Flo and Jonny share a two-bedroom house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Every time we’ve shared a London property in our weekly series, What I Rent, we’ve braced for the inevitable comments on how much cheaper places are outside the city.

These comments aren’t wrong, they’re just endlessly frustrating for those of us who’ve committed to living and working in London.

We know we could get a place three times the size of our tiny studio for less money if we went north. We know our pals are only paying £600 a month and don’t have to put up with any annoying housemates.

We don’t want to rub it in, but after a year of What I Rent, we think it’s time to venture outside zone six.




This time around we’re nosing around the rented property of couple Flo, 23, and Jonny, 24, who rent a two-bedroom house in Aylesbury, in Buckinghamshire.

They pay £850 a month between them (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Hey, Flo! How much are you paying to live here?

Rent is £850 a month, bills are £313.49 a month. This includes Sky, Sky Sports, BT Internet, BT Sports, council tax, TV licence, gas, and electricity.

We split everything 50:50 except Sky Sports and BT Sports, which Jonny pays for!

We think we know the answer to this… but do you think you’re getting a good deal?

Absolutely! This house is incredibly affordable for the size and location and we pay a lot less for a lot more compared to other people we know. We feel very lucky.

What do you get for what you pay?

We have two bedrooms and an open plan kitchen/dining room/living room space and one bathroom. We also have a garage attached to the house.

The couple moved in 18 months ago (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Do you like the area?

We live on a relatively new estate in Buckinghamshire. It’s close to two train stations, we have a bus stop on our road and obviously Bucks is close to Milton Keynes, Oxford, London, etc so it’s a prime location really.

The road is relatively quiet and we are a five minute walk from endless fields that we can walk through in the summer which is lovely. There’s lots of wildlife, such as hedgehogs, foxes and even deer (which surprised us).

We are close to a lake, two pubs, and the local town, plus we have a shop, community centre, two parks and school on the estate we live on, so if we wanted to stay here long term it would fulfill most of our needs.

How did you find the house?

We found this place online. We had looked at four places previously and there was one I loved and one my partner loved but neither that we both really loved together.

We were running out of time (we needed to move out of my mum’s as the tenancy was up) and then suddenly this place appeared.

We immediately liked that it wasn’t in a block of flats, which is what we had previously been looking at, and when we came for a viewing, we just knew it was the one. We expressed our interest the next day and within a month we were moved in! It was like it was meant to be.



We have lived here for about 18 months now and have another 18 months or so left of our contract. We renewed it for another two years after the first year was up as our landlord is keen to have us here long term and we love it enough to stay.

The couple have a landlord who’s laidback about hanging things up (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Do you have enough space?

Yes, plenty. There is only two of us but from the get-go we decided a house with two bedrooms was necessary so we had space to do our own thing when we wanted and also plenty of storage space.

As it’s our first home together we didn’t ever want to feel like we were living on top of each other.

What’s it like living together?

It can definitely be challenging at times. Before we moved in together I had been living at my mum’s and Jonny had been staying over a lot.

We had only been together for four months when my mum reached the end of her tenancy and wanted to downsize.

I was happy to move out alone but knew Jonny would stay over probably all the time, so we thought we may as well make the jump and move out together.

It was risky for sure but it’s paid off because we couldn’t be happier. We do bicker over housework more than anything else (it always seems to be my turn to do… well, everything) but it’s basically like one never ending sleepover with your best friend.


While I do most of the cleaning, Jonny does ALL the cooking – which is great because he’s so good at it.

They’ve even been allowed to adopt a cat, called Pumpkin (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

How have you made the house feel like home?

One of our biggest concerns about renting was making it a home, because we all know how strict landlords can be.

However we really have been so lucky as our landlady is an angel. She’s so laidback and so we can hang pictures on the wall and other things like cute key hooks and fairy lights.

I constantly switch up the ‘theme’ of each room and am a sucker for cushions and throws. We also love candles so have a lot of those too.

The thing that really makes our house a home though is our pet cat, Pumpkin. After we had lived here for almost a year we decided to bite the bullet and ask our landlady if she’d change her mind about the ‘no pets’ rule in our contract. Our angel landlady said she just wanted us to be happy and allowed us to have pets – so we headed straight to our local RSPCA branch and adopted Pumpkin shortly after. She really makes the house complete.

Are there any issues with the house?

Absolutely no issues with the house at all, and whenever we do have one, our landlady resolves it straight away.

We do have a few noisy in the block of flats opposite but other than that, everyone is friendly and nice – and takes in our endless parcels.

Alright, how many of these Jacqueline Wilson books have you read? Let’s tick ’em off (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Do you have any plans to move again?


We are here for another 18 months or so. I guess we will see where we’re at closer to the end of the contract before deciding if we will renew again (if our landlady wants us to, of course) or if we will move on.

We have dreams of building our own house so we definitely won’t be here forever, but we are happy to be here long term – especially when it’s so expensive to buy right now. Saving the deposit is hard.

Are you keen to buy a place?

Not really! We are happy renting, it’s pretty beneficial for us financially as thankfully it’s all quite cheap and we also like to travel a lot (one holiday a month this year) and buy ourselves quite lavish treats – designer handbags for me, designer trainers for Jonny.

We can only do this because our rent and bills are so low and I think we’d struggle more if we had to save to buy, so for now it’s not high on our list of priorities. In future though, probably.

Shall we have a look around, then?

The living room has plenty of space for two – plus Pumpkin (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

There’s an open plan design that leads into the kitchen (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

And a dining/DJ table (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

The kitchen (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Up the stairs we go (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Here’s the main bedroom, where the couple sleep (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Flo and Jonny wanted two bedrooms so they have the option of their own space (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

The second bedroom works as a spare bedroom and storage area, but also as Flo’s personal space (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

Go on, count the cushions (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

We think Flo and Jonny like sloths (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

And shot glasses (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

The bathroom (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

With some excellent literature (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

And, of course, the toothbrush. We can only spy one. (Picture: Richard Cave/Metro.co.uk)

What I Rent is a weekly series that’s out every Tuesday at 10am. Check back next week to have a nose around another rented property in London.

How to get involved in What I Rent What I Rent is Metro.co.uk's weekly series that takes you inside the places people are renting, to give us all a better sense of what's normal and how much we should be paying. If you fancy taking part, please email whatirent@metro.co.uk. You'll need to have pictures taken of your kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom, plus a few photos of you in your room. Make sure you get permission for your housemates! You'll also need to be okay with sharing how much you're paying for rent, as that's pretty important.

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