Last autumn, Samantha Lassen and her boyfriend Tom Monti lived in a 10-bedroom mansion in Oxford, complete with a swimming pool and tennis court.
In reality they are “homeless”: the couple haven’t actually paid for accommodation since August when they became full-time house-sitters. All they had to do was dote on the homeowner’s Jack Russell.
They now roam the country, staying in strangers’ homes and caring for their pets while building up some serious savings. They estimate they have stashed away at least £16,000 so far thanks to this lifestyle, putting the money towards a deposit for their first home which they hope to buy this year.
Instead of paying £2,000 a month to rent a one-bedroom flat in east London and around £300 on council tax and utilities, their outgoings have shrunk to the £99 annual membership for Trusted Housesitters, the website they use to arrange house-sits, and the running costs of a car.
“When we were living in London, we were wondering how we were ever going to buy a house or save for a future when we were spending so much on rent. It just seemed impossible,” said Ms Lassen.
The civil servant, 30, spoke from a three-bedroom home in an affluent Surrey suburb where she and Mr Monti, 32, a charity worker, were looking after two German Shepherd Labrador crosses. “This is a much quicker way of saving than trying to rent and save at the same time,” she added. “It feels like a life hack.”
The couple are part of a growing number of people in their 30s who are opting out of renting in favour of a nomadic lifestyle, living in other people’s homes and saving tens of thousands of pounds as they do so.
Kathryn Chiles, 38, is a teacher who has been house-sitting – and not paying rent – for five years. She only expected to house-sit for a couple of months in 2019 when she moved from South Africa to London. But she has been house-sitting ever since, occasionally staying in a friend’s spare room between stints. She has only had to resort to an Airbnb to bridge the gap between sits three times, and even house-sat one property for the duration of the pandemic.
She estimated that she has completed 90 house-sits, saving her £12,000 a year on rent – and bringing the total savings to £60,000.
