The following is the first in a series of articles which will profile how homeowners managed to buy their property in today's tough housing market.

@EDITRULE:

Kendaree and Ben Fairn, completed the purchase of their home, `Torwood', in Somerset on October 1, 2002 after renting in Bermuda for 11 years.

Located near to Cambridge Beaches resort, the house is close to 200 years old and has a fascinating history.

It was the original Cambridge hotel and after that it became the Irish Linen Store.

Mr. Fairn says that the `Torwood' name means that at one point it was owned by the Gosling family, who always used to include "wood" in their house names.

Mr. Fairn owns Aardvark Communications, and his wife, Kendaree Burgess-Fairn, is the director of communications for the Elbow Beach Hotel. They have one daughter, Jordan.

He comments that buying your own place is a "tough thing to do... It takes time and it takes dedicated saving."

They financed the purchase with a bank loan and some equity.

The deposit came from savings and some money they had made on the sale of a separate plot of land in Paget.

So actually, their first step onto the property ladder was buying that plot of land.

Originally, they had planned to build their own house, but in the end decided it would be "too big a monster" to undertake.

The sale of their first property investment gave them a windfall from the equity they had built up and they were able to put it towards another property.

At that stage, the banks were also quite willing to lend.

Mr. Fairn observes that in the past, even if you had a good revenue stream from dual incomes, banks would not lend on a property unless you could provide a 25 percent deposit.

He thinks that they are now becoming more flexible and will concentrate more on whether you can service the interest payments.

Mr. Fairn says that there were also price benefits from buying in a western parish. "In our case, if that house had been in a central parish, it would have been out of our reach."

He adds that you simply can't find large sized properties in central parishes.

The property needed some renovations such as the kitchen and cutting back growth from "fast growing bushes" in the garden.

Mr. Fairn agrees that for most Bermudians, getting their own home is a higher priority than building up a share portfolio.

"The best investment you can make is actually to pay off your mortgage."