A young professional told she'd "never get a mortgage" on a £40,000 salary is getting on the housing ladder - by turning her parents barn into a house.<br /><br />Isobel Perl, 28, left London when she lost her job at KPMG and set up her own cosmetics company while living at her parents.<br /><br />And despite earning £40k a mortgage advisor said she still wouldn’t be able to afford anything beyond a one-bedroom flat or a garage.<br /><br />So instead she is converting a barn next to her parents house into a home and has spent £20,000 so far.<br /><br />With just two months work left, she says it will be a one-bed home worth £450,000 when she is done, and will only have cost her a total of £10k.<br /><br />She didn't have to pay her parents to use the two-storey barn on the side of their five-bed home in St Albans, Hertfordshire - in a neighbourhood with houses worth £3mil. <br /><br />But she said it was the only option for her to move out and buy as a single self employed person.<br /><br />She said: “Mortgages just aren’t set up for single people - I had this crazy idea about converting our barn, and my parents gave it a hard yes!<br /><br />"I don’t have £300,000 to spend on a mortgage - and the mortgage I’d be able to afford would get me a garage.<br /><br />“If you’re single, it’s so hard. If I had a partner, we’d automatically have double and we’d be more likely to find somewhere.”<br /><br />Having lost her job as a project manager for KPMG in 2020, Isobel had to move back home after living in Oval, London, for a year. <br /><br />In June 2020, she set up Perl Cosmetics - and, eventually, she was able to pay herself a salary of 40k a year. <br /><br />Despite this, she was told by a mortgage advisor she still wouldn’t be able to afford anything beyond a one-bedroom flat. <br /><br />Isobel’s parents, Ruth, 58 and David, 64, both used the barn attached to their home as an office, working as therapists. <br /><br />But this year, they both cut down to 16 working hours a week - meaning they only use “half of downstairs” for their work space. <br /><br />So she decided to get “the best of both worlds” by converting her parents’ barn into her own home - where she can have her independence while staying close to family. <br /><br />“I was out walking the dog with my mum, and I asked - ‘how would you feel about a barn conversion?’ - she thought it was actually quite a good idea," she said.<br /><br />“We agreed it just didn’t make sense to use that space when we convert it into somewhere to live.<br /><br />“I did think it would be a no - but it was a hard yes!”<br /><br />So far, Isobel has spent £20k from her savings on fixtures, white good-fittings, and furniture.<br /><br />She hopes not to spend much more - and estimates the barn will be completed by October. <br /><br />She added: “We’ve pretty much converted the entirety of the downstairs into a kitchen-and-living area - but upstairs is taking a lot longer with all the plumbing needed.<br /><br />“I’m hoping to turn the upstairs into an en-suite bedroom and walk-in wardrobe.”<br /><br />Isobel has been getting plenty of help from her dad, who “loves” decorating and installing white goods. <br /><br />“My dad’s in his sixties and he’s doing it all himself,” she said. “He’s a machine! He loves it so much.<br /><br />“I caught him the other day, up at four o’clock in the morning and Googling plug sockets.”<br /><br />She has a firm plan for how she wants the end product to look - and estimates it’ll be worth around £450k when she’s finished converting it. <br /><br />She said: “I’ve got the Pinterest board all ready to go."<br /><br />Isobel says she’s mostly looking forward to getting back some of her independence - while remaining close to her parents.<br /><br />She said: “We’ve been okay living together - I’ve been so fortunate as I’ve really been getting on with my parents.<br /><br />“They don’t treat me like a child - and, at 28, I’ve been able to get to know them as adults, not parents.<br /><br />“But, I do struggle with my lack of independence. My mum does my washing and the big food shop… I’m excited to do all of that for myself again.<br /><br />“I’m really looking forward to taking control over my life and not having to let people know where I’m going 24/7."
