the upfront move, and a salary that still looks good after tax and rent.
Is moving to London harder for expats now?
Moving to London is harder for many expats today because getting permission to work has become more demanding and expensive, while housing remains very costly.
The biggest barrier comes before the move. Under the current Skilled Worker rules, most applicants need an eligible job with a Home Office-approved employer paying at least £41,700 a year or the occupation's official going rate, whichever is higher. Certain applicants can qualify at lower thresholds, but £41,700 is the normal starting point.
That threshold sits surprisingly close to what many ordinary British professionals earn. The latest ONS earnings data put median London pay for full-time residents at £902.70 a week, equivalent to roughly £46,900 if annualised. Someone can therefore earn something close to a typical full-time London salary without having much room above the standard sponsorship threshold.
Immigration also comes with a sizeable upfront bill. A standard Skilled Worker application from abroad for up to three years costs £819, while the immigration health surcharge is usually £1,035 for each year of the visa. A three-year applicant can therefore pay £3,924 before flights, deposits or moving expenses. The Home Office normally also requires £1,270 of available maintenance funds unless an exemption applies or the employer certifies support.
Housing has moved in a different direction. London remains Britain's most expensive rental market, but rent growth has cooled sharply from the earlier surge. According to the latest Office for National Statistics release, average London rent reached £2,317 a month, up 3.0% year on year.
Renters also gained substantially stronger legal protection this year. Most private tenancies in England now run as periodic tenancies, Section 21 no-fault eviction has disappeared, and landlords face tighter rules around rent increases and upfront payments.
The difficult part of an expat move has shifted. Getting into London legally and establishing yourself financially takes more preparation; renting once you are there comes with better protection than it did a few years ago.
| Issue | Situation now | What it means for expats | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Skilled Worker salary | £41,700 or going rate | More lower-paid jobs fail sponsorship rules | Harder |
| Three-year visa + health surcharge | About £3,924 | Meaningful upfront relocation cost | Harder |
| Average London rent | £2,317/month | Housing remains the biggest budget pressure | Expensive |
| London rent growth | +3.0% YoY | Much calmer than the earlier rental surge | Improving |
| Section 21 eviction | Abolished | Stronger security for tenants | Easier |
| Standard tenancy structure | Periodic | More flexibility for renters | Easier |
Can expats move to London first and find a job afterward?
Most expats cannot realistically move to London first and figure out the right to work later, because the main work-visa route requires the job and sponsor to be lined up beforehand.
For the Skilled Worker route, three things need to come together: an eligible occupation, an approved employer and sufficient pay. The standard salary requirement is currently at least £41,700 or the job's going rate, whichever is higher.
There are lower thresholds for specific cases. Someone who qualifies as a new entrant, has a relevant STEM PhD or meets certain other conditions can potentially qualify from £33,400, subject to the required percentage of the occupation's going rate. A relevant non-STEM PhD can bring the general threshold to £37,500. Healthcare and education jobs follow separate salary rules.
Entering Britain as a visitor should never be confused with relocating there for work. A tourist, visa-exempt visitor or ETA holder may be allowed into the country, but ordinary employment is a different legal question.
Some expats have much more flexibility. British and Irish citizens can work without sponsorship. People with indefinite leave to remain or qualifying settled status can generally work freely. Global Talent holders are not tied to an ordinary employer-sponsored position, while Youth Mobility, student and family routes operate under their own conditions.
For anyone depending on employer sponsorship, settle the immigration route before spending serious time comparing flats. A beautiful London neighbourhood is irrelevant if the job behind the move cannot legally support the relocation.
| Immigration position | Ordinary work allowed? | Employer sponsorship? | Main constraint |
|---|---|---|---|
| British or Irish citizen | Yes | No | None |
| Indefinite leave / qualifying settled status | Yes | No | Maintain valid status |
| Skilled Worker | Yes | Yes | Eligible job, sponsor and salary |
| Global Talent | Yes | No standard job sponsorship | Must qualify for the route |
| Student | Limited | Usually no sponsorship for permitted work | Visa work restrictions |
| Visitor / ETA | No ordinary employment | — | Cannot be used as a normal work route |
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How expensive is the UK visa before you even arrive in London?
