I’ve given my landlord £33,000 in five years – it’s worth every penny

‘How much do you think you’ve given your landlord since you’ve moved in?’ my grandad asked me.

‘I don’t know, I’ve not really thought about it,’ I lied.

‘I bet you could have bought your own house by now with all that money you’ve given him. Do you not regret giving him all your earnings?’

It was then that my eyes met my grandad’s, who was waiting patiently for my response with raised eyebrows and an unconvincing look of innocence.

But my reply was not definitely what he expected.

‘It’s the best £32,000 I’ve ever spent,’ I grinned. 

His face dropped. ‘You can’t be serious’, he said.

I have lived in the centre of my hometown, Bristol, for the past five years.

I’ve always been a proud Bristolian, but growing up on the outskirts was difficult. I had to rely on lifts from my parents or the erratic bus timetable to meet friends or go shopping. 

On nights out, I had to trust local taxi drivers to not overcharge me at 3am. 

I longed to be able to meet my friends at a club or a pub and be able to walk home, back to my flat, in the centre of the city where many of my friends already lived.

And that meant renting. 

The old adage of ‘renting is just throwing money away’, and not owning where I live, has never concerned me. To me, owning was and is no different to renting. Instead, my priority was being able to live in the center.

In 2020, my dream of moving out of my parents’ house became a reality. I’d just moved back to Bristol from a seven-month trip abroad and was fortunate to be able to resume my old job and have the money within a few months to move out with my sister. 

We looked at several flats in different areas of the city before finding one only a few streets away from the popular Gloucester Road – a long road of independent restaurants, shops and cafes. 

On the first night, sitting in my first ever king-size bed (my bedroom at my parents house could only fit a single bed in), listening to the sounds of the city, I almost cried.

I’d done it.

The cost of the rent for our two-bedroom flat with a garden in the centre of Bristol was affordable, because I was splitting it with my sister. It currently costs £1112 a month between us.

We have had our two-bedroom ground floor flat with a small garden at the front for over five years and we’ve made it home. We’ve worked on our front garden, planting flowers and herbs. We bought and built bookcases which fill our living room, displaying our books and DVDs and we’ve put up artwork and prints we’ve purchased on our travels in every room.

Our rent has gone up every year but is still relatively cheap compared to other local flats.

In those five years, I have been paying my landlord’s mortgage each month, totaling over £32,000 – enough for a deposit for my own house, as my grandad pointed out.

However, the fact is that I cannot afford to buy a flat or house in the centre of Bristol, which is where I want to be. In 2025, house prices in the area averaged £394,000, with flats averaging £282,000. 

And now, having lived here for over 5  years, I can’t imagine sacrificing this location just so I could buy my own place at astronomical prices. 

If I wasn’t renting, I wouldn’t have had all the experiences, memories and opportunities that have come my way.

As a music journalist and editor, I cover a huge array of gigs going on in the city for work, and living in the city centre allowed me to walk to these events. 

I’ve made friends with people nearby and taken up new local hobbies – like starting my own music listening club in the city centre.

I haven’t needed to rely on either public transport or my mum being able to drop me somewhere. The money saved on taxis and buses goes straight into my rent pot.

But it’s not just the social aspects that makes renting so worth it. In the last few years, I’ve had my washing machine and oven replaced, and my freezer fixed, all within a few weeks of reporting them to my landlord.

I’ve been very lucky with my landlord – it’s a sad truth that it’s not always the case. 

I’ve heard many horror stories from friends about landlords who won’t fix the boiler so they have no heating in the winter, or others who don’t believe there is a damp problem, thus forcing them to live in an unsafe and unhealthy environment. 

While I’ve been happy to rent for the moment, I do see myself buying within the next five years or so. And because I’m in no rush, I can plan to save as much as possible, so as not to sacrifice too much on location.

I’m open-minded about where I might buy, however my non-negotiable is that I’d like to be, at most, an hour’s walk away from the city center. 

So when my grandad asked my feelings on paying another person’s mortgage, a question designed to make me feel uncomfortable because he doesn’t agree with renting and wanted to challenge my opinion on it, I was happy to disagree with him, even if I knew he would never understand or change his mind. 

Because to be able to afford to live in the center of Bristol, and to not have to compromise my lifestyle to do so, is something to be proud of.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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