Escaping the Rental Trap at Abbey Barn Park, High Wycombe

Amy Jones (aged 25 years old) is a teacher at secondary school and her partner, James Brown (aged 30 years old), is a doctor at a London hospital. 

Amy explains: “When James and I decided to first move in together, we chose High Wycombe, as it was a good half-way point between our different work locations. We rented a 2 bedroom, mid terrace house, paying £1,400 a month. But we soon decided that we could actually afford to buy somewhere together, and it could potentially end up being cheaper.

Having grown up in homes that were under constant renovation I knew that, if at all possible, I wanted to buy a new build home. We both have really full-on jobs, and so were really keen to find a low maintenance property, giving us a blank canvas on which to create a lovely home.

Finding our dream home

We had a fairly long wish list, so decided to see what new developments were in the area.  We spotted the sign for Abbey Barn Park and decided to go and take a look. We went into the sales office and were shown the plans for the development, and they then gave us a tour of one of the show homes.

We were amazed at how many boxes the development ticked - even the quality of the fixtures and fittings, like the underfloor heating.

That afternoon when we left, we both said we were not sure how we would find anything else to beat Abbey Barn Park as it literally ticked all our boxes. We did some further research to check how competitively priced it was and there was nothing in the area that could match either the price or the location.

Our new 2 bedroom home at Abbey Barn Park

We decided to buy a two-bedroom apartment in Mirabelle House, costing £380,000.  We were lucky enough to be able to get a fixed rate mortgage at 3.6% which now costs us £1,300 per month. 

We reserved the house off plan, and then moved in on the 4th July - a date which was personally significant for us - as it was effectively our own ‘Independence Day’ - the day we were freed from renting and finally became house owners. 

Due to work commitments, we missed the resident’s summer BBQ, but handily Berkeley arranged a ‘meet the neighbours’ day – so we got to meet some of the other residents in our block. I am so glad we did. We now have a residents WhatsApp group chat – which means we all help each other out, i.e., when it comes to parcel deliveries, or metre readings etc. most of the other residents are young professional couples like ourselves, so are out at work all day.

We are so happy in our new home – having two bedrooms means we have got a spare room which we use as a home office/guest room/gaming room – allowing us the space to do our own thing. It’s in a fantastic location, overlooking The Ride – a lovely country park in the heart of the development.  

We’ve since inspired so many of our friends who are currently renting, to now consider making the move to buy their first home.”