We’re chatting to Lusanda and Victor this week (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Welcome back to What I Own – our weekly series where homeowners share their experience of getting on the property ladder.

Last time we spoke to Alfie and Georgia in Forest Gate. This week we are still in London but talking to Lusanda and Victor Kula-Szilagyi, who live in Hackney.

Lusanda is an experiential strategist, who is branching out into interior design, while Victor is head of product for tech startup Sedna. The pair live in their two-bed flat but also rent it out on Airbnb.

Here’s what they had to say…

Tell us about yourselves.

We are Lusanda and Victor – a South African and New Yorker ex-pat who have found themselves living in East London after a whirlwind romance of long-distance dating to marriage through a pandemic.

Where is your property? What do you think of the area?

We’re based in Hackney, we love it’s mix of cultures and places to go out but, as expats, we see it as a bit sweet and a bit salty. 

This is how we would explain it to our visitor friends: 

1. Welcome to the land of the trendy hipsters. 

2. If you don’t have a dog or a child, who even are you? (We don’t have either).

3. We run for the bus, Overground / Underground and walk everywhere and I mean everywhere. Bring comfy shoes and be prepared to lose 10kg in a day. 

4. Every automobile is electric you won’t hear them coming so always look both ways, watch your blind spots. 

5. Londoners don’t give any eye contact (it’s seems to be some unspoken rule) so it’s very hard to get a ‘hello’, ‘how are you’, or a smile – not even a compliment on your outfit.

On a serious note, it’s really easy to get around Zone 1. There are friendly pubs, tasty street food, and plenty of excellent restaurants within walking distance. We love going to Broadway Market on Saturdays and Colombia Road on Sundays.

They rent out their Hackney home on Airbnb (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

When did you move in? 

[Lusanda]: Victor has been here for a while, since 2015, and the building has been here since 1948.

I officially moved into the place in 2023. Since then, we revamped the place and turned it into an Airbnb on the weekends for tourists to stay and for us to explore the rest of the country.

How much does your property cost? 

[Lusanda]: Victor bought it for about £280,000.

How much was your deposit ?

Around £90,000.

What is the monthly cost of living here now; both mortgage and bills? 

About £900.

‘We rent the apartment out on weekends a couple of times a month’ (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging? 

Getting a mortgage was pretty straightforward but it was learning about the UK process through Victor for a loop coming from America. What’s a leasehold? Stamp duty? A solicitor is going to take how long?

Where did you live before this – were you renting or living with family?

We were in two different parts of the world New York and South Africa, and renting in both places. Victor has been living in London for 17 years now, renting most of the time until 2014.

What made you want to buy rather than renting?

For the longest time Victor avoided buying because he wasn’t sure he wanted the debt. However in 2014, he got kicked out of two flats within 6 months, not because he did anything wrong, just because both landlords decided to sell.

We both think it’s the best decision he’s made – after asking Lucy to marry him.

What made you decide to rent out your property?

Someone we trusted to keep an eye on our flat while we were away listed it as a holiday home without our permission – but that’s a story for another time.

It turns out they made a lot of cash. So why couldn’t we, but better?

We updated the flat, popped it on Airbnb and are working our way to Super Hosts.

 How often do you rent it out / where do you stay when you do so? 

We rent the apartment out on weekends a couple of times a month. It gives us an excuse to go away to the coast and explore different neighbourhoods.

How did you find this property? What made you choose it? 

Victor was looking for a couple of months, time was running short before his landlord wanted him out. He finally came across two properties he liked but realised this one gave him more space for less money (two bedrooms over one) – plus it had hardwood floors and the previous owners left behind a nice lamp.

‘Our interior styles are a mixture of mid-century and contemporary’ (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

How have you made the property feel like home? 

It’s taken creativity and meshing of our two different styles to make it come together and feel like ours. From selecting the colours of paint for the walls, and different texture details from velvet, recycled glass, wood and metal, to pictures of our travels and family up on the wall. One thing we really love is different scents that brighten up a home. It’s always great when you come home and take a deep breath in and then let out a sigh of relief, that’s when you know you are home.

What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style? 

Our interior styles are a mixture of mid-century and contemporary. It’s been interesting seeing our styles come together. Our saving grace for inspiration has been TikTok DIYs, Pinterest and shopping around.

It’s helped us get to know London better and shop as locally as possible to create something warm and inviting for both of us and to educate our Airbnb guests.

What’s your favourite room and why? 

We think we’d have to say the lounge (although, we are guilty of spending a lot of our time watching series and reading in the bedroom).

The lounge is where we have the most fun. Sharing a meal at the dinner table, whether it’s just us two or entertaining friends or family. We love the space for dancing, making TikToks and watching the sunset while lounging on the couch in the summer – that’s magical. 

Bedside reading (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Do you feel like you have enough space? 

It can be a wee bit crowded when it comes to storage space and having people over. We’ve found ourselves in situations where we have to be extremely practical with the space vs. what we want to do with the property.

 Do you have plans to change the property? 

It’s a constant work in progress, but we would love to do so much with the space. Specifically the bathroom and kitchen. Only time and budget will tell. 

Are there any problems with the property that you have to deal with? 

The housing association isn’t the easiest to work with. During Covid, I was desperate to get a higher bandwidth connection to make working from home easier without much luck (there’s only fibre to the curb, with no plans to bring it into the estate). Lately, we’ve tried to get a smart metre installed but it’s been extremely difficult to get them to give us access to the communal cupboard so that it can happen. 

Cocktail hour (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

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What do you want people to know about buying a home? 

It’s daunting to think about and difficult to scrape together the cash for a deposit, but once you are able to do, it does two things: 1) Make you feel more secure and 2) Changes your perspective, makes you think and see more of a home for decades to come vs a temporary place to live to lay your head.

What are your plans for the future, in terms of housing? Do you plan to stay here long-term?

We definitely want to keep this long-term and potentially let it out to a younger family or professionals while we find a bigger home for our family to grow.

Shall we take a look around?

Let’s start the tour (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

The living room (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

The longue is their favourite room (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

They plan to keep the home long-term (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

‘It can be a wee bit crowded when it comes to storage space’ (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland)

The kitchen (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland)

The main bedroom (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

They like mixing mid-century with modern (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

The second bedroom/ office space (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Toilet (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Hallway (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Bathroom (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

(Picture: Susannah Ireland)

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing [email protected].

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MORE : What I Own: Vicky, who bought a Cambridgeshire flat that she rents out on Airbnb

‘It gives us an excuse to go away to the coast and explore different neighbourhoods.’