UK visa costs are now big enough to change an expat's relocation budget, especially for couples and families.
Take a normal Skilled Worker applicant coming from abroad. The standard fee for a visa lasting up to three years is £819. The health surcharge adds £1,035 for each year, producing a combined £3,924 for a three-year visa.
A two-year visa under the same assumptions comes to £2,889. The Home Office normally also wants evidence that the applicant has at least £1,270 available to support themselves unless that requirement is waived or covered by the sponsor.
Dependants can make the total climb quickly because partners and children generally have their own applications and health-surcharge charges. For a family, immigration can therefore become a five-figure relocation expense before housing enters the calculation.
There are important exceptions. Health and Care Worker visa holders can be exempt from the immigration health surcharge, while students and Youth Mobility applicants generally pay the lower £776 annual surcharge.
The process has also become much more digital. Many migrants now prove their status through a UKVI account and eVisa, including when demonstrating the right to work or rent. Keeping the correct passport attached to that account matters because inaccurate travel-document details can cause problems when travelling or proving immigration status.
For a single highly paid professional, several thousand pounds may be manageable. For a couple with children, it can materially alter the decision to move.
| Example | Visa fee | Health surcharge | Approx. combined cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skilled Worker, 1 year | £819 | £1,035 | £1,854 |
| Skilled Worker, 2 years | £819 | £2,070 | £2,889 |
| Skilled Worker, 3 years | £819 | £3,105 | £3,924 |
| Student, 1 year | £558 | £776 | £1,334 |
What salary do you actually need to live comfortably in London?
A £50,000 salary can work in London, but living alone in an average-priced flat would leave the budget painfully tight. Around £70,000 and above gives a single professional much more room.
The trap is comparing gross salaries. Using current income-tax and employee National Insurance rates, a £50,000 salary leaves roughly £3,293 a month before pension contributions or student-loan deductions. £70,000 produces about £4,263, while £100,000 produces around £5,713.
Put those figures beside London's latest £2,317 average monthly rent. Renting an average property alone would consume roughly 70% of net pay at £50,000, 54% at £70,000 and 41% at £100,000.
Those ratios deliberately use the London-wide average property rather than a room in a shared flat, so they do not mean every person earning £50,000 spends 70% of take-home pay on rent. They show why apparently impressive London salaries can feel surprisingly ordinary once someone wants their own home.
London wages are genuinely higher than elsewhere in Britain. The latest ONS-linked figures put median weekly earnings for full-time London residents at £902.70, versus £766.60 across Great Britain. London is paying roughly 18% more on that measure.
Housing can easily absorb that premium. The current average London rent is about 67% higher than the UK average of £1,393. That gap is far larger than the London wage premium.
An expat should judge a London offer against London housing, not against salaries back home or elsewhere in Britain.
| Gross annual salary | Approx. monthly pay after income tax + employee NI | £2,317 rent as share of net pay | Single-person position |
|---|---|---|---|
| £41,700 | £2,795 | 83% | Own average flat is unrealistic |
| £50,000 | £3,293 | 70% | Tight without cheaper housing |
| £60,000 | £3,780 | 61% | Workable with sensible rent |
| £70,000 | £4,263 | 54% | Much more comfortable |
| £80,000 | £4,746 | 49% | Stronger flexibility |
| £100,000 | £5,713 | 41% | Comfortable on most normal budgets |
Get fresh and reliable data on the London property market
Towers sold off plan to overseas buyers have been reselling below what the first owners paid for a decade now. Where asking prices sit furthest from what flats actually earn and resell for.
Is London rent still as brutal as people say?
London rent is still brutally expensive today, even though the pace of rent increases has calmed down considerably.
