{"id":1106605,"date":"2026-07-23T13:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1106605\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T13:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T13:12:14","slug":"watch-from-bricks-and-mortar-to-life-on-the-water-londoners-turn-to-narrowboats-as-rental-prices-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1106605\/","title":{"rendered":"WATCH: From bricks and mortar to life on the water: Londoners turn to narrowboats as rental prices rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Young people are increasingly turning to alternative forms of housing \u2013 including living on narrowboats \u2013 as London\u2019s rental costs continue to climb to an average of \u00a32,200 per month.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An estimated 15,000 people are believed to live on narrowboats<\/a> across London today. While some are drawn to the freedom, flexibility and sense of community, others are attracted by the lower cost of living.<\/p>\n

London-based student Annie Spencer, who has lived on a narrowboat for the past two and a half years, says the lower costs gave her the financial freedom to leave a job she was unhappy in.<\/p>\n

Annie said: \u201cBecause we live on a boat, our costs are much lower, so I was able to hand in my notice. I had a really bad meeting and handed in my notice the next week. That\u2019s just not something I would have been able to do if I was renting.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well as reducing her living costs, Annie says the lifestyle has helped her feel more connected to nature<\/a> while living in one of the world\u2019s busiest cities. She offers an insight into a growing alternative to traditional renting, while acknowledging that life on the water is not for everyone:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Featured image credit: Christopher More<\/a> via Pexels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Young people are increasingly turning to alternative forms of housing \u2013 including living on narrowboats \u2013 as London\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1106606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,6333,257,139698,17649,16,15,6507],"class_list":["post-1106605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-housing","tag-london","tag-narrowboat","tag-rent","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-water"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1106605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1106605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1106606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1106605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1106605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1106605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}