[LifeStyle] ‘I’m a homeless guy looking after a palace!’ The housesitters escaping the cost of living crisis

[BirSaNN]

Who wouldn’t want to live rent-free in a nice warm home in return for looking after the owner’s pets and keeping burglars away?

Jessica Rawnsley
Mon 21 Nov 2022 06.00 GMT
31
Massive houses, expansive gardens, occasionally a fridge full of food – and all of it free. Megan Gay and Sean Wood, both 27, have managed to dodge the cost of living crisis and the rent or mortgage hikes that are ravaging many people’s lives and savings in the UK. Their trick? Full-time housesitting. Seven months ago, the couple decided to quit London’s rental market and go on the road. Their belongings in bags, they have moved from house to house across the UK. They plan to continue living like this for at least another year.

Housesitting – taking care of properties and pets for nothing while owners are away – is not new. But since the pandemic, the trend has boomed. Confronted with an unstable housing market, inflation at a 40-year high and soaring food and energy costs, increasing numbers of people of all ages and walks of life are turning to housesitting to keep a roof over their heads.

“More and more people are struggling to find a place they can afford to live in, so housesitting is definitely a desirable alternative,” says Nick Fuad, of House Sitters UK, which connects sitters with owners. The number of housesitters on his site is double what it was before the pandemic. TrustedHousesitters, another housesitting platform, reports a 275% increase in UK growth since 2021.

With no rent or utility bills, Gay, a PR and marketing manager, is now able to put a significant portion of her salary into savings, while Wood has been able to set up his own business. Their overheads include petrol, some food and a £200 annual subscription to TrustedHousesitters, but this pales in comparison with what they were previously forking out: £2,000 a month rent for a flat in south London, £200 or more for bills each month and £2,500 a year for a parking space – and they didn’t even have a garden.

“I was working in a job that only just covered my rent and expenses, so I wasn’t able to save,” says Gay. “We reached breaking point and decided to leave the flat. Financially, housesitting is amazing. I’m hearing stories from friends whose rent is being hiked; they’re having to leave and go back home to live with their parents, move to cheaper places, or beg their bosses for pay rises.”

The average housesit lasts one to two weeks, but long-term sits that average three to five weeks are on the rise, especially among those wanting to do it full time.

Angela Laws, 75, and her husband were among the first to sign up to TrustedHousesitters 12 years ago. They were semi-retired and back-to-back pet-sitting offered an otherwise unattainable lifestyle.

“It allowed us to travel more and do more than we ever thought possible on a limited income,” says Laws. Their housesitting has seen them crisscross the globe: Scotland, France, Australia, America, Italy, Canada and the Caribbean. For the past four years, Laws has also been working as a community manager for TrustedHousesitters. She has heard people say they have saved more than £30,000 a year.

link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/nov/21/housesitters-escaping-the-cost-of-living-crisis