Let's do the math for Kirsty regarding an affordable home

[kirstyalslap]

I'm sure everyone has heard that kirsty Allsopp has came out saying that people can afford homes if they only cut out netflix, the gym and takeaway coffees.

I just worked out a meal deal costs £3 a day. X that by 5 days a week 52 weeks a year is £720. Netflix is £8 for 2 screens (?) so times that by 12 months is £96 a year.
Let's add a £20 takeaway every 2 weeks for good measure. £520. Gym costs £14 a month so £168 a year.

So in one year of cutting back on netflix, lunch for work and takeaways I can save £1504
Wow
Now I need 14000 for a deposit so I'm only 10 years away (probably a little but more actually including fees.)

Right now let's think about increase in property value.
My parents bought their house 8 years ago for £90 thousand. A massive 2 reception with 4 bed and 2 huge gardens with a drive.
Bad condition.
Last year the neighbours sold for £230k
This year the other neighbours has been valued at £280k. My parents are thinking of selling for approx £290k.
So in 8 years their house has increased by £200k
(this hurts me as I started saving 8 years ago, nearly 9 and was looking at saving for a smaller house for about 80k needed 4k at the time and had a 5 year plan to get there. No family helping with deposit)

£90k now would get you nothing at all.
Also you need a 10% deposit.
Also rents back then was £500pcm for 2 bed flat. Now they are £700+pcm for same flat.

So how can we do it? How? Please tell me!

Oh also, everyone I know saving for a house has already cut out take away, meal deals, gym (first to go come on!) and much much more.
Batch cooking, shopping around for deals, having friends round rather than going out.
Every thing is rising in price now, I don't know how my children will afford to live away from us, it is scary because as much as we are okay now, we won't be able to have 3 grown adults living in one bedroom until they are in their 30s! Or will it be 40s or 50s by then?

Up north?! Bit of a sweeping generalisation there.

Agreeing on the foreign holidays etc. being more expensive in say the 1970s. I was 80s born and went twice a year as a kid in the 90s - with one child, package holidays and a free child place you could go for a week in Majorca term time