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At home with:
Faye Barker
Faye Barker is a TV presenter and reporter for ITV News and she can be seen regularly presenting news programmes at weekends and ITV News London bulletins during Good Morning Britain and following News at Ten. She talks to Lynda Clark about her fascinating career, her first home and has some sound advice for first time buyers Photos: Grant Pritchard FTB: Tell us about your first step on the property ladder. FB: I had been living in London but I was offered a presenting job with ITV Yorkshire’s regional news programme in 2001, so I moved up to Leeds. Trying to buy in London was out of the question but the house prices in Leeds were far more affordable, so my partner (now husband) and I bought a little city centre apartment. It was in a converted textile mill by the river, so it was full of character, despite being very small. We decided to sell in 2005 as we were moving back to London but we experienced a very big problem. As first time buyers, we hadn’t realised the full implications of the apartment having a short lease. It ended up taking a year to sell, and eventually, as it became a sticking point with our buyer, we dropped the price. We were lucky in the end though, as there was only a month when we had to pay both the mortgage on the Leeds flat and the rent on the new place we were moving to in London. FTB: Where do you live now? FB: After six months of renting we bought a property in Teddington, which I loved, and lived there for many years. But with a growing family we ran out of space and just couldn’t afford to stay in the area. My husband had read an article about good commuter villages and we decided to take a look at some of them. We fell in love with a house in Ashtead, Surrey, as it was the perfect property for a family and it also ticked all our other boxes like decent transport links and good schools. Ashtead has a very different feel to it than Teddington but, now I’m used to it, I really like it, and it’s now home. FTB: Tell us about your career? FB: When I was very young I watched Blue
“DON’T BE AFRAID OF BUYING A HOME WITH A PROJECT. ALL THE PLACES I HAVE LIVED IN NEEDED SOME WORK AND I HAVE ENJOYED THE RENOVATIONS. I THINK GETTING ON THE LADDER IS ONLY A WIN, WIN SITUATION!”
14 First Time Buyer August/September 2022
FTB 14-15 At Home With August-September22.indd 14
12/07/2022 14:17
