Landlord, 22, says young have ‘no excuse’ for not owning a home

Steve Hopkins

Josh Parrott already is already looking for his third property

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

Josh Parrott, who is already on the lookout for his third house, was inspired to get into the property market after doing work experience at an estate agent as a child.

He bought his first house for £115,000, age 19, using money he saved up from two jobs he did between school lessons. He saved up for his second house, purchased two years later for £140,000, by renting out the first property.

Parrott did a £20,000 revamp on the house and saved money by doing most of the labour himself after work, increasing the value by £60,000. He now plans to re-mortgage and release some of his profit to use as a deposit for his next purchase – a third house.

The grand plan is to own ten properties and rent out nine, by the time he’s 3o, by buying one a year.

Then he’ll put his feet up.

Parrott sees no reason other young people can’t afford to buy a home but admits his mates say he’s “boring” when he refuses to “blow money on going out drinking” or buying new clothes.

“You just have to get past the mindset that there are certain things you do at certain ages,” the trainee mortgage advisor from Stockport, Greater Manchester, said.

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

Parrott also didn’t give in to the temptation of upgrading his motor. When his mates starting buying expensive cars, like Mercedes, on finance, he stuck with a Ford Fiesta he was given

“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,” he explained.

Parrott 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 a locksmith company owned by his parents.

Parrott 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.

By June 2019, Parrott had saved enough to put down a £11,000 deposit on his first home in Stockport. 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, Parrott saved for his next house which he bought for £140,000 with a £15,000 deposit in Manchester in April.

Parrott, 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.”

Parrott admits he won’t be able to retire completely at 30, “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.”