‘We ditched our countryside cottage to save £45k house-sitting across the world'
Jessica Holmes is enjoying her morning coffee relaxing on the terrace of a villa in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa. The crashing waves of the south Atlantic are lapping the nearby white sand beach.
It's far from the one-bed cottage in Gloucestershire she owns with husband Tom. This is just the latest in a long line of luxury foreign properties the pair have been living in without spending anything. The only stipulation is that they look after a mild-mannered cat called Kitty.
They're part of a growing number of people saving money while travelling the world with international house-sitting – living in beautiful homes for free, while working remotely, in return for looking after the owners' pets while they are on holiday.
'We always loved to travel,' says Holmes. 'But since we bought our home in 2019, it became difficult to find the spare money or time to see the world.'
The pair, both 30, had already tried house-sitting as a way to enjoy free weekends away in the UK, but when Tom secured a role working remotely, they seized the opportunity.
The couple realised if they rented out their Cotswolds home, the freedom of living without a mortgage or bills meant saving £1,500 a month – a move that meant Holmes could afford to leave her job as a police officer and follow her dreams of becoming a writer.
They've now spent more than two years living in properties across seven different countries in Europe and South Africa, from cottages in the Alps to French gîtes – and looking after more than 63 different pets.
After they were priced out of the London rental market, Robyn Greaves, 40, and Jeremy Healsmith 39, also decided to house-sit abroad.
Greaves and Healsmith moved back to the UK after living in Sydney for 10 years, with the hope they'd be able to travel across Europe in their time off. But after months of struggling to find a suitable London property to rent, their thoughts turned to a one-off house-sit they had done in Italy while travelling.
'We realised there was absolutely nothing stopping us from working from whichever corner of the world we fancied,' says Greaves. 'We've saved around £54,000 in just over two years, just by offloading rental costs. That financial freedom meant we were able to launch our own business, helping charities utilise AI for fundraising.'
While both couples can fit their worldly possessions into rucksacks, the lifestyle they're living is far from backpacking.
'We stayed in a gorgeous apartment in the centre of Bangkok over New Year. I really had to pinch myself,' adds Greaves. 'There were panoramic views of the city, and we saw in the New Year watching fireworks from the comfort of the sofa. All we had to do in return was look after a little Jack Russell called Lola.
'We managed a road trip across the US, too, peppered with beautiful house-sits, which was fabulous.'
Holmes agrees that one of the main draws of international house-sitting is the ability to travel in luxury.
'You find that the people who are able to go on holiday for extended periods of time tend to be wealthier,' she says. 'They can go away for weeks or even months at a time. We tend to try to stick to sits of a month or longer, to save moving around too much.'
As Holmes works for a UK firm, the couple try to restrict their travelling to Europe and South Africa, where they are on a similar time zone. But it certainly isn't the usual nine-to-five.
'Last summer, we stayed in a beautiful Spanish villa for two months,' says Holmes. 'We'd walk the little sausage dog, Rasmus, on the beach in the morning before it got too hot, then log on to work. We could hike in the mountains or take a dip in the pool at lunchtime, and when 5pm rolled around, we'd enjoy gorgeous sunsets on the terrace with a drink. It felt like a more grown up way to travel.'
Both couples agree it's not all plain sailing.
'It is more complicated than sitting in the UK,' warns Holmes, who has also written a book, The Housesitter's Guide to the Galaxy. 'You have to check each country's visa requirements carefully, and be prepared for questions from border control.'
It's a pitfall that most members websites warn of – with horror stories of some even being deported if a border official decides that house-sitting constitutes 'work'.
Trusted Housesitters, which connects more than 200,000 members in 140 countries, said: 'When considering an international sit experience, it's also important to follow the official visa and immigration requirements of the country you intend to visit.'
Its website suggests travellers take a printed letter explaining the nature of house-sitting, as well as proof of funds and a return ticket before trying to travel abroad. It's also important to check the country's visa rules if you are planning to work remotely.
And while neither couple has ever had difficulty gaining entry to a country, there are plenty of other challenges.
'Language barriers can be a problem too. Often sits aren't in big cities or tourist areas, so not everyone will speak English,' says Holmes. 'We did struggle with one sit in a rural area of Spain. Luckily, the locals were all very friendly and could see we were really trying, so they were very patient with us.
'We've also had some tricky pets to look after. One elderly parrot we cared for took an instant dislike to Tom and snapped at him constantly. He also had perfected recreating the sound of an old landline telephone ringing, and we spent days searching for a handset before we realised it was the bird. You have to really love being around animals.'
There is a lot of logistics to a life of house-sitting, such as planning travel and wardrobes – all while working remotely.
'We have a storage unit in London, so we'll usually try and come back to the UK for a day or two while we repack,' says Greaves. 'We can't carry enough clothes to accommodate going from 40 degrees in Thailand to three feet of snow in Boston in the same week.'
But when you're able to see the world, forego rent and save thousands in the process, is there anything that might make them reconsider their nomadic lifestyle?
'It's an addictive way of living,' adds Greaves. 'Sometimes I think it would be nice to have a permanent base, but because we are from opposite sides of the world, maybe nowhere would ever really feel like home for us as a couple anyway.'
And for the Holmeses, the aim is to keep travelling until they've paid off their mortgage.
'We don't plan to live like this forever, but it definitely has its advantages,' Holmes says. 'We've probably saved more than £45,000 over the two and a half years we've been house-sitting.
'We have a vague idea that it would be nice to keep going until our mortgage has been paid off. But we've always said that if one of us isn't 'feeling it', we'd both agree to stop.
'There's a lot of world to explore, though, so I can't see that happening for a long time.'
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