When he is not in Hollywood there is nothing the Twelve Years a Slave actor Chiwetel Ejiofor likes better than messing about on his houseboat. And he is not alone.
The number of people being seduced by life afloat is on the rise with an estimated 30,000 people now living aboard 15,000 boats in the UK, ranging from the super luxurious to the frankly rather ramshackle.
Beryl McDowall, general secretary of the Residential Boat Owners’ Association, believes the recession has driven an increase in the nation’s boat-dwelling population. “People say to themselves: “Ooh it is cheap accommodation, cheaper than a house, but we encourage people to do as much research as they can before they go out and buy a boat. It is a lovely life, but it is not easy.”
Nigel Day, director of River Homes, which specialises in selling residential boats, agrees that house boat sales held up well in the recession – as did prices. “I think that because there are only so many out there they tend to hold their price pretty well,” he said.
He agreed that prices compared to bricks and mortar can be enticing. “You can get 13,000 or 14,000 sq ft on Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, for £800,000,” he said. “On land you would pay twice that.”
Steve Sutton, director of Premiere Houseboats, is based at Port Werburgh, Kent. He says the upturn in the market is prompting a buying boom because people who had struggled to sell or remortgage their homes during the recession in order to buy a boat are now on the market. “I really need more boats to sell,” he said.
Would be boat buyers need to have some equity since it is almost impossible to get a mortgage on a boat. And this is not a cheap lifestyle. As well as the cost of the vessel itself – which can range from under £100,000 to well over £1m – Beryl points out that owners must pay council tax, insurance, and for various licenses and registration documents.
They also have to pay for their moorings, a fee that can range from around £1,500 a year to up to £20,000, depending on where they choose to “park” their vessel. Buying a boat without a mooring is a huge risk since a shortage of spaces could mean you end up with a boat but nowhere to float it.
Another issue is that boat life is hard work. Maintenance is an “endless task”, said Beryl, and not always glamorous. Chemical lavatories must be emptied and every bit of water you need will have to be carried on board.
“We have unfortunately seen quite a high churn of people who have bought a boat selling up after about a year and going back on land,” said Beryl.
Nigel feels most people who buy a boat stick with it. But what he has noticed is, alongside the usual artists, musicians and sculptors who are attracted to living on a boat, an increasing number of forty and fifty something (male) divorcees. “I think it is their chance to do something a bit whacky and different and start the next chapter of their life,” he said.
For those who can cope with the hard work the advantages of living on a riverboat are, says Beryl, many. “You can go away whenever you like and you can take your home with you,” she said. “There is a good community spirit among boaters and they will always help out where they can. You make a lot of friends living like this.”
Steve agrees: “I have sold to everyone from builders to bankers who would not mix on land,” he said. “But on boats there is no pretension and everybody just gets on.”
For more information on riverboat life, contact the Residential Boat Owners’ Association (www.rboa.org.uk).
Boats for sale
1. At the absolute top end, life afloat can cost you well into seven figures. Luxuriously appointed Dutch barges which are easily as big as a terraced house have been appearing on the market over the last few years. Currently for sale is a 1,500 sq ft vessel moored beside the River Thames at Fulham, priced at £1.05m.
2. For a more traditional experience (on a relatively shoestring budget) £120,000 will buy you a one bedroom flat bottomed Dutch barge, moored at Burgoine Quay near Hampton Wick.
3. A floating home can cost well under six figures. You could tour the River Avon aboard a two bedroom houseboat, on the market at £89,000 and currently based at Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire.
