I’m 22 and live full-time in my nan’s garden – everyone is shocked when I tell them… but I’ve saved thousands
A 22-YEAR-OLD lives full-time in her nan’s garden and claims she has saved thousands of pounds in the process.
Estate agent Elise Holt is living in a one-bed 300sqft “granny annexe” that was originally built by her nan Beverley, 71.
The property was originally built for Elise’s great-grandmother – Winnie, but it’s since being taken over by Elise herself.
Beverley paid contractors £17,000 to have the property built and, after Winnie passed away, Beverley converted it into a games room – complete with a pool table and fruit machine.
Elise temporarily moved into her nan’s house while decorating her room at her parent’s house and “never went back home”.
After living in the annexe for four years, Elise has saved £10,000 for a deposit on a home of her own and hopes to find a property and move later this year.
She estimates she’s also saved £19,000 in rent – as the average one-bed flat in Oldham, Greater Manchester, where Elise lives, costs £605 per month, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Elise said: “With my job [as an estate agent] I take all the photos for the properties we sell.
“When I tell people I show houses to I live in my nan’s back garden, everyone is shocked and thinks it’s so cool.
“It’s been really good for me and given me some peace from my three younger siblings.
“I don’t pay much, my nan doesn’t ask much from me she’s just happy to have me.
“I pay a bit of gas and electric and council tax but that’s it.
“I haven’t got the privilege of being given a house deposit, it’s their way of indirectly helping me to save.”
When Elise was 18, she saw moving into the annexe as a “good opportunity to gain some independence”.
She lives there with her boyfriend, Lucus, 24, an engineer, and their two cats, Kalvin and Simba.
She said: “My nan and nan’s husband, Mark, 52, had done a new kitchen so it was freshly decorated.
“I just furnished it and put my stamp on it.
“It’s a good size, compared to some one-bed flats – it could be bigger.”
Elise said if she had to rent privately, she would “absolutely not” have been able to save the deposit to buy somewhere without staying in the annexe.
“If I didn’t have that I would’ve have to make do at home”.
Elise is hoping to move out into a home of her own later this year but says the annexe will “stay in the family” – with her younger brother eyeing it up next.
She said: “I think it’s fair for me to move on so my siblings can have their turn, my brother, Stuart, is about to just turn 18, so it would be nice for him to have that independence.
“We’re really lucky to have it.”
Elise posts updates about her annexe living on TikTok under @eliseleighholt.