Student landlord says young people should be able to buy houses

Mr Parrott plans to own ten properties by the time he is 30

Josh Parrott bought his first house when he was 19 years old ( SWNS)

A 22-year-old landlord and student says there’s no reason young people can’t buy houses and he plans to semi-retire with a property portfolio by the time he’s 30.

Josh Parrott was inspired after he did work experience at an estate agent as a child.

He bought his first house for £115,000 when he was just 19, using money he saved up from two jobs he did between school lessons.

He rented out the house while paying rent to his parents, saving enough to buy another one for £140,000, aged 21.

The savvy lad did a £20,000 revamp and saved money by doing most of the labour himself after work, increasing the value by £60,000.

He plans to move in soon and is already on the search for his third property.

The businessman plans to own ten properties - renting out nine - by the time he is 30, buying one a year so he can finally put his feet up and work when he fancies.

Josh said there is no reason young people can’t afford to buy homes - but admits his mates said he was “boring” when he said no to drinks or buying new clothes.

The trainee mortgage advisor from Stockport, Greater Manchester, said: “There’s no reason people my age can’t buy houses.

“You just have to get past the mindset that there are certain things you do at certain ages.

“It wasn’t about being super bright or anything.

“You just need to make the most out of living at home: it’s nothing like as expensive as renting privately or through an agency.

“I just didn’t blow money on going out drinking and I spent almost nothing on clothes.

“My mates all said I was being boring.

“And I don’t have the expense of kids yet or anything.

“I was given a Ford Fiesta, which I kept, whereas a lot of my friends are buying expensive cars like Mercedes on finance schemes.

“I mean they’re nice cars but I was able to put-away up to £1,200 a month by the time I went full-time.

“I could have spent that by going out on the town.

“Working at an estate agent is a great job for young people and it doesn’t require any qualifications.”

Josh started working at an estate agents on a two-week work-experience placement when he finished his GCSEs in 2015, eventually working two nights and a Saturday every week.

He also had a cleaning job at the locksmith company owned by his parents Glenn, 55, and Anne Millen, 53, while he did his A-levels.

He went full-time when he finished college in 2018, and banked most of his £14,000 a year salary, paying £120 a month to his parents, and £2,000 a year to run his car.

Josh had saved enough for an £11,000 deposit and bought his first house in Stockport for £115,000 in June 2019.

A year later the house was worth £140,000 and he rented it out to pay the mortgage.

Pulling-in £30,000 a year in his job by 2020, Josh saved for his next house which he bought for £140,000 with a £15,000 deposit in Manchester in April.

He’s done a £20,000 refurbishment on the home where he plans to live, cutting costs by doing as much of the work as he can himself.

He has crammed bags of rubble and a whole staircase in to his little Fiesta, sometimes making as many as seven trips to the tip after his day job.

The house has increased in value by £60,000 Josh estimates, so he plans to re-mortgage and release some of this profit as a deposit for his next purchase.

Josh plans to build his portfolio of eight more properties using this model - buying properties that will increase in value, then using that profit as a deposit for the next house.

Josh, who left his job at the estate agent in May to work as a case handler for a mortgage broker, said: “So long as the houses I buy keep going up in value the plan will work well.

“There are increasing numbers of people needing houses and they aren’t being built at the same rate of increase, so the need for them is going up.

“There’s always risk, but even if there’s a massive crash or something I’ll just have to keep going more slowly with savings.

“I’ll slow down at 30, I can’t retire completely then I’d be bored, but I’d like to get a sail-boat like my grandad and pop over to Italy for the odd six months.

“Or maybe I’ll be a stay-at-home dad.

“I’ll need to slow down because I can’t just do a day’s work, I always push to get more out of myself, and if I keep working like this I’ll have the body of a 60-year-old by the time I’m 30.

“I’ve pushed my car to its limits too.

“With the seats down I can get ten bags of rubble in my Fiesta: it’s like a Tardis.”

SWNS