Hello from a London newbie!

Don't forget you will also need a good lock/chain as well as clothing so factor all this in to the cost of a scooter and your budget.
The good thing is that the clothing/helmet/locks will stay with you once bought so can be used on anything else you may buy in the future.

 

The type of insurance you get should reflect the value of the bike, i bought my kymco agility city for £1k second hand with only 300km on the clock but 3rd party fire and theft would have cost me around £350-£400 and in the event of an ccident id be needed to contribute £200 costs so essentially id be paying £600 to get back £400 in the event the bike is wrecked.

Works out cheaper to just get 3rd party only and take precautions which is why i didnt go for a branded bike like honda or yamaha otherwise id be forced to go much more expensive options to protect my investment.

Compare the costs wisely when choosing insurance and insurance type and consider the value of the bike and how much you would actually get in the event of an accident on top of what you already payed in insurance because it could end up being cheaper to just get the cheapest 3rd party insurance and just buy a new second hand bike in the event it got stolen. Remember that top of the line bikes are the prime targets of thieves and in london this is a huge problem.

Responding to he above comment about cheaper chinese bikes and being unable to get them serviced i say NONSENSE!! of course if you go to a honda dealer they will refuse to service a lexmoto or a kymco because they are a honda dealer, they would refuse all the same if you brought them a yamaha. I know at least 1 place in my area that does my kymco bike and all other bikes really and another in the area next to me which is actually closer due to the route and more reliable and theres a ton of websites that sell replacement parts for these bikes including ebay and amazon along with chinamotorcylepartsonline.co.uk.
There are many many more places that also service the bikes, just look for the places that sell them and they will obviously service them as well i dont know about his area but when it comes to london everything he said is bollocks.
Since this is your first bike and its going to get scratches and bangs and you will likely drop it a few times as well i would urge you to consider cheaper bikes than top of the line hondas unless you have the money to spare but i have read that insurance can be a bit more expensive for chinese bikes although i suspect thats just yet more anti chinese motorcycle bullshit which you will find alot of here and around the internet.

My insurance for my 3rd year running my kymco agility city 125 is £192 a year.

 

I'd play it safe and get a Vespa!
I had an et4 125
Lovely little scoot!
Really easy to look after and pretty reliable too!
Mine done 30,000 miles and still sounded healthy, it's was a 1998!
Piaggio are good reliable engines!
Good luck searching for you're new scoot! Have fun!

 

I like the style and design of many Vespa scooters, but I went for something a bit more basic to start with: a Honda Vision 110. So far, no issues with it, and I like the fact that it's small and easy to filter on when riding in heavy traffic.

 

Honda is also a brilliant choice!
Very reliable engines in my experience.
Never owned a Honda scooter but I used to have a CR85 and that thing was a beast!!

 

That was one of my options too as you know what you are getting