ROCKETING housing costs in Britain’s capital have fueled a surge in Londoners seeking cheaper accommodation on boats, with increased numbers putting pressure on the city’s historic network of rivers and canals.

    The picturesque lifestyle of sleeping in a colorfully painted narrow boat or barge can seem tempting, especially when buying one can cost a fraction of the price of bricks and mortar.

    “It’s become more common for people to do it who don’t know what they are getting into, or even because they have no choice,” said education worker Jim Bryden, 39, who has lived aboard the “Violet Mae” with his girlfriend, a dog and a cat for two years.

    “I’ve met people who have ended up on a boat because they had two weeks’ notice to leave their flat and were able to buy a boat for £10,000 (US$16,000).”

    Everyone has a story of spotting newcomers struggling with engine failure, steering ineptly along a crowded canal or developing regrets once facing a damp, cold winter on boats often heated by stove and just 2.1 meters wide.

    Maintenance costs can mount quickly and boaters dryly refer to their vessels as “black holes” for cash, constantly in need of repair.

    “If you are ignorant about buying a boat it can be easy to buy a boat that will become a nightmare,” said Mikaela Khan-Parrack, 26, who has lived on the water for four years and works as a mooring ranger for the Canal and River Trust (CRT).

    Yet even more expensive boats, which can cost over £100,000, are still a fraction of the average London house price of £500,000, up 11 percent in a year.

    As London private rents have increased to cost almost half the average salary, some renters have turned to cheap but illegally let rooms on boats described as moldering “floating shacks” in an article by a former resident in the Guardian.

    Yet for many, waking up with ducks swimming by the window, and the freedom and sociability of the pretty tree-lined waterways compensate for downsides like emptying toilet tanks, trudging the towpath to do laundry or fetch gas cylinders, and vulnerability to thieves.

    In a testament to the increasing popularity of the lifestyle, one boat entered the London waterways for every working day in the past year, with popular areas seeing an 85 percent spike in numbers, according to the CRT.

    The charity manages 3,200 kilometers of a network that spans Britain, much of it built to carry freight in the industrial revolution.

    The increased numbers have caused congestion, with fierce competition for mooring spaces, queues at locks and friction with nearby residents who suddenly find themselves with a large and shifting cast of new neighbors in boats moored two or three abreast.

    In one central London stretch of the Regent’s Canal, a team of boat-dwelling volunteers maintain special rules to appease nearby residents, who launched a series of complaints to authorities over boat noise and smoke disturbing their expensive terraced homes, which line the canal.  (SD-Agencies)