Londoners swap costly housing for boating life

THE cost-of-living crisis is pushing Londoners to live on canal boats as they are priced out of the capital’s increasingly unaffordable property market.

With house prices soaring, rental costs ballooning and bills spiralling out of control, many Londoners are struggling to afford a traditional lifestyle and as a result the city’s historical waterways are seeing an influx of people putting down roots afloat.

Experts say that currently there is twice the normal demand for narrowboats in London and they are selling for a quarter more than their normal value, with the majority of purchased vessels being used as permanent homes.

The compromise for escaping the rental industry is a scaled-back, confined and nomadic lifestyle necessitating the sacrifice of modern creature comforts.

While the summers can be quaint when moored up and surrounded by swans and ducklings, the winters are long, dark and cold.

Most boaters who choose to live aboard their vessel do so because they do not need to pay rent, on the condition that you inform the Canal and River Trust (CRT) – the omnipotent canal authority – that you are a so-called continuous cruiser.

This involves covering at least 20 miles of waterway a year, and staying in one place for longer than two weeks is strictly prohibited.

Kerry Bolsom, director at the boat brokers Virginia Currer Marine in London, said the boat market in and around the capital has seen a period of unprecedented activity in the past two years.

“There is probably twice as much interest in purchasing a boat than normal. It is definitely a seller’s market.”

The CRT runs an annual boat count which provides a gauge of how many boats are in each region. In 2019 there were a record 4,274 vessels in London. More than half were continuously cruising.

This year’s update will be the first since the pandemic boat boom began, and it is set to be a blockbuster figure.

‘There is probably twice as much interest in buying a boat than normal’