Joe Parker had reached his early 30s and was reassessing his life.
After years of hard work and hard partying in London he’d built a successful career in the advertising industry but had decided to take a break.
“My dad died, I was not in a good place and I took a year’s sabbatical from work and went travelling around the world for a year,” he told the Manchester Evening News .
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When he returned, Joe found himself reluctant to re-enter the notoriously expensive London rental market.
“The cost of accommodation in London is ridiculous, it’s always been ridiculous,” he said.
“And I noticed, even in the year that I’d been away, rent had increased noticeably.
“So I used to live in Clapham which is a nice area, young professionals, it’s green and leafy, there’s parks, it’s got plenty to do.
“But it’s not Zone 1, it shouldn’t be £1,100 a month for a room in a shared house which is what I was looking at paying to go back to Clapham High Street.
“I thought to myself… why am I doing that? Why…
