Getting onto the property ladder is rarely easy. But Stacey and Max Holloway’s journey from renters to homeowners took matters to the extreme.
To raise a deposit the couple lived in a converted van, Nomadland-style, made a series of career changes, started a side hustle business, and then they relocated almost 500 miles north to the Highlands of Scotland to achieve their goal.
Stacey, 36, and Max, 34, met while they were both studying for PHDs at Cambridge University — Stacey is a clinical scientist and Max is an oceanographer and former member of the British sailing team.
When Stacey got a job at University College London in 2017, lecturing in radiotherapy physics, she moved back in with her parents in Watford. Max, still in Cambridge, joined her at weekends.
Even then the pair were keen to buy a house. Painfully aware that they were fully priced out of London they initially thought they would buy somewhere between the capital and Cambridge.
Unfortunately putting together a deposit proved impossible. “We had a whole year of not going out and eating rice, but we saved very little,” said Stacey.
“Then we thought, why don’t we live in a van? Max had done a job in Antarctica and when he got back we sold our car and used his bonus to buy a van. We rented a room in Cambridge, parked the van on the drive and converted it.”
In June 2018 the couple moved into their van and began campsite hopping, ending up on a site in Chertsey, Surrey. “We had looked at renting in Surbiton, but the prices were insane,” said Stacey. “It was so expensive that we couldn’t bring ourselves to do it. I was commuting to Bloomsbury, and it was a four-hour round trip.
Living in a van is tough. Max and Stacey would shower at work and cook their dinner in a slow oven in the van. Space constraints meant they had to live with a bare minimum of possessions. “It was just mad,” said Stacey. “It was unsustainable. There were times when we didn’t have anywhere to park up so we were just sleeping in a work car park, or on the street. Our things were always wet, and we were always sick. But I do have fond memories of it, no bills, no council tax, and it stripped us back to what was really important to us.
“We also started to recognise other people who lived in their vans — if you see someone with a suit hung up in their van they probably live in it. There were people who worked at Heathrow who lived in the car parks, and people who were doing it because they struggled to pay rent.”
Van life couldn’t continue indefinitely and at the end of 2018 Max was offered a job with the Scottish Association for Marine Science, based in Oban. The couple were already fans of the Scottish countryside and were ready for a change. “We decided to go for it,” said Stacey.
Their time living on four wheels had given the couple a chance to save up and in April 2019, three months after moving to Oban, they were finally able to put down some roots. They spent £150,000 on a two-bedroom bungalow with a garden large enough to keep chickens and have a vegetable garden, and spectacular views of Loch Etive.
Once settled Stacey and Max didn’t rest on their laurels and relax. Stacey got a new job, first working in community sports development, and then moving on to be a radiotherapy physicist and researcher in Glasgow. Max now works for a start-up, Brilliant Planet, researching ways to use ocean algae to reduce carbon in the atmosphere.
They have joined the local mountain rescue team, set up a business offering running training and extreme races (www.tyndrum24.com), and Stacey wrote a book, The Beaches of Scotland, which was published last year.
And the couple have also found time to become first-time parents — their daughter, Mara, is six months old.
With so much going on Stacey has had little time to miss friends down south. “I did love my job at UCL, and I do miss the fact that I worked with some really amazing people and it was exciting,” she said. “But I love living out here, I love the community, the pace of life, and the views. I don’t think I could live in a city again.”
