A dad-of-five who had been looking at bedsits after his divorce now saves more than £3,000 a month and has the freedom to have his children come and stay after renovating and moving into a 50-year-old narrowboat. James Posner, 44, a commercial property sector surveyor, documents his life on the boat through YouTube videos and said the narrowboat lifestyle is “London’s best kept secret” amid the cost-of-living crisis.
James, who has five children, Ava, 15, Arthur, 10, Florence, 10, Matilda, five, and Ivy, four, first began property hunting in London in 2020 after splitting from his wife of eight years and said he could only afford to rent either a room in a houseshare or a bedsit. Unable to find accommodation suitable for his children to visit, James bought a narrowboat for £12,000 and spent a year making it ready for the water.
Overcoming some obstacles, including his floating home sinking at one point, James now lives in Hertfordshire on the Grand Union canal between Cow Roast and Rickmansworth. “With the cost-of-living crisis, narrowboat living was the best decision I could have made,” he said.
