How young Londoners can cheat rising house prices
08-18-2015
Young professionals are taking to the waters to escape the rising tide of house prices - why barge living floats our boat
Houseboats are all the rage Photo: Andrew Crowley
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"Combine all the things that can go wrong with a car and a house, and that is what it’s like living on a narrowboat. But it’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” says Jenny Kendall, 29, a photographer who part of a growing population making a permanent home on Britain’s waterways.
“You have to be ruthless space-wise – you can’t hoard or own many clothes. Our Wi-Fi is hit-and-miss, and we can’t have a landline. But there’s an amazing community,” she says. “People look after our boat when we’re away and there are barbecues or bonfires every night.”
Photo: Rex
Kendall bought the 53ft houseboat with her fiancé James Webb for £30,000 two years ago, partly because they were struggling to save up a sufficient deposit for a flat and also because they simply just fancied living on the water.
They have a “pied a terre mooring” in Willow Tree marina near Hayes in west London, which costs them £420 a month and requires them to spend a certain number of nights off the boat. Permanent, residential moorings are in short supply. “Only a handful become available each year,” reports Nigel Day, director of Riverhomes.
Moorings in Chelsea, Battersea and Wandsworth are sought after as many are on 50-year leases. Others have a rolling one-year lease and the cost is determined by the length of boat, but a 50ft boat would cost about £10,000 a year to moor in Chelsea and around £6,500 in Docklands.
"Combine all the things that can go wrong with a car and a house, and that is what it’s like living on a narrowboat. But it’s the best thing we’ve ever done”
Jenny Kendall
Alternatively, you can get a continuous cruising licence, which means you need to move to a new mooring space every 14 days. This may suit old-style bohemian boat-dwellers but are less practical for the new generation of young accountants and lawyers who live on boats and need to be at their desk by 9am the next morning.
About 10,000 people live on the capital’s waterways – a 36 per cent rise in the last five years, and Hackney has seen numbers swell by 85 per cent.
For many, while there may be a certain romance in living on the water, it’s the only way they can afford to live in London. “For young professionals like me, it’s a way of having a very good and affordable lifestyle immediately, not having to save up for something 20 years in the future,” says Lee Thornley, founder of the artisan tile company Bert & May, which has branched out into Bert’s Barges, producing designer but relatively affordable houseboats from £150,000.
Photo: Alamy
Today’s floating homes are, in terms of design and comfort, a world apart from old-style dark, draughty barges. Myck Djurberg, a Swedish architect who owns the Hampton Riviera marina in south-west London, is designing 32 floating homes in the area. One for sale for £850,000 (through Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward) has a “garden” which consists of a wild meadow covering the roof and entire back of the houseboat.
There is a downside to the surge in popularity of living on the water, though, and that’s the strain on the canals and local landlubbing communities. More houseboats means more congestion, pollution and noise. In Islington, there have been signs of “fleet versus street” tension between boaters and home owners, with residents claiming that the boat dwellers are draining local resources.
But the hostility is mutual. Riverhomes’ Nigel Day says: “As more flats are built along the rivers and bars pop up along canals, the tranquillity is being disrupted. Boat owners like to fall asleep to the gentle sound of waves lapping against the hull, not drum and bass.”
“For young professionals like me, it’s a way of having a very good and affordable lifestyle immediately, not having to save up for something 20 years in the future”
Lee Thornley
There are hidden costs such as mooring fees, safety certificates, licences and maintenance. “So don’t do it just to save money,” says Joe Coggins, from the Canal River Trust. “Do it to embrace the way of life.”
But floating home owners will tell you this is all small fry compared with the pleasures of living on the water.
“It’s like being on holiday,” says Denise Greenwood, a facialist, who, after eight years on board, is selling her houseboat on Taggs Island on the River Thames for £700,000 through John D Wood & Co to spend more time in Spain.
“It’s very peaceful and just like living in a normal house, but one where you worry about the hull rather than the roof.”