5 ways to get a hit of fantasy real estate in your life

There is a certain pleasure to be found in playing pretend. Perhaps it’s telling someone at a cocktail party that you’re a dolphin trainer rather than an accountant, or filling up a basket on Net-a-Porter with clothes that you will never buy but rather like the idea that a richer,  more chic  version of yourself that would. Another highly recommended joy is indulging in a spot of fantasy real estate, think of it as a bit like a game of Monopoly in your mind.

It’s a little moment of escapism, a pause in a busy day and the best thing of all, unlike, say, a four-bed terrace in a tightly-held suburb, it won’t cause you a single stressful night. Though there is a very real chance that you may get hooked on it – because let’s face it, who doesn’t like a little bit of fantasy in their lives?

Here are five ways you can get a little hit of fantasy real estate in your life.

Start a portfolio

Yes, you may be living in a grotty sharehouse or worse, with your parents, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be amassing a portfolio of weekenders in Palm Beach, or cottages in Balmain. Be ruthless and dedicated in saving listings. Doing this will hone your aesthetic and by dabbling in fantasy you may just work out what your dream home is. Even if the reality is a scaled-back version. I have a relative who’s been collecting dream homes on Domain (where else!?) for years, and all of them have in some way influenced the home she lives in now.

Use listings for design inspiration

My friend Nat spends time scrolling through the fanciest of real estate listings for home-decorating inspiration. Which is truly a genius idea, because unlike some of the beautiful homes you see in magazines, these are the lived-in homes of real people and it’s such a kick to see the furniture and decor decisions that people actually make. Plus, when else do you get to snoop around houses like that without needing, like, a ladder and a pair of binoculars?

Attend open houses

We’re not saying you should be a time-waster … but there’s no harm in having a sticky-beak around that enormous house that’s just gone on sale in your street. Perhaps tell the real estate agent that you’re a dolphin trainer while you’re at it? In any case, just like all of the fun of buying a Lotto ticket is imagining what you’d do with the cash, the joy of fantasy real estate is imagining what your life would be like in a house that you will likely never own. A little re-enactment of Sliding Doors in your mind never hurt anybody.

Use social media to your advantage

We all know that nobody’s life is as shiny and happy as it looks on social media, and the same goes with people’s homes (as IF they don’t have toys on the floor or grubby mitt marks on the fridge). But that’s all part of the fantasy! Prepare to fall into a vortex of home inspiration by trawling through hash tags such as #homeinspo, #interior, #dreamhome and the big one, #instahome. Apologies in advance for the hours of your life you’re probably going to lose.

Need a quick fix?

You could tune into the best fantasy real estate show of all time, Grand Designs (what’s better than watching Kevin McCloud archly surveying somebody else’s perhaps ill-advised fantasy home?). You could learn how to master the art of subtly peering into homes when out walking the dog, buy a drone (erm, is this allowed?) and, of course, bookmark any stories about celebrity homes, which, it must be said, is the jackpot of any fantasy real estate moment.  Especially if it comes with a Hemsworth.