I'm 42, still renting. Here's how I make peace with that

Tell me a little bit about you and your life

I'm 42, I work as a manager at the coroner's office for my county (Cheshire). I've been married for 9 years and we have a 5-year-old little boy. My friendships are vital to me and I spend a lot of time with my girls, having fun and being each other's support systems. My husband and I both work a lot, although I'm currently signed off for a few weeks with stress 😔, so I'm trying to regain some balance and calm in my life after the craziness of the last 2 years.

Have you made peace with that?

I did a law degree followed by a Masters (MPhil) investigating the law in relation to Muslim head and face coverings (arguing that legal restrictions on religious dress should end). I hoped to go into academia but the competition for jobs is ridiculous and I couldn't afford to work for free!

What are your hopes for the future?

From a personal viewpoint, I hope to move up within the coroner's service - I enjoy the work and it feels good to make a difference, rather than work at making rich people richer. I'm looking forward to celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary next year, hopefully with a nice holiday. I'm aiming to set our son onto a positive life path with as much support as possible and to give him a more comfortable childhood than I had. In general, I really hope that our country doesn't disappear into the right-wing nonsense we seem to be on the brink of!

Why do you think home ownership will never happen?

I really wish someone had encouraged me to buy a house when I was 20, in 2000, working 2 jobs, when a 2bed terrace cost about £25k in my town. I spent most of my 20s single, at a time when all my friends were moving in with their boyfriends, and by 2003 prices had increased by about 3 times and never really came back down very much. When Tony and I got together and decided to move in, we rented to begin with expecting to buy further down the line, but conditions just seem to have got more and more difficult and we've never got to the point where we feel in a good position to buy. My parents are divorced and I'm due to inherit a decent amount of money when my dad dies, so maybe that will be our chance! 😂

Have you made peace with that?

I'm frustrated with the housing market to be honest, because it feels like a lot of older people are sitting on more than their fair share of housing, whether it's holiday homes, rentals, AirBnbs, when there currently isn't enough to go round and it's just pushing up prices. To my mind, a home of one's own shouldn't be some aspirational luxury that you have to scrimp for years to achieve. Ultimately, I'd like to decorate and renovate a house to my taste, and be able to live mortgage/rent-free by the time we retire, and it's frustrating that it seems such a tall order just now.

How do you enjoy life as a renter?

Renting does have its upsides, for instance, we don't have to worry about property maintenance and we have a fairly good relationship with our landlord. We compromised a bit of space in order to get a nice location, so we currently live in a nice villagey part of town and were able to get our son into a really good primary school based on where we live. It's also good to know that if everything changed tomorrow and we were suddenly able to buy our dream house, we could leave this place behind and the landlord could probably find new tenants within the week.