As divorce leaves more and more women unable to afford a home of their own...The lovelorn mid-lifers forced to live with strangers

Pooling resources: Jane Roxburgh, 53, lets out a room in her house

Over the past few months, Lizette Rogers has developed a new evening ritual. When she arrives home from her job as a residential support worker, she assesses the queue for the kitchen.



If more than one other member of the household is waiting to cook dinner, she heads to her small bedroom to microwave a ready-meal instead.



And there she remains, watching TV by herself within those four walls, until the following morning.



Her routine may sound familiar to anyone who shared a house in their student days. But Lizette is 47, and necessity has forced her to return to the lifestyle she thought she’d left behind more than two decades ago.



When she separated recently from her sales manager husband of 22 years, she found rents and bills in her home town of Doncaster so high that moving into a shared house was her only option.

Gone is the spacious four-bedroom detached house she lived in with her estranged husband, who has remained there. With their children grown up, he pays her no maintenance, leaving Lizette with only her own income to survive on — just enough to afford a single room in a house she shares with three strangers.



‘This isn’t the way I thought I’d be living at this stage of my life, but it’s all I can afford,’ says Lizette.

‘Initially, I found it difficult to live with strangers. They’re pleasant, but two are much younger than me — in their early 30s — so our lifestyles are very different.



‘They go out a lot, while I like my privacy. And living in just one room when you’re used to a whole house can be claustrophobic.’



Lizette is one of the victims of a perfect storm of sky-high house prices, marriage breakdowns and the recession.



Last year, more than 60,000 people over the age of 40 placed ‘room wanted’ adverts with SpareRoom, one of the largest flatsharing websites in Britain.

That’s 20,000 more than five years ago. Indeed, this age bracket makes up one in eight of those looking for a room in a shared home.



In recent years, the property landscape has changed. Previously, people would marry and buy their first home in their 20s, but with the average first home now costing £184,000, it’s little wonder today’s average first-time buyer is 35.



Increasing numbers are still struggling to get on the property ladder after that age, particularly if they have remained single and don’t have the buying power of a joint income.



And with 42 per cent of marriages ending in divorce, even those who bought a home with their other half can still find themselves having to start again. All too often, it’s the woman who is left struggling after the break-up.



When a single buyer needs an income of around £50,000 to get a mortgage, plus a hefty deposit, it’s a difficult proposition.



According to Matt Hutchison from SpareRoom, there are two common reasons for someone in their 40s or 50s needing to flatshare.



Last year, more than 600,000 people over the age of 40 placed adverts with Spareroom, one of the largest flatsharing websites in Britain.

‘First, they can’t afford to get on the property ladder. With rocketing property prices and high rents, people can’t save a deposit. Or they’re returning to sharing because they’ve lost their job or a relationship has broken up. Previously, they would have rented a one-bedroom flat, but even that’s often out of the question.’



For Lizette, who found her houseshare through the website EasyRoommate, learning to get used to her new domestic arrangement is taking time.



‘It’s not ideal, but I’m making it work,’ she says. ‘We have a tiny kitchen that’s nowhere near big enough for four people. We don’t have a communal living room, but that suits me because I like my own space and wouldn’t want to feel I had to spend time with my housemates.



‘I often go round to friends’ houses, and if I feel stifled in my room, I get out and go for a walk. I have my own bathroom, which helps, as there’s always a queue for the communal one in the morning.



‘Some people might think it’s strange to swap a lovely house for the way I live now, but my marriage wasn’t happy. I always knew I’d have to make the move one day. Now at least I have my freedom, and



I can’t begin to explain what that’s worth.’



Her ambition is to rent a flat by herself. ‘Once I’ve paid my £400 rent every month, I try to put aside money for a deposit.



‘I wouldn’t want to live this way for more than a year. I want to rent a two-bedroom flat so my three grown-up children can stay with me.



‘I put a lot of love into my house and I miss all that. I’d chosen the decor, done up the garden, made it a home.’



