London leaver: 'We lived with parents to save a £34k deposit for a house near Dover'

Homes & Property | Where to live

London leaver: 'We moved in with parents in Bexleyheath to save a deposit for our £340k house near Dover'

With plans to marry and start a family sooner rather than later, Amy and Ben wanted a house and realised they would have to leave London to afford one

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When Amy Colegate met Ben MacDuff they quickly realised that they had found their soulmates.

They were engaged within two years and will marry this September. A family is next on their agenda.

And so, rather than take the traditional first step onto the property ladder the couple decided they would rather wait, save, and buy a house.

“It made more sense for us than having to move again in a few years,” says MacDuff.

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“If we had met when we were a bit younger we might have lived in a flat, but where we are now a house is what we need.”

The couple’s decision to leapfrog the apartment phase of home ownership is a growing trend.

Experts agree that young buyers are increasingly turning their noses up at flats, with their compact floorplans, lack of outside space, and often-extortionate service charges.

As a result the average price of flats across London has limped up just 16 per cent since 2014, according to estate agent Hamptons.

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Semi-detached houses, meanwhile, have jumped in price by 48 per cent in the same period, to an average £719,160.

Colegate and MacDuff met in autumn 2022 whilst performing in an amateur production of the musical Grease. Colegate, now 29, is a legal secretary in real life, while MacDuff, 32, is an account manager.

Both were living with family at the time and, to save money, they decided to move in with Colegate’s parents, who live in Bexleyheath, while they searched for a home.

To add to their deposit slush fund Colegate had been working part time in coffee shops since she was a teenager and had savings stashed away.

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Buying a house in London was ruled out quickly. “Partly it was affordability,” says MacDuff.

“Also I work from home and Amy is in the office twice a week so it was sustainable for us to move out. I have always wanted to live by the sea and Amy has always wanted to live in the country, so moving out was a no-brainer.”

In September 2025 the couple got engaged, and they moved into their first home, at Barratt Homes’ Richmond Park development (barratthomes.co.uk) in Whitfield, near Dover, Kent, in March 2025.

The three bedroom house cost £340,000, and they put down a ten per cent deposit.

Their monthly costs, including mortgage, bills, and Council Tax now come in at £1,900pcm.

This is certainly cheaper than staying in London would have been – the average outer London rent stands at £1,956pcm according to research by estate agent Hamptons.

For Colegate the benefit of buying a brand new home was not having to worry about renovation or repairs.

“It offered a fresh canvas and gave us some peace of mind with the guarantees that came with it,” she says.

Almost a year on and she and MacDuff are thrilled with their new way of life.

“There are beautiful beaches nearby, Whitchurch has everything you need – shops, restaurants, and pubs – and we are also close to Canterbury, which is a very pretty city and has a lot going on,” he says.

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