Lucy Partington, a contributor, shares her challenges as a single woman trying to buy property in London. After two failed purchases, she has been living in a friend’s spare room for over a year. While initially hesitant to rent, the upcoming Renters’ Rights Act 2024 makes renting feel more secure, offering her a viable alternative.
contributor Lucy Partington is struggling to buy as a single woman in London, but the new Renter’s Rights Act is making renting, even for a short time, feel far less risky.
Having lived in rented flats across London for many years, I was lucky enough to get on the property ladder at the start of 2020. I bought a zone-three flat with a friend: we were both single, and pooling our resources meant we could afford something with a garden that was actually nice. We lived there until we sold it last year.
We were always going to go our separate ways eventually, and my future plan was simple: use the equity I’d built to buy a one-bed on my own, and for a while, it felt like everything was working out as it should. We sold the flat, and I found a Victorian conversion with big windows that was just about within my budget. But a few weeks after completing the sale, my purchase fell through.
Six months passed, and the same thing happened again with a different property. It’s now been a year since I started trying to buy a flat as a single woman in London, and I’ve spent longer than expected living in my friend’s spare room, with the majority of my life packed away in storage.
It was supposed to be a three-week stopgap, but weeks turned into months, and now that there’s no longer a flat purchase of my own on the horizon, it’s not really a sustainable solution. I debated moving back home to my parents’ house in Grimsby, the town I grew up in, but there’s nothing there for me any more. I need to be in London; it’s where my life, my work and my friends are.
Renting also didn’t feel like an option at first – after owning a property, it felt like a step back, both financially and in terms of security. The idea of trying to find a short-term contract I could afford seemed virtually impossible. But now, with the Renters’ Rights Act 2024 coming into force from tomorrow , renting doesn’t feel quite so precarious anymore.
Thanks to the new rules, I’m able to move into a flat, and while it may not be mine legally, I can settle in and call it home while I figure out my next steps. The act is designed to rebalance the relationship between tenants and landlords, with a focus on longer-term security.
The biggest change is that it will abolish so-called no-fault evictions, which means tenants can no longer be asked to leave without a valid reason, such as the landlord selling, moving back in or choosing to do major renovations. At the same time, fixed-term tenancies are being replaced with open-ended agreements, which give renters like me more flexibility to leave when they need to, while also having more protection from being forced out unexpectedly.
Now, tenants just need to give two months’ notice if they want to leave. Plus, there are tighter rules around rent increases and bidding wars, both of which have made finding a place in London feel increasingly competitive. Landlords can no longer accept rent up front, increase rent more than once a year or unreasonably refuse requests for pets from tenants.
For those who don’t have to rent – or haven’t rented in a while – the new rules might not sound revolutionary, but in reality, it changes the tone of things entirely. And for people like me – in between homes, trying to buy but needing a workable solution in the meantime – it takes away a lot of the uncertainty that always made renting feel like a last resort rather than a viable option.
Of course, I’m under no illusion that renting is easy. Prices are high, and it’s still a significant financial commitment for something that isn’t yours. The new rules don’t change that overnight, but they do make the experience feel more stable, less one-sided and, crucially, more liveable.
“As she repaid the debts, her husband continued to build up more” – the real long-term impact of economic abuse I know I’m not the only one in this position. More people are spending longer renting, returning to it after periods of ownership or using it as a necessary in-between step while navigating an increasingly difficult property market. For many, the idea of a straightforward path from renting to owning doesn’t exist in the same way it once might have.
And while I haven’t given up on buying – that’s still the goal – for now, renting isn’t the compromise I once thought it would be and that’s thanks to the new rules. Instead, it feels like a way to find some stability after a rollercoaster year. Sign up to our Stylist Daily newsletter: the latest news and must-read features so you don't miss out on the conversation.
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