Kate-Lois said she had resigned herself to renting for life before she temporarily became an estate agent (Image: Ben Stevens / SWNS)
Comedian Kate-Lois Elliott once believed she was destined to spend her life in a rented basement flat due to the unpredictable income that comes with being an actor-turned-comedian.
She is married to an actor and felt that their sporadic earnings made the prospect of saving for a deposit and securing a mortgage seem unattainable.
However, her outlook changed when she took on a temporary role as an estate agent to gain insider knowledge of the industry. This brief six-month stint in Brighton proved instrumental in helping her climb onto the property ladder.
Reflecting on her time as an estate agent, she shared: “It helped me realise important things the first is that buying a property often goes wrong for one reason or another, and also that people always have such an idealistic view of what they want.
She continued: “They’ll be like ‘it has to have a garden, it needs to be in this area, it needs to be next to a train station’ and often by the end of the process, they’re just like, ‘it just has to have a kitchen!
“So what really worked for us was we narrowed our wish list right down to the basics and decided to look at it as a starting point so we could own somewhere of our own.”
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She emphasised that her experience taught her that knowledge is key and urged first-time buyers to get everything down in writing.
Alongside this, to save the all-important deposit, Kate-Lois knew she would had to get savvier with managing her cash. She stumbled upon the Lifetime ISA (LISA) – the government backed savings incentive designed to give young people a helping hand to save a deposit for their first home and prepare for a comfortable retirement.
She said: “When I found out that there was up to £1,000 free money up for grabs each year if we could save £4,000, it was hugely motivating and it definitely set me on a path to saving all I could.”
By committing to saving regularly, putting in more during the good months and less during the leaner times, in seven years her and her partner had saved for their deposit and were ready to buy last Spring.
While Kate-Lois successfully managed to get onto the property ladder, she acknowledges that it’s not always straightforward for others, particularly those who are self-employed or work in creative fields.
She joined the estate agent to learn more about how the property market worked (Image: Ben Stevens / SWNS)
Because of this she has began weaving this theme into her comedy acts, stating: “I mean, especially for a comedian, you either go to the Edinburgh Fringe and debut, or you buy a house.
“I think it is really, really difficult for people who choose to work in the arts, and I think they’re very much undervalued.
“At the start of the process, I was really pragmatic and thought I’ll open a LISA, and if it doesn’t work out and I can’t buy, at least I’ve got a retirement fund for when I’m old in my rented basement flat.
“It ended up being a lifeline, keeping us focused and motivated when there were so many situations along the way where we had to compromise but we were like, we’re just going to make it work, and as a result, we got our flat.”
Kate-Lois is not alone in utilising the LISA to turn her dream of homeownership into reality. Currently, over 1.5 million individuals in the UK are saving or investing with a LISA.
Data from prominent LISA provider Moneybox highlights the product’s increasing popularity, with a 38% rise in accounts opened last year compared to the previous year.
Brian Byrnes, head of personal finance at Moneybox, commented: “In recent years, young people have faced some of the toughest market conditions in decades. Saving a suitable deposit continues to be one of the biggest hurdles many face, while house prices and borrowing costs remain high as interest rates stay elevated.
“While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to address the issues affecting the UK housing market as we look to the Spring Statement next week, we’ve been campaigning for the government to future-proof the Lifetime ISA, ensuring it continues to provide vital support for the next generation of homeowners.
“Regularly reviewing product rules in line with evolving market conditions will help safeguard this crucial financial lifeline for those who need it most.”