'We moved to the UK and bought houses on the same street - now our kids can grow up together'

Two best friends who originally met in Nigeria have now bought their first homes in the UK - and they're living on the same street. Goodness, 32 and Tobi, 29, first met in 2019 whilst they were working as accountants, and soon went from colleagues to close friends.

After Goodness moved to the UK in 2021 to pursue work opportunities, Tobi then followed in 2022 and the pair ended up working together again at the same accountancy firm in Manchester.

Now both married with one young child each, this year both couples decided individually that they would like to get on the property ladder, and have now bought homes just doors away on the same new-build development in Partington, Trafford.

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Goodness and Tobi, who asked not to use their surnames, spoke to the Manchester Evening Newsas part of our Where I Live series. Each week we speak to different homeowners across Greater Manchester to hear about their home-buying journey, whilst taking a look inside their property.

When they first moved over to the UK from Nigeria, Goodness was renting a flat in Salford which she said 'wasn't suitable for her young family' as they needed more space.

"Immediately when we moved to the UK we knew that at some point we would want to buy a home. But it was a case of looking when we had enough savings," Goodness told the Manchester Evening News.

"We started saving as soon as we moved into our flat and once we started earning more, we got enough savings to look for houses that we were interested in. We wanted a new build, we didn't want an old property, so it was all new builds that we were viewing."

Tobi was also renting an apartment in Salford with