Leanne and Matt with their daughter Neve
(Picture: Ruth Bloomfield)The start of the pandemic was a particularly tough time for Leanne and Matt Woodward.
The couple had been saving up to buy their first home, and had just about set aside enough money to put down a five per cent deposit and start looking at properties.
“Then all the banks stopped lending to people with small deposits – suddenly they all wanted 20 per cent deposits,” said Leanne.
Worse was to follow. In June 2020 Leanne, 33, an event and wedding planner, and Matt, 41, a gym designer, were both made redundant, within two days of each other.
“Within five days our entire lives were turned upside down,” said Leanne. “We couldn’t believe we could have so much bad luck in one go. We had loved living in London, our jobs were there, our friends were there, our lives were there. But we had no choice but to leave.”
Fast forward two years and the picture looks very different. The couple thought on their feet, made some big decisions, and are now the proud owners of a four bedroom family house and the proud parents of baby Neve, who is five months old.
Even before Covid-19 struck Leanne and Matt were aware they had been thoroughly priced out of London and were considering buying in the commuter belt.
In 2019 they gave notice on the one bedroom, £1,400pcm flat in Wimbledon they shared with their cockapoo dog Max and moved into an £1,850pcm two bedroom cottage in Esher, Surrey, shared with Leanne’s sister and her boyfriend, to try out the lifestyle.
After they lost their jobs the couple decided to take stock, and spend some time with Leanne’s parents, who live in Lincolnshire.
“Moving there had always been at the back of our minds, maybe when we had a family,” said Leanne.
“The pandemic speeded up our decision. And we realised that we needed to take it seriously. We needed to buy a house or we would spend up all our deposit on rent.”
The couple started looking at houses and quickly reserved, off plan, a four bedroom house in a village around 15 minutes’ drive from the centre of Lincoln. They gave notice on their Esher house, moved in with Leanne’s parents in the autumn of 2020, and then had to sort out a mortgage, and try and find new jobs.
Leanne tried out working as a care assistant, and as a 999 call handler for the police, before finding a role back in her original profession, while Matt also tried a couple of different jobs before being headhunted to work for one of his old company’s rivals.
In December 2020 they moved into their four bedroom house, which cost £280,000. Their mortgage comes in at £755pcm, less than half their rent in Wimbledon.
And by the summer of 2021 Leanne was expecting their first child.
On a practical level, then, things have worked out brilliantly. But Leanne does still hanker for her old London lifestyle.
“We both miss the convenience and the excitement of London,” she said.
“Matt and I were very used to going out to museums, dinners, the theatre, we were always doing something. The spontaneity of our London lives has gone now although I suppose that with a child that might have happened anyway.
“We have moved on to the next chapter of our lives quicker than we thought we would.”
