08-07-2025
Bricks and Disorder: the housemates who became unlikely DIY stars
O la Soyemi and Cullen Farleigh bought a tumbledown house together just as the country went into Covid lockdown. However, unlike many 25-year-olds stepping on to the property ladder, Soyemi and Farleigh were not in a relationship.
'It made sense for me and Ola to buy because we had the same job and same income,' Farleigh says. 'We were working together every day as part of our old job [in creative advertising, which they also studied together at the University of Lincoln], we were a duo, and we have been since university. We worked out that we'd actually spent more time together than most married couples. So the trust was there.'
Soyemi and Farleigh had been working together for five years after graduating before deciding to take the plunge. After viewing about ten houses, they put in an offer on a three-bedroom property in east London for £452,000 and moved in in March 2020. They each put in half the £45,000 deposit, and the £1,290-a-month mortgage payments are split equally.
