I worked out recently that I've paid around £220,000 in rent over the last decade living in London, and that number keeps growing by around ~£8,000 every year.

I got a place to live, which is fine — I needed it, but at the end of each year I had nothing to show for it except a lighter bank balance and another set of references for the next landlord to handover. That money paid off someone else's mortgage, most likely, funded someone else's retirement and contributed towards someone else's wealth.

The frustrating part is that I understand how property works — rental income is one of the most reliable ways to build long-term wealth and I know this because I've watched it work for other people the entirety of my adult life.

The issue was never understanding the value of property as an appreciating asset, it was getting access to it.

That's exactly what we are building with OpenHouse. A way to be on the other side of the rent equation while you figure out the rest. You might rent where you live because that is what makes sense at the present, but that doesn't mean you can't earn rental income from property somewhere else and be a tenant and a landlord at the same time.

I worked out recently that I've paid around £220,000 in rent over the last decade living in London, and that number keeps growing by around ~£8,000 every year.

I got a place to live, which is fine — I needed it, but at the end of each year I had nothing to show for it except a lighter bank balance and another set of references for the next landlord to handover. That money paid off someone else's mortgage, most likely, funded someone else's retirement and contributed towards someone else's wealth.

The frustrating part is that I understand how property works — rental income is one of the most reliable ways to build long-term wealth and I know this because I've watched it work for other people the entirety of my adult life.

The issue was never understanding the value of property as an appreciating asset, it was getting access to it.

That's exactly what we are building with OpenHouse. A way to be on the other side of the rent equation while you figure out the rest. You might rent where you live because that is what makes sense at the present, but that doesn't mean you can't earn rental income from property somewhere else and be a tenant and a landlord at the same time.