Hollie Forsyth moved to London for the sole purpose of forging a career. After spending years building up an impressive CV she found herself facing another question: what next?
With money saved up for a deposit Hollie was ready to buy her first home but she didn’t want to find herself marooned in a tiny apartment in the outer suburbs. So she decided to invest in a bigger, better home by the sea.
“I went to university in Brighton and I really loved it there,” she said. “But when it was time to build a career I felt I had to leave. London was great when I was in my twenties, but by the time I was in my mid 30s I was ready to settle down and put down roots.”
Hollie, who works as an advertising producer, had been renting a room in the same flat above a shop in Green Lanes, Haringey, for years. Her rent was a relatively affordable £700pcm, and this meant she had money saved up to put down on a flat.
“I started thinking about where I would be really happy for the rest of my life, and it wasn’t London,” she said. “I probably could have afforded something but it would have been a one bedroom flat really far out and far from public transport, and I started thinking well if I’m going to travel for an hour to get to work then I might as well travel for an hour and 20 minutes and go back to Brighton which I know and love and where I have friends.”
Hollie’s timing was outstanding. She began house hunting in 2019 and in January 2020 she paid £360,000 for a two bedroom flat with a garden and a roof terrace in Hanover, Brighton, moving in three months before the first national lockdown. “It is up a terrible hill, but I love it,” she said. “It’s a really good community, all the neighbours are real characters.”
At first Hollie, 39, was resigned to commuting back to London daily but when the pandemic began she found herself grounded in her new home, wondering what was going to become of her.
During that time a close friend split from their partner and needed somewhere to live so she took him in as a lodger, which helped pay the mortgage and gave her a bit of company.
Then another friend, who had set up his own media agency in Brighton, asked Hollie if she would like to join Anything Is Possible as head of production. Suddenly her career was back on track and she no longer needed to commute either.
Hollie still shares her life with a lodger, another friend, plus two cats, George Michael and Peggy Sue, and is eagerly anticipating a much bigger change in the New Year because she is expecting her first child. “It was a bit of a surprise but I am now very excited about it,” she said.
“I have built a really good local network in the last few years, so many people who are offering to help. I have a home, a job, the schools, it turns out, are outstanding, and just being able to go out onto the South Downs or for a dip in the sea will be amazing.
“It feels like my whole life has been building up to this. I am so lucky to be here.”
