Living on a houseboat is wonderfully romantic - but it sure is cold in winter.
This is the conclusion of Sian O'Neill after she spent almost a year living
on a one-bedroom narrowboat with her boyfriend, Nick Austen. The couple were
frustrated first-time buyers when they bought a “shell” for £20,000.
They spent the following nine months - and £10,000 - turning it into a home.
“We wanted to move in together, couldn't afford to buy and did not want to
rent because it felt like dead money,” says O'Neill, 27, “so we made a
fairly random decision and bought a boat.” Despite the onset of chillier
weather, O'Neill loved life afloat. But they are selling because she has
inherited a property. “We loved it more in the summer, when it was nice and
warm,” she says. “It is getting pretty cold now. You have to be prepared and
get the fire going as soon as you get home from work. But we will be sad to
leave.”
Boat-living has enduring appeal. Who has not asked himself what it might be
like, while strolling along a towpath and admiring the barges bobbing on the
canal? The cosy quarters below deck, the peaceful waterside and the sense of
freedom all lend an undeniable allure to the idea of living on Britain's
waterways. Among boat owners there is talk of “a sense of community” that
may inspire those who feel that their own neighbourhood on dry land lacks
any feeling of togetherness. “Everybody in the marina is very nice,” O'Neill
says. “They all muck in and help each other out.”
However, romantic idylls are rarely cheap or easy, and owning a houseboat is
no exception. “There is a perception that it is always cheaper to live on a
houseboat than to buy bricks and mortar. This is not true. Once you have
added up all the costs, they can rival the cost of a house,” says Michael
O'Flynn, the director of findaproperty.com, which lists houseboats for sale.
A boat itself can cost anything from £20,000 for a basic shell to
£1.3million for a state-of-the-art Scandinavian “floating house”.
Assuming that a boat sells for the right price, it is likely to make a fairly
reliable investment because, despite the downturn on dry land, the value of
houseboats appears to be relatively stable, although there is no index that
tracks prices. “Boats with moorings are not falling in value like houses,”
says O'Flynn. “They are holding up well because supply of moorings is short
relative to demand.”
You may also get more for your money. Patrick Boakye, of www.riverhomes.
co.uk, the specialist waterside estate agency, says: “Houseboats
represent good value for money on floorspace. A boat we have for sale with
1,000 sq ft is on at £675,000. An apartment of this size on dry land would
fetch £1million.”
But before even thinking about the boat you need a mooring, and supply of
these is short. “You need the mooring before you get the boat, otherwise you
risk not having anywhere to put it,” says Jonathan Langford, of British
Waterways, which looks after the rivers Trent, Ouse and Severn.
There are only 250 houseboats with moorings on the Thames and an estimated
3,000 residential boats around the country. You can check the website
www.waterscape.com for availability. On the other hand, like O'Neill, you
may simply be lucky. She found the mooring at Pillings Lock Marina, on the
Grand Union Canal in Quorn, near Loughborough, “just by calling up on the
off-chance”.
Moorings are owned by freeholders and the leases that houseboat owners can buy
vary from six months to 100 years. They are priced per metre and can cost as
little as £25 a metre, on the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal, to £365 a
metre, on Blomfield Road, in Little Venice, the most exclusive part of the
Regent's Canal, in West London. A mooring usually includes mains, gas,
sewerage and, along the best stretches of towpath, broadband. A lease can
set you back between £2,000 and £8,000 a year and there is often no
guarantee that it will be renewed. Longer leases offer extra security but
this is reflected in the price. For instance, a 20 to 30-year lease in
Cheyne Walk, Chelsea - where celebrities including Damien Hirst and Nick
Cave have moored their top-of-the-range floating dwellings - would cost
about £600,000.
Many houseboat sellers will offer the leasehold as part of the sale. However,
Langford says, “Be careful and check that they have the right to sell the
mooring as well as the boat. Sometimes they do not, which means buyers can
pay for something they are not going to get.”
When it comes to buying a boat, cash is king. Mortgages for houseboats exist
but are hard to come by. Collidge & Partners and Berkeleys Marine
Finance are the main specialists. However, interest rates are high and deals
are available only for up to 80 per cent of the boat's value, O'Flynn says.
They also cover only the boat, not the mooring. Borrowing extra against an
existing property is the most common way for boat buyers to raise cash, but
harsher lending rules in the current market make it much harder to find a
lender who will approve such a scheme.
Once you have found your boat you need to pay for a survey, which can set you
back £2,000. Insurance is another hurdle and can cost about £3,500 a year,
according to O'Flynn. For a British Waterways mooring you will need a boat
safety scheme certificate, costing between £80 and £120. On the Thames,
owners need a Port of London licence. To obtain one of these, the boat must
be well-maintained and in habitable condition. There is also council tax,
payable for most but not all houseboats.
Renting is fast becoming the option for boating wannabes who like the idea but
cannot handle the hassle - or expense - of buying, such as Christian Rock, a
25-year-old financial analyst. He is renting in a flatshare on a former
Thames tank-barge, where rooms cost from £650 a month. The boat has been
refurbished by Nice Group, a property development company, to provide 16
rooms in four apartments for young professionals who want cost-efficent
“wow” factor. “I thought that living on a boat would be a great thing to
have done in life,” he says. “I haven't always wanted to own one but I
always wanted to have a go. For something like this on dry land I would be
paying £1,000 a month.”
The boat, moored by Barking Reach (Zone 4 but within walking distance of
Barking Tube station), is the first of a fleet of river boats that Nice is
planning, making living on the Thames more accessible. Rooms are fitted out
to a high standard, with LCD TVs, and most have en suites. There are
communal social areas and a 24-hour maintenance service.
Maintenance is where renting may have the edge over buying. Boats are not for
the DIY-averse. O'Neill admits that her dream boat became a reality only
because in Austen's family “there is a plumber, an electrician and a
joiner”, all of whom helped out. Indeed, the degree of hardship may be too
much for some.
As Langford points out, it is difficult to see the romance as you are
“trudging down a muddy dark towpath by torchlight”. O'Neill agrees, but
reckons that the cost savings were worth sacrificing a bit of comfort. She
and Austen estimate that they saved about £15 a month on electricity and
about £10 a month on gas. Their mooring fees are cheaper than rent, at £230
a month, and they do not pay council tax. Worth it, for the sake of wearing
a few extra winter layers.
www.niceroom.co.uk, 0845 4660003
www.riverhomes.co.uk , 0800 0740750
Go with the flow
On a bright winter Sunday afternoon there are few finer pursuits than to take
a stroll along a towpath or riverbank for a spot of houseboat-coveting. Here
are three to try:
Pin Mill to Shotley Gate, Suffolk
5 miles
Walkingbritain.co.uk says: “A gentle riverbank walk, adored by artists,
birdwatchers and walkers alike, offers an excellent insight into the
contrasts of the Stour and Orwell estuaries.”
Mersea Island, Essex
14 miles
Walkingworld.com says: “Mersea is unique in being England's most easterly
inhabited island and there are stretches of desolate, low-lying salt marsh,
where wading birds and wildfowl gather and oysters have been farmed for
centuries.”
Regent's Canal, London, from Little Venice to Camden Town
3 miles
Waterscape.com says: “This three-mile walk starts and finishes at the
picturesque Little Venice and takes you through the beautiful green corridor
of the Regent's Canal, Primrose Hill and St John's Wood. An area rich in
history, this corner of London has played a significant part in the
capital's development both economically and culturally.”
