For family members who can’t afford to step on the housing ladder, being able to afford a home of your own is a major problem. Attempting to buy your first home with the restrictions imposed by the credit crunch and with all the financial institutions wobbling is currently a nightmare!

As you may have found out, trying to get a mortgage nowadays is almost impossible, as banks and building societies are desperate to hold onto their money at all costs. Many first time buyers don’t have a deposit either, which makes things even worse, as a large deposit is now insisted on by many lenders. What’s more, first time buyers who can’t afford a house are even being prevented from renting, as landlords seek to exploit the situation by raising their rental charges sky-high.

In these circumstances, it may all seem hopeless for the first-time couple, but all is not lost! Our luxury granny annexe are the perfect answer for those who are stuck in this double trap.

Here at Joal Leisure, we have been providing timber lodges for use as first homes for many years. We have also found that people at the other end of the scale (those who are downsizing) are also keen to live in a luxury timber lodge, so they can invest the proceeds of sale of their house.

Built to domestic specifications with regard to heating, double-glazing and insulation, a "grannex" for use as your first house is practical and very affordable.

You can have the stability of owning the roof over your head and it will cost substantially less than even the cheapest terraced house.

A timber lodge makes sense financially, whether as a first time purchase for young couples or a retirement home for the more mature.

Case History: Claire and Alistair

I guess we were lucky. We had no chance of buying a bricks and mortar house – even a terraced one. We then saw a Joal Leisure lodge and had a brainwave. Alistair’s folks had a garden which was large enough to accommodate a lodge and they agreed to let us site it there. It actually doesn’t need much land and the installation was done in no time.

Alistair bought some tubs of bamboos which act as a wonderful screen and we are quite secluded in our own first home. I love it – and we have our very own front door, rather than sharing a house with my parents in law. There’s no way we could have afforded a home of our own any other way. It’s very special!