A WOMAN ditched her pricey flat for life on a BOAT – and says she’s never been happier.
Lucy Barwick, 28, was fed up with sky-high rent for a three-bed flat she shared with her ex in Bedminster, Bristol.
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The wholesale operator wanted a “viable option” that gave her space for herself and her cat, Mr Biscuits and found it on water.
She took out a loan and snapped up a £100k dark green and white houseboat and moved in with her ex in May 2024.
But when the couple split, Lucy kept the boat, calling it “affordable enough” to live on her own.
If she lived on her own, rent would set Lucy back a pricey £2,000.
Despite having to brave freezing weather and learn the ropes of emptying toilets and refilling water tanks, Lucy says she’s loving boat life.
She said she’s already saved “a lot of money“, cutting her monthly outgoings from £1,100 on rent and bills to just £600.
Lucy said: “I can still afford to live here on my own, whereas I couldn’t afford to live by myself in a flat.
“The community is so nice I know all of my neighbours and financially I am better off here if I had bought a flat because here I can fully pay my loan off in a couple of years and there’s no 30 year mortgage.
“I wasn’t a boat person as such but it is really livable and manageable – I love it, it is my home.
“The location is really good as well.
“If I was looking for a flat in this area would be potentially smaller than the boat it would be £2,000 and I couldn’t get my head around that.”
When she first moved into her flat, she was paying £1,200 – already stretching her budget.
Within three years, that rocketed to £1,600.
Lucy said: “We were looking to buy in the Bedminster area thinking there is no way we can afford a BS1.
“We were looking at flats that were £300k and they were so uninspiring – some of them didn’t even have windows.
“We saw this boat on Rightmove so we thought if it would be a viable option for us and it worked out.
“The narrowboat was ready to live in and they only repaired the walls and added their furniture in.
“We had to get rid of quite a lot of stuff. We were moving from a three-bedroom flat into a one-bed boat.
“It made us re-access what we actually need. We accumulated stuff over the three years.”
Despite downsizing to a 48ft by 12ft boat, Lucy insists it’s no big change.
She said: “For the first three months I was waiting for it all to hit me and think ‘what have we done’.
“But actually whenever I have people over they say how much it feels like a flat.
“I always say that we can do much more on the boat than we could with the flat because we have got an outside space – the roof is basically our garden.
“We can have people over for barbeques and things which didn’t use to be an option.”
But boat life isn’t all smooth sailing.
Lucy said rust is a major issue, and keeping warm in winter can be a challenge.
“In the summer it’s quite nice because it is generally quite cool because of the water.
“In the winter it can get cold overnight it can really chilled out and it can cool down.
“When the temperature drops in the morning you can really feel it.
“Emptying the toilet is a weekly task and you have got to get used to it, especially in the winter. I have always managed to do that when the weather is not too bad.
“There have been times I have forgotten to refill the water tank and then the shower starts flustering and that’s not great.”
Lucy hasn’t even turned the engine on yet and has no plans to move the boat.
“It sounds like a great idea being able to take your home away but for me when we moved on we moved on thinking this is relatively static.
“I just love my boat life,” she added.
Where and how to buy a houseboat
Living on a houseboat can be a cheaper alternative to living in a house, however, it comes with challenges, such as having to empty your toilets and do lots of hand on maintenance.
Houseboats are exempt from stamp duty, and if you have a residential mooring, you will pay the lowest council tax banned, which is often included in your mooring costs.
Many people buy houseboats with cash instead of getting a mortgage, as they can’t be registered with the land registry.
You can get a specialist “marine mortgage” but they need at least 25% deposit and come with higher interest rates and a shorter repayment term.
You can find houseboats for sale on sites such as Zoopla, or on brokerage websites like Apollo Duck or Whilton Marina.
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