A seven bedroom manor house with acres of landscaped gardens would be a touch out of reach for most of us. It’s a lovely thought, but probably not within budget. What about a medieval moat? A pond at the bottom of the garden might be more realistic. This is exactly the dilemma faced by Mathilda and Thomas Ferguson, a civil servant and an academic respectively, when they wanted to upgrade their small London house for something more spacious. But the answer was simple: in order to afford the type of property they wanted, they would just have to buy with friends.
In 2020, the couple moved with their two-year-old daughter to a Grade II listed manor in Essex. There were seven bedrooms, three acres of gardens and even a moat. At £1.2 million it was way above what they could afford, but with another couple (who also wanted more space for their growing family) it was doable. They found a house that could easily be split in half – it already had two staircases and was in an L-shape so it was relatively simple to divide – planned to add a second kitchen and agreed to share the garden. Six years have passed and their co-habiting arrangement has worked better than they even hoped it might. They are surrounded by more space and greenery than they would ever have been able to afford on their own, and all within commuting distance to London. Today, the property houses four adults and five children. On week days they stick to their own sides but on the weekends it's more relaxed. ‘It wouldn’t work with a lot of friends, but we are all good at communicating,’ says Mathilda. ‘We don’t want to let tension brew. We say things in a pleasant and straightforward way, quickly, which is key – whether that’s about finances or dog poo on the lawn.’
Although economics were a big driver – they share a mortgage and bills – there have been other benefits, including free babysitting; pooled gardening resources; busy, sociable weekends; and ready-made playmates for the children during school holidays. To them, the set up is a no brainer, made possible by the clever ways they adapted the house. ‘Sometimes with these listed houses you think you have to keep them static,’ says Mathilda, ‘but, actually, you want them to continue to be lived in and to adapt to suit the needs of the people here now.’
While the benefits of a granny annexe have long been known, more and more of us are now experimenting with new ways of living in community – whether that’s with grown-up children who are unable (or unwilling) to fly the nest, or other extended family members. For some families, barns, studios, coach houses and sheds are given a new life, while others slice up spacious old properties and partition them to suit (and to bill-share). The reasons for this return to a village-style existence are well known. Sky-high mortgages, rents and household bills mean it’s not just difficult to get a foot on the ladder but to keep it there. ‘We are facing great societal change,’ says Manisha Patel, an architect specialising in master planning and director of the design studio KPK Studios.
‘A lot is due to people living longer and having kids later, but also financially with uncontrolled rents, soaring mortgages, house prices and different work patterns. We’ve gone back to a village mentality, working out how to create greater support networks within communities. Multigenerational housing is all about having help on your doorstep – whether that’s to avoid expensive nannies or to allow older people to age in place.’
Some are sharing resources on a grander scale and with a greater range of ages. In Cornwall, landscape designer Henry Robertson and his wife Louise live on a converted farm with four other families encompassing eight adults, nine children and two grandparents, aged one to 80. Each family unit has their own space within one of two buildings – an outhouse and the original farmhouse. It’s as if the farm has been split into five flats and for this gang of friends and family, it works brilliantly. ‘Everyone was friends beforehand,’ explains Louise. ‘We’d never be able to afford this plot by the sea otherwise. And there would be too much to do – there’s always a hedge that needs to be cut or bracken and brambles than need trimming. Here, there’s eight of us working on it rather than two – and it’s fun. We have parties where we rotate hosts. Christmas is always great. If the others are away we can use their house or they use ours.’
Growing up closely alongside others has helped her children, aged three and seven, grow in independence, confidence and communication skills, she says. ‘My hope is that their sense of belonging will be quite strongly rooted too.’ The only downside is it will be difficult to move on from this form of semi-communal living, should they ever want to, as it won’t just be a house they are moving away from but an extended family.
How you approach designing shared spaces is important, says Manisha Patel, who advocates casual interconnected spaces (courtyards, for example) while ensuring privacy and independence by maintaining your own private entrance. ‘Psychologically, it makes a huge difference,’ she says. ‘When you are doing a form of shared living, you are almost forced into integrating with someone. You need to create balance between communal and private spaces.’
Estate agents are capitalising on the trend. Last year, Savills listed a collection of homes spread across Bedfordshire, Oxfordshire, Shropshire and Norfolk, among other counties, that were described as being large enough for four generations. It’s the approach Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen seems to have taken. In 2024, the interior designer and his wife, Jackie, converted a Grade-II 17th-century six-bedroom manor house in Siddington, Gloucestershire, splitting it down the middle and converting a garage to house two daughters, son-in-laws and four grandchildren.
Evidently, while previous generations left home at 18, now adult children are sticking like glue to the family home. Richard Dudzicki, director of RDA Architects, spent two years converting a 19th century workshop at the back of his London home into a spacious four-bed passive house. He realised that he and his wife, Eva would be living with their children – Grace, 21, and Isaac, 19 – for longer than expected and it made sense to adapt the house to accommodate four adults. The work cost £500,000 – considerably less than the £2 million it would have cost to buy a similar sized property in Peckham, where they live. Meanwhile, they rent out their old 970 square foot house.
‘Now we have 2,500 square feet,’ says Richard. ‘I was looking to design somewhere for the kids to stay and have a degree of independence from us,’ he says. ‘As a grown up family, we all need our private spaces.’ In the basement, out of earshot, there’s a music studio for Isaac to work from and, for Richard, a place to tinker with his bicycles. Other crucial adaptations include two washing machines, two sets of kitchen hobs and lots of ancillary space, including three sitting rooms. ‘We all love cooking and now we can make individual meals without feeling on top of each other. Both of my children have partners now too and they are here a lot of the time.’ There is only one risk, he says. ‘It’s possible we’ve made it too nice.’
Others are also choosing to live next door (or near enough) to loved ones. Four years ago, Katie Thompson, a freelance marketing professional, knocked on her neighbour’s door to see if they were open to selling. They were, miraculously, and agreed a price off-market with her younger sister and brother-in-law, who previously lived half an hour away in Hintlesham in Suffolk. Now the sisters have gardens backing onto each other in a quiet village overlooking the River Stour on the Suffolk-Essex border. ‘One of the first things we did was make a gate between the plots so we can get to each others’ houses quickly without going on the road,’ says Katie, who has two children – Tabby and Aurora – with her husband James. ‘I send Tabby or Aurora over to get ingredients I haven’t got for supper. They love it. And there’s always someone to feed the dogs, cat and guinea pigs if we get stuck.’
There are rules: they message or call before popping over to each others’ homes (to avoid another incident like when Katie’s sister walked in on James, naked, stuffing his running kit into a washing machine) and they make sure to see friends rather than continually defaulting to each other. ‘It just makes sense,’ says Katie. ‘We’ve helped each other through bath times and teatimes if other halves are working late or over weekends – or if one of us just wants a rant at the end of the day, we are there for a cup of tea.’