The latest Office for National Statistics reading puts average private rent in London at £2,317 a month, the highest of any English region. London rent was up 3.0% over the previous year.
The recent trajectory changes the story a little. Annual London rent inflation was around 2.0% earlier this year, then 2.2%, and has since reached 3.0%. Rental inflation has ticked back up lately, but we are still far from the huge jumps that made the market feel completely out of control earlier in the decade.
The level remains punishing. The UK average is currently £1,393 a month, so a typical London property costs about £924 more every month, or roughly £11,100 extra over a year.
And "London rent" hides several completely different markets. The ONS puts average rent in Kensington and Chelsea at £3,629 a month. In cheaper outer boroughs, one-bedroom flats can be found at average levels closer to £1,200–£1,400.
That geographic spread can outweigh a surprising amount of salary. Cutting rent from £2,500 to £1,500 saves £12,000 a year. For a worker already paying income tax and National Insurance, obtaining the same £12,000 through a salary increase would require a much larger gross raise.
Spend more time optimising the postcode and commute than trying to predict whether London rents will rise another 2% or 4% next year. The current price level dominates the economics.
Has renting in London actually become better for tenants?
Yes. Renting in London is still expensive, but tenants now have meaningfully stronger rights than they had before the latest reforms.
The biggest change is the disappearance of Section 21 no-fault eviction. Private landlords can no longer remove an assured tenant simply by using the old Section 21 process without relying on an accepted possession ground.
Fixed assured shorthold tenancies have also been replaced in most cases by assured periodic tenancies. Instead of reaching a fixed contractual end date, the tenancy generally continues from period to period until the tenant leaves or the landlord uses a valid legal route to recover the property.
Rent increases face clearer restrictions as well. For a normal periodic tenancy, landlords generally cannot raise the rent during the first year and can then increase it only once a year through the prescribed process, with at least two months' notice. A tenant who believes the proposed rent is above the open-market level can challenge it through the First-tier Tribunal.
For expats, another practical improvement concerns large advance payments. New rules sharply limit the old practice of asking someone with weak UK references to hand over six or twelve months of rent upfront. After a monthly tenancy has been signed, the landlord generally cannot require more than one month's rent before the tenancy starts.
That is particularly useful for new arrivals because a high salary abroad does not automatically produce a British credit file.
The market remains competitive and landlords still perform affordability and right-to-rent checks. But compared with the system an expat would have encountered only a short time ago, today's tenant has considerably more protection.
Everything a foreign buyer should know before buying in London
The pack also covers what a short lease will cost you to fix, and why an accepted offer here means nothing until exchange.
How much cash do you need to rent your first London flat?
For an average London rental, an expat should expect roughly £5,000 to be tied up in the first month's rent and security deposit alone.
The standard tenancy-deposit cap is five weeks' rent where annual rent is below £50,000. Above that level, but below £100,000, the cap is six weeks. A holding deposit can normally be no more than one week's rent.
At London's current £2,317 monthly average, annual rent is about £27,800. Five weeks of rent works out to roughly £2,674. Add the first £2,317 monthly payment and about £4,991 needs to be available around the start of the tenancy.
A one-week holding deposit at that rent is approximately £535, although it will normally be returned or put toward the tenancy according to the applicable rules rather than becoming another permanent charge.
Then come the items people forget. Council Tax is normally separate from rent. Utilities, internet, temporary accommodation, transport, basic household purchases and any gap before the first salary payment can easily add several thousand pounds.
Someone living alone may qualify for a 25% Council Tax discount because only one countable adult occupies the home. Students can be treated differently, and an all-student household may be exempt.
Add the earlier immigration costs and the financial shape of the move becomes clearer. A three-year Skilled Worker applicant renting an average-priced London property could have almost £9,000 committed between visa and health-surcharge charges, the first month's rent and the tenancy deposit. Flights, furniture and normal living costs have not yet entered that figure.
The monthly salary can be perfectly adequate while the initial cash requirement still hurts.
Should expats live centrally in London or commute from farther out?
