Home-Owner-Ism: There's always a happy ending.

Spotted by Bob E in The Guardian:

In autumn 2007, in the days just before Northern Rock began to crumble, Nick Scott and his fiancee Hayley Thomas bought a three-bed semi in Warrington, Cheshire. It cost £100,000 but needed another £8,000 for renovation. The words "credit crunch" were yet to enter common usage, and lenders were still being easy with mortgages. The couple managed to obtain a 100% interest-only mortgage on the property, which set them back £450 a month in repayments.

Nearly six years on, the property is worth substantially less than the couple paid for it. At best, Scott thinks they could get around £70,000, which would leave them £30,000 out of pocket, an amount he says there is no way they can afford.

So, really up that famed creek of legend then..?

Fortunately for Scott, a combination of falling interest rates and a buoyant rental market came to his rescue.

"I decided to make the best of it by renting the house out. It cost about £350 administration fee for the lender to agree for me to operate it as a let, but it's now getting £550 per month. Because the base rate has been at 0.5% for almost three years, my monthly mortgage has been only £150 for all of that time. The rental market is really strong. I didn't even have to put a board outside – the property went on the first viewing," he says.