[Lifestyle] ‘We could soon see a Jane Austen-style marriage market’: how the housing crisis is turning modern dating on its head

[FRIDAY THE 13]

 

With homes almost beyond reach for all but the luckiest, it’s becoming a truth universally acknowledged that a potential partner’s housing situation has once more begun to have an outsized impact on their romantic suitability

Barbara Speed
Barbara Speed
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Rosie’s boyfriend Carl is kind and generous – an “amazing person”. He earns more than she does, and often pays for her to come with him on work trips, or lends cash when she needs it. “He’s the kind of person who would pick up the bill in a heartbeat,” she says. Their relationship is happy – he loves her for her. But she knows, deep down, that he also loves her for her flat.

Rosie’s parents are middle class, and bought her a flat years ago when prices were lower, renting it out to pay off the mortgage. Carl’s family, meanwhile, isn’t well off, and he wouldn’t have been in a position to buy on his own – his income isn’t enough to get a mortgage and he has no savings. Both now live in the flat with a housemate.

link: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jul/22/is-housing-crisis-killing-romance-modern-dating-jane-austen