But because Lizette left her husband and has yet to begin divorce proceedings, he is under no obligation to move out of the marital home.



DID YOU KNOW? A million people have taken payday loans to pay the rent or mortgage, says Shelter

‘It was heartbreaking to leave the house, but I couldn’t have afforded to run it on my own if he’d been the one who left,’ she says.



As rents and energy bills continue to soar, increasing numbers of people are likely to adopt the solution found by Jane Roxburgh: pooling their resources with a friend.



When she split up with her partner of a decade, Jane, 53, a fleet manager in the motor industry, bought him out of the four-bedroom house they owned in Milton Keynes.



But she found herself unable to afford to pay the mortgage and bills, and faced having to sell her home. For a short time, she let the house to tenants and rented a smaller property, but was able to move back into her own home when her friend Jacqui, who had also separated from a long-term partner, agreed to move in and split the costs.



‘It’s ideal because it’s helping both of us,’ says Jane.



‘Jacqui was looking at places to rent, but found she couldn’t get much for her money, while I faced losing my house because I couldn’t afford to pay for it.’



Jane and Jacqui, a 54-year-old brand manager, have been friends for eight years. Both are successful career women who brought up their children — now grown-up — alone after their marriages broke down.



‘We get on very well, but we both lead busy lives,’ says Jane. ‘We’re lucky that the house is large enough to allow us our own space, but it’s nice to have someone to watch TV with or co-host dinner parties when we want to.



‘Living alone can be lonely, so it makes sense socially, as well as financially, for mature women in our situation to move in together.’ Jane is one of the lucky ones, whose house-sharing has allowed her to remain in her own home.



For other women, remaining unmarried has made home ownership an impossible dream.



‘There’s a perception that if you’re not married or own your own property by the age of 40 there must be something weird about you,’ says Audrey Dixon, 42, who is single and has lived in shared houses since moving to London from Northumberland in 2011.



‘The reality is that being single means I simply can’t afford to live by myself. Because I know that people can be put off by the idea of sharing with someone in their 40s, I’ve told white lies about my age when I’ve registered on flatsharing websites.



‘I’ve said I’m in my late 30s. It’s what everyone feels they have to do to get through the door.’

Audrey, a housing officer, pays £500 per month to live with five others and, on the whole, enjoys the experience. ‘London can be lonely, so it’s nice to have company when I get home,’ she says.



A divorce is stressful enough for a family but with rising rents and house prices, more and more women are unable to afford a home of their own and are having to move into flatshares

‘The youngest housemate is 26 and the eldest is older than me, but we all get on very well and often have meals together.



‘Everything depends on the dynamic between the housemates. When it’s good, it’s great, but it can also be awful.’



Audrey has experienced the downsides of sharing more than once. ‘Until recently, we had a girl in her 20s living in our house and she caused major problems,’ she says.



‘Her hygiene standards were appalling. She’d leave the bathroom in a terrible state.



‘She had no regard for the rest of us. She’d eat all our food, and come home at 2am and bang around for hours, keeping us all awake. It caused a lot of tension, and in the end we complained to the landlord, who encouraged her to leave.’



In a previous house share, Audrey was faced with another common problem: an unscrupulous landlord who provided the lowest possible living standards for his tenants.



‘He was living in the lounge and renting out the rest of the house, so we had no communal space,’ says Audrey. ‘We’d often eat dinner sitting on the stairs because it was nicer than having to sit in our rooms.



‘As soon as I moved in, I started looking for somewhere else.’



Audrey cannot envisage buying a property in the future or even renting a flat on her own.



‘A one-bedroom flat would cost around £1,000 a month in London with bills on top. I’d be spending the majority of my salary on accommodation



‘Buying somewhere feels unattainable. I regret not doing it ten or 15 years ago, when the prices were less inflated.’



Her hope is that growing awareness of the trend will break down the stigma still attached to over-40s who can’t afford to live in their own property — and perhaps prompt the Government to consider new ways to make housing more affordable.

