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Richard Black Richard could never have foreseen where his adoration for building entire towns out of Lego when he was six would take him. But, as an accomplished property developer and interior designer, and having worked in broadcasting for many years, he has just launched his exciting new property podcast, Home: Work. He talks to Lynda Clark about his first home, his brand new state of the art self-build home and gives some excellent advice for first time buyers FTB: Tell us about your very first step on to the property ladder? RB: I had just got a job on an ITV regional programme for Anglia, but it didn’t come with a very big salary and I wasn’t permanent staff and I didn’t have a contract, so getting a mortgage was an uphill struggle. I really wanted to buy a home of my own but I didn’t have a deposit. I didn’t let that deter me though, as I was able to convince my solicitor to use the cashback on a mortgage. This is a type of mortgage that pays you a cash lump sum when you successfully buy a house. It was tricky but it worked! So, I bought a top floor apartment in the centre of Norwich, which was pretty beaten up at the time. I bought it for £41,000 and it was a real journey – I still own it now and absolutely love it! I stayed with Anglia for two years and then eventually worked in London and in the Midlands. The flat was my baby and my sanctuary and I remember when I first rented it out for 18 months when I was working in London I was so devastated as it didn’t seem right to leave it. FTB: Where do you live now? RB: I got married in 2013 and we thought we had found our forever home in north Suffolk. It was a 500-year-old chocolate box thatched cottage. We even had our wedding cake shaped like the cottage as we truly believed it was going to be the perfect place to live. But we renovated it and then decided that actually it just wasn’t for us and started looking around at other properties. It was very sad but we were really not happy living there. Then, by sheer coincidence, I visited the village that my parents had moved to when I was a teenager. I loved the community there and had a great life growing up. By accident I saw a plot of land which was around two acres with a dilapidated cottage on the edge of it which was for sale. I didn’t think we could buy it but I just couldn’t get it out of my head and one day my husband, Steven, suggested we both go and look at. He thought it was amazing too, but it came with a hefty price tag, which was out of our league. We
14 First Time Buyer February/March 2022
FTB 14-17 At Home With February-March22.indd 14
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