For years London’s been listed as one of the most expensive cities to live in. But, according to international real estate company Savills, in 2014, it took the grand prize as the costliest place to reside and conduct business. With property prices jumping 18.4 percent between 2013 and 2014, and the average apartment costing half of a person’s salary, many Londoners can no longer afford homes in the city. But how do Londoners keep a roof over their heads so they can still work in the city? Some have turned to houseboats.
No, you haven’t been transported back in time. Today, walking along London’s canals one can regularly see a number of houseboats dotting the canals around London. According to Britain’s Canal and River Trust (CRT), a boat was added to a canal each working day in the past year and some areas have increased in residents by 85 percent. With that sort of growth comes a whole myriad of problems.
Take, for instance, where to live. Only a few licenses for permanent mooring spots, which can cost just as much as a London apartment, are granted each year. Most people have “continuous cruising” licenses which allow them to moor up in waterways, but forces them to move spots every two weeks. Finding spots to moor vessels has become cut-throat competitive, and even when you do find an area to stay, they’re often so jam-packed that boats dock two to three deep.
And then, not everyone is following the rules. This has caused the CRT to start disciplining offenders, saying they won’t renew leases to the continual cruisers overstaying their welcome or don’t move an appropriate distance from their last location. The trust is even threatening to remove boats from the water. In response to the threat, people signed a petition that gained almost 20,000 signatures opposing the initiative.
Then there’s the factor of having to work with newbies trying to navigate the waterways. Ian Shacklock, administrator for London’s Friends of Regents Canal, an organization that focuses on caring for the canal, told Modern Notion that many people are just renting the boats, meaning they don’t have licenses or any experience maintaining houseboats. He even says some openly declare they won’t get training because they’re merely living on the boats because of financial circumstances.
So, is moving to a houseboat a way to solve London’s overpriced housing? Nope. In fact, Shacklock says that for the million or so people facing financial difficulty, canals simply aren’t an option for even a fraction of them:
As a rough guess, there is space on London’s waterways for a few hundred more dwellers before the system seizes up, and this is a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the number of people struggling to secure a home to rent or buy.
(h/t Business Insider)