Most expats should pay for a good transport connection rather than automatically paying for a central postcode.
London rent differences are far larger than London transport differences. TfL currently caps Zones 1–2 pay-as-you-go travel at £44.70 from Monday to Sunday. Zones 1–4 cost £64.20. Even travelling across Zones 1–6 costs far less over a year than the rent premium attached to many central neighbourhoods.
Suppose one flat costs £2,500 a month and another near a good outer-London station costs £1,650. The second home saves £10,200 a year. A few hundred pounds of extra annual transport does very little to erase that advantage.
Commute time is more complicated than distance on a map. A home farther away on the Elizabeth line, Jubilee line, Victoria line or a fast National Rail service can produce an easier journey than a closer flat requiring awkward changes.
Start with the workplace. Draw a realistic commute around the office, identify the direct rail and Tube corridors, then look for neighbourhoods along those routes.
The best London housing bargain is often less about moving as far outward as possible and more about finding a cheaper area attached to an unusually fast line.
| Travel area | Daily cap | Monday–Sunday cap | Compared with Zones 1–2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zones 1–2 | £8.90 | £44.70 | — |
| Zones 1–3 | £10.50 | £52.50 | +£7.80/week |
| Zones 1–4 | £12.80 | £64.20 | +£19.50/week |
| Zones 1–6 | £16.30 | £81.60 | +£36.90/week |
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Towers sold off plan to overseas buyers have been reselling below what the first owners paid for a decade now. Where asking prices sit furthest from what flats actually earn and resell for.
Can most expats live in London without a car?
Yes. Most expats can live comfortably in London without owning a car, and for many central or inner-London households it is easier that way.
London's public-transport network covers the Tube, buses, DLR, London Overground, Elizabeth line and extensive National Rail services. Contactless bank cards and devices work directly across most of the network, with qualifying journeys automatically subject to daily and weekly caps.
For someone travelling regularly through Zones 1–2, the current Monday-to-Sunday cap is £44.70. Even Zones 1–4 are capped at £64.20. Against London housing, insurance, parking and car-ownership costs, public transport is comparatively manageable.
Cars become more useful for families living farther out, jobs in poorly connected areas or frequent trips beyond London. New arrivals should also check exactly how their foreign driving licence is treated, because the rules depend on where it was issued and how long the person has been resident in Britain.
For everyday London life, postpone buying a car until there is a clear reason to own one. The transport network already does most of the job.
Will British taxes surprise a high-earning expat in London?
High-earning expats can lose considerably more of a London salary to tax than the headline 20% or 40% rates suggest, particularly once income passes £100,000.
In England, the standard Personal Allowance is currently £12,570. Employment income then moves through the 20% basic rate, the 40% higher rate and finally the 45% additional rate above £125,140.
Employees also normally pay National Insurance. The main employee rate is 8% between the relevant lower and upper thresholds, followed by 2% above the upper threshold.
The awkward range starts at £100,000. The £12,570 Personal Allowance is withdrawn by £1 for every £2 of adjusted net income above £100,000 and disappears completely at £125,140. Someone earning inside this band is losing allowance at the same time as paying higher-rate tax.
That produces a 60% effective income-tax rate on part of the income in that range before National Insurance is added. It regularly surprises expats who assume a £120,000 offer simply sits inside an ordinary 40% bracket.
Foreign income can create another layer. Someone retaining investments, rental property, company interests or significant income abroad may face questions around UK tax residence, double-tax treaties and the treatment of overseas income.
A London job offer should therefore be compared on expected take-home pay. Gross-salary comparisons with Dubai, Singapore, Switzerland or another jurisdiction can be wildly misleading when the tax systems are different.
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Does the NHS make healthcare easy for expats in London?
Long-term expats on qualifying visas can access the NHS much like other residents once the relevant immigration charges have been dealt with, although the system still has gaps and extra charges.
Most people applying from abroad for a visa lasting more than six months pay the immigration health surcharge. The standard rate is currently £1,035 for each year of permission, while students and Youth Mobility Scheme applicants generally pay £776.
