In 2023, Audrey died. By then the children were about to leave school, and the couple were able to think about moving on.
Two year later they sold the house for around £600,000 and paid around £300,000 for a three-bedroom home in Brixham, Devon, which they currently share with their 19-year-old daughter, who is on a pre-university break, and Rosie, a cockapoo.
Their son, 18, is studying drama at college back in Bristol but visits during the holidays.
Richard now spends some of his time working on his side hustle, a 3D-printing factory set up in the basement. He also volunteers on a restored sailing trawler and hopes to become a volunteer coastguard.
“Life is just so much better now,” says Lucy.
Other couples have found themselves in similar positions.
Toni and Alex Borella’s decision to recalibrate their lives was driven by a realisation that they were never going to achieve even a modicum of financial stability if they remained in London.
Back in 2016, the couple were living in a rented two-bedroom flat in Leyton, paying £888 a month in rent, plus bills. Between them they earned around £45,000 – Toni, 51, in sales and Alex, 46, as a chef. Once rent and bills were paid there was precious little left over.
Life, said Toni, felt like a constant fight for survival.
Then Toni was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and she and Alex decided to move to Cardiff to be closer to her parents.
At first Toni kept her job and worked remotely, while Alex found a local role – their joint income went much further in Wales.
This knowledge gave them the confidence to move further out into the sticks, and early in the pandemic they paid £185,000 for a three-bedroom former blacksmiths’ cottage with a third-of-an-acre garden in a tiny village near Cardigan, Pembrokeshire.
The couple’s mortgage, at around £800 a month, is less than they were paying for their London flat.
‘In London I always felt I was running for my life’
In 2021, Toni was made redundant. She and Alex decided to use her pay-off to learn how to cultivate microgreens, and set up their vertical farm, Greenup Farm, at home.
The business quickly outgrew the spare room, and the couple now rent a business unit and supply more than 50 restaurants across west Wales.
“In London I felt that I had to have a nine-to-five job to pay the bills, and that was what everyone else was doing,” says Toni. “I witnessed house prices going up and up around me, and the pressure was on.”
Stepping away from the rat race and finding security through home ownership has paid huge dividends. Toni loves her work and believes her physical and mental health has improved as a result of a better work-life balance.
“Knowing that I have a roof over my head, and that I don’t have to work myself into the ground to keep it is a great relief. In London I always felt I was running for my life.”
