The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
‘We saved £16k by looking after people’s pets’
One young couple tell Isolde Walters how they haven’t paid for their accommodation since they became full-time house-sitters
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 that they have stashed away at least £ 16,000 so far, 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 housesits, 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 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 estimates that she has completed 90 house- sits, saving her £12,000 a year on rent and bringing her total savings to £60,000.
“I haven’t saved all of that money unfortunately,” she said from a home in London where she is looking after two cats called Flower and Beano.
‘This is a quicker way to save than renting and saving’
“I’ve used quite a lot of it on travel, my visa to stay here and general enjoyment of life. I could have saved aggressively for a deposit on a house. I might continue to house-sit and do that.”
Ms Chiles, a teacher, has had enough house-sits in London to combine her job with this nomadic lifestyle.
House-sitting is hardly new but it has rocketed in popularity in recent years. Trusted Housesitters, a website which links property owners with house-sitters, has more than 200,000 members.
Another website, House Sit Match, has seen membership increase 125pc year-on-year since 2022. The House and Pet Sitters UK group on Facebook boasts 75,000 members with a third joining in the past five months.
The rise of remote work during the pandemic has made house-sitting more viable. And the surge of people adopting animals in lockdown means there are more pets that need looking after while owners go on holiday. The instability of the housing market has also led more people to pursue house-sitting as an alternative to renting.
Ms Lassen and Mr Monti first considered house-sitting when the lease on the house share they were living in came to an end in January 2023. Their housemate, Sabina Trojanova, 30, a travel influencer, and her partner Sam, first floated the idea as an alternative to each person paying nearly £ 800 a month rent plus council tax and utilities for the down-at-heel house in Leyton, east London. All four housemates are now full time house-sitters – and all are booked up for the next six months.
“We didn’t love the house that we were in or the amount of rent we were paying. But the prospect of trying to find a new place just seemed so daunting,” Ms Trojanova said, from a house-sit in east London, with a cat curled up in her lap. “Sam and I started off house-sitting homes within an hour of London so that he could commute into the office.” The couple sold most of their belongings and now live out of two backpacks. After he received permission to work abroad, the pair house-sat a luxurious duplex in Buenos Aires for three months.
They have completed 10 house-sits in London, Bristol and Bath and have two in Winchester coming up.
The couple are not saving for a deposit on a house but Ms Trojanova, who is self- employed, appreciates having a buffer and is able to put away 80pc of her salary per month.
“This lifestyle does require a certain kind of personality,” she says. “You have to be flexible and capable of forward planning, so I fully appreciate not everyone would like this. But I think there is a contingent of people that isn’t small that would really enjoy it.”
Despite the savings, Ms Lassen said there were downsides. “You are always on your guard a little bit. You don’t want to spill anything. You don’t want to break anything. You obviously can’t accumulate stuff yourself. I’m living out of a suitcase. I feel homeless, a little bit lost and kind of floating.”
But the house-sitters The Telegraph spoke to had few negative experiences. In five years, Ms Chiles had just two disasters – one gas leak and one water leak. Ms Lassen’s friends have voiced safety concerns about possible secret cameras or owners turning up unannounced, but she dismissed those fears. “They’re putting their trust in you to look after their pet, you put your trust in them.”
All agreed you have to love animals. Ms Lassen and Mr Monti have looked after cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits, a tortoise, about 20 guinea pigs and have a tarantula at an upcoming house-sit.
Could the lifestyle be a longterm prospect? Retirees and even families house-sit as a way to make travel more affordable. Ms Lassen doesn’t expect to be house- sitting next year but Ms Chiles has no plans to stop and Ms Trojanova believes only children will make her give up the lifestyle.
“We had our one-year anniversary last month and don’t want to stop. It’s been so much fun and we’ re saving so much money.”