It is time to wake up and smell the expensive coffee that we millennials love to drink, because London is no longer suitable for us.

After experiencing the financial crash of 2008, working for virtually nothing, and dealing with the harsh reality that the dream of home ownership is slipping further away, we need to face up to the fact that moving to London can no longer be considered a path lined with gold.

If London is no longer calling to the faraway towns, then who is London for, and what does it mean for our capital?

I’m sure that none of you will be surprised to hear that the symptoms of London’s housing crisis are wide ranging and concerning. The number of people leaving the capital to live elsewhere has hit a five-year high. In the year to June 2016, net outward migration from London reached 93,300 people – more than 80% higher than five years earlier.

Here are just three indirect effects of London’s housing crisis:

London is becoming a commuting city: research by Richard Boyd (Arup) has shown that 790,000 people commute across the GLA boundary every day, a 9% increase on 2001. This number of people is greater than the populations of Manchester and Salford combined. Why does this matter? There are 4.5 million jobs in London, so 18% of London’s jobs are held by people living outside of the capital. That’s a significant number of people dependent on a creaking transport network that is vulnerable to industrial action and weather.

London is becoming older: London’s housing crisis is having an impact on the demographics of the capital and the South-east. In total, the number of children aged less than four living in London fell by almost 18,000 in 2015, and overall net migration for this age group has risen by nearly 50% since 2012. When people reach the stage where they have children, they want to trade up in the housing market, and in London the gap between a two-bed and a three or four-bed property has widened, add on the cost of childcare and moving out and commuting becomes a progressive lifestyle decision.

London is becoming less productive: a study of more than 34,000 workers across all UK industries, developed by VitalityHealth, the University of Cambridge, RAND Europe and Mercer, examined the impact of commuting on productivity. It found those who commuted to work in under half an hour gain an additional seven days' worth of productive time each year as opposed to those with commutes of an hour or more.

If I have painted a depressing picture then I will sign-off with the happy news that London is no longer the most expensive place to buy a beer. For the first time, Surrey has overtaken the capital as the most expensive area to buy a drink, with the average pint costing £4.40.

Cheers!