A man has revealed he spent four years living in Airbnbs across 30 different countries as it was much cheaper than forking out for rent or a mortgage in the UK.
Adam Bradford, 32, from Sheffield, told i he paid an average of around £600 a month including all bills living the nomadic lifestyle.
The young entrepreneur turned successful businessman says he realised that as his clients were based all around the world, he could live anywhere while making his money.
“It was more cost effective and saved me a lot of money, as well as giving me the chance to experience living in so many different places,” he said.
“I had become very despondent with the UK as the cost of living was increasing, taxes were increasing and it was just becoming an unfriendly environment for people who wanted to work hard as the Government was essentially taking more from you.”
Mr Bradford says he and a friend decided to travel extensively and use Airbnbs as a way of living, rather than renting somewhere to live.
During their four-year period, Mr Bradford lived in 30 different countries for varying periods of time and lived in places including the US, Brazil, Argentina, France, Spain, Singapore and Kenya.
“In Thailand, we could pay $9 a night for a villa on an island not far from Bangkok and we had everything at our fingertips.
“If you compare this to living in London and potentially paying £2,000 a month for rent and then being stuck with all the bills and travelling on the Tube and all the rest of it, it’s a no-brainer.”
Mr Bradford, who is CEO and founder of Green Horizon Ventures, an investment company and social enterprise, is now living in Rwanda where he got an office, as he says he became disenchanted by the UK and felt it had nothing to offer him anymore.
Mr Bradford is one of only a handful of people in the UK to have received the late Queen’s Young Leader Award, which was given to young people from across the Commonwealth in recognition of the work they did to transform the lives of those around them.
He told i how his journey began when he was a teenager in Sheffield when he taught himself to assemble computers back when “a computer was a big box” and it was a “huge task to try and fix it.”
“I self taught myself all that at the age of 14 and started a business,” he recalled. “I was independent and free thinking and wanted to earn money for myself doing something I was passionate about.”
Mr Bradford was part of a school based entrepreneurship competition and they ended up being the winners scooping a £10,000 prize and this inspired Mr Bradford to continue down that route.
“As an alternative to university, I ended up studying at an enterprise academy run by Peter Jones of Dragon’s Den,” he explained. “I turned down all of the university offers I had in favour of staying self employed and I became a consultant at the age of 18.
“I was headhunted after the academy to head up the world’s largest fund for new entrepreneurs and we gave out £20m to young people across the UK over a period of four years to help them start their own businesses.”
Mr Bradford embarked on his Airbnb adventure in 2017 after starting to travel more.
“I started to travel more and used Airbnbs as a way to live, rather than renting,” he said. “Looking at the rental market in the UK, I didn’t want to be one of these people locked in by a landlord who takes their deposit, then doesn’t furnish the property properly and they have all these issues while still having to pay rent.
“For me, this was a more controllable life and it saved me a lot of money. The longest I stayed anywhere was in West Africa during Covid times when there was limited travel and the shortest stay I did was at an Airbnb in Italy for three days.
“As well as being more cost effective, it was enjoyable and there was camaraderie.
“At that point, we had freedom of travel, so you could hop around Europe. Since Brexit, it has become harder.”
Just over two years ago, Mr Bradford decided to move to Rwanda permanently after being invited to a conference n the African state and says his business is still working globally, but from somewhere which doesn’t have the burden of living that he feels the UK has.
“There’s been a lot of controversy about Rwanda in the UK, but a lot of that is entrenched in political fighting and involves people who have never been here or walked the streets here,” he said.
“We have always had a foot in Africa in terms of the work we do as a business, whether it’s supporting young people or starting projects which improve communities and we are doing a lot in the environmental space.
“We opened a branch here and decided to stay and have never looked back.”
Reflecting on the reasons why he lost confidence in the UK, Mr Bradford told i: “I have massive respect for the constitution and our Royal Family, but I felt political apathy.
“It is not just me – it is a collective view of many people my age who think: ‘What the heck happened to our country?’
“Our industrial strategy disappeared and I could just not see a place for myself in the UK. Politics doesn’t connect to young people at all in the UK in my opinion.
“I feel safe and happy in Rwanda and feel I have a good future here. My family still live in Sheffield and I still visit the UK every six months or so to see them.”
He added: “Many businesses are looking to emigrate out of the UK and I am an individual who was disillusioned by the UK who did the same.
“The UK has an under-employment problem where people are in jobs, but they are not good enough jobs to pay the bills and their jobs are not good enough to keep them enthusiastic.”