Paying the surcharge gives eligible visa holders broad access to NHS hospital treatment during the visa period without being billed as an overseas visitor for ordinary covered care.
That still does not make every healthcare service cost-free. Prescription charges can apply in England, NHS dentistry has its own charging system, and services such as optical care can generate additional expenses.
Visitors face a very different situation. Someone spending a short period in London without the residence position or exemption that gives access to ordinary NHS treatment may be charged for secondary care.
Private medical insurance is therefore a choice for many employed expats rather than a substitute for the entire NHS system. Employers sometimes include private cover because it can provide quicker access to consultations or treatment, while emergency and much routine care still sits within the NHS.
The reassuring part is that an expat moving on a normal qualifying long-term visa does not need to budget for an American-style private healthcare system on top of the health surcharge.
Is London still worth it for an international career?
London is still one of Europe's strongest career moves for expats in high-value professional jobs, and that remains the city's best argument against its cost.
The wage premium is real. Latest ONS-linked data show median gross weekly pay of £902.70 for full-time London residents versus £766.60 across Great Britain, about an 18% difference. Median hourly pay excluding overtime is £23.69 in London compared with £19.74 nationally.
The workforce also looks very different from the national average. Around 63.7% of working-age London residents hold qualifications at RQF Level 4 or above, compared with 48.6% across Great Britain.
That concentration reflects what attracts many expats in the first place. London packs global banks, asset managers, law firms, consultancies, technology companies, media groups, universities, life-science organisations and multinational headquarters into one labour market. Changing employer can often mean changing Tube stops rather than countries.
The advantage is much weaker for jobs that do not benefit from that concentration. Someone earning £35,000 in a broadly available occupation takes on London's housing premium without necessarily receiving enough London-specific career upside in return. For many sponsored workers, that salary would also fall below the normal Skilled Worker threshold.
London makes the most sense when being physically in London genuinely increases the number or quality of jobs available to you. If the same career can be pursued just as well from Manchester, Birmingham, another European city or remotely, the financial case becomes much harder to defend.
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Is moving to London with children much harder than moving alone?
Yes. London becomes substantially more expensive and complicated once children enter the equation because housing, school location and childcare start interacting with one another.
State-school applications are handled through local authorities, and families arriving from overseas can apply. The difficulty is that oversubscribed schools often use distance or catchment criteria, so the home address can strongly influence the schools realistically available.
That turns housing into an education decision. A childless professional can move from Clapham to Stratford or from Islington to Ealing largely on lifestyle and commute preferences. Parents targeting particular schools have much less freedom.
Childcare can be another major cost, although government support is now broader than many newcomers realise. Eligible working parents in England can receive 30 hours of funded childcare a week from the term after a child reaches nine months, generally across 38 weeks of the year. Eligibility depends on employment, income and immigration circumstances.
The £100,000 adjusted-net-income threshold is particularly important. If either parent earns above it, the household can lose access to the working-parent entitlement even when the other conditions are met.
Families should therefore decide on housing, schools and childcare as one problem. Optimising each separately tends to produce a budget that does not add up.
Is London actually dangerous for expats?
London has real big-city crime problems, but the latest official numbers do not support the idea that the city is becoming broadly more dangerous.
The newest City Hall figures show overall recorded crime falling 3% in the latest financial year. Personal robbery dropped 13%, theft from the person fell 22%, vehicle offences were down 14%, residential burglary fell 7% and homicide decreased 7%. Gun offences involving lethal-barrel discharge dropped 31%.
That is a fairly broad improvement rather than one flattering crime category hiding deterioration elsewhere. Violence with injury was broadly stable, down about 1%, so violent crime has certainly not disappeared, but several offences that residents encounter in everyday city life moved in the right direction at the same time.
Phone theft still deserves particular attention. London is dense, crowded and heavily dependent on people carrying expensive smartphones while navigating streets and public transport. Expats coming from quieter cities usually need to adjust their habits faster than they need to become worried about violent crime.
Neighbourhood differences also matter more than London's overall reputation. Metropolitan Police data are available at borough and neighbourhood level, so check the streets around a prospective home and station instead of relying on someone saying that an entire part of London is "safe" or "unsafe."
For most newcomers, London requires normal major-city awareness rather than fear.
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Is moving to London still worth it for expats?
Yes, London is still worth moving to for many expats today, but the move works best when the career opportunity is strong enough to justify the city's unusually high housing costs.
The strongest case is easy to recognise. Someone has a secure immigration route, earns well, works in a field where London offers exceptional career depth and chooses housing based on actual affordability rather than postcode prestige. A dual-income household has an even easier equation because one home can be supported by two salaries.
The weak version looks very different. A single employee earning around £40,000–£50,000 who wants a private central flat will spend far too much of their income on housing. If the same job could be done elsewhere without sacrificing career progression, London's premium becomes difficult to defend.
Rents remain the largest pressure point even though their annual growth rate has cooled. The more encouraging change is that renters now have better protection: no Section 21 no-fault eviction, periodic tenancies, restrictions on large advance-rent demands and a clearer process for rent increases.
Immigration has moved the other way. The normal Skilled Worker salary floor is now £41,700, and a standard three-year applicant can spend close to £4,000 on the visa and health surcharge before relocating.
London still gives internationally mobile professionals something relatively rare: a huge concentration of employers, industries, clients, universities, transport links and future job opportunities in one city. That advantage remains worth paying for when a person's career actually uses it.
The mistake is moving because London sounds like the obvious international choice and assuming the finances will somehow work afterward. The people who get the best version of London usually do the opposite: they work out the visa, take-home salary, rent ceiling and commute first, then choose the version of the city that fits those numbers.
The conclusion is pretty simple. London remains a very good expat destination for people with the income and career upside to absorb its cost. For people arriving on an ordinary salary without a strong reason to be specifically in London, the city can quickly become an expensive way to have less disposable income.
OUR METHODOLOGY
This analysis asks what expats should know before moving to London by treating the move as a combination of immigration, relocation cost, salary, tax, housing, transport, tenant rights, healthcare, family logistics, career opportunity and safety rather than reducing the city to a generic good-or-bad expat destination.
We prioritised the freshest official rules and public data that could materially change the answer. Immigration thresholds, visa fees, the health surcharge and right-to-work rules come from GOV.UK and the Home Office; rent and earnings figures come from the Office for National Statistics; tax rules come from HMRC; transport costs come from Transport for London; healthcare guidance comes from the NHS; school and childcare rules come from the Department for Education and GOV.UK; and the crime trend comes from London City Hall.
We compared these figures rather than reading them in isolation. London wages were set against London rents and take-home pay, cheaper outer-London housing was compared with the extra transport cost, and citywide crime totals were checked against several individual offence categories.
We also separated levels from trends. London rent can remain extremely expensive even when annual growth slows, while renting can become legally safer for tenants at the same time that immigration becomes more demanding and expensive.
Citywide averages are used as a common baseline rather than as a claim that every expat will face the same numbers. Where location or household structure changes the answer materially, the analysis moves into borough rent differences, commute patterns, school catchments, childcare rules and the difference between living alone and sharing housing costs.
Key sources used include GOV.UK on Skilled Worker eligibility and salary requirements, GOV.UK on lower salary thresholds, the Home Office fee table, GOV.UK on the immigration health surcharge, ONS private-rent data, ONS regional earnings data, HMRC income-tax rates, employee National Insurance rates, Transport for London fares and caps, NHS guidance for people moving to England, school-admission guidance for overseas families, working-parent childcare eligibility, and London City Hall's 2025–26 annual report.
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What each area costs, what it rents for, how long it sits before it sells. Plus the things nobody writes down: what a short lease will cost you to fix, and why an accepted offer here means nothing until exchange.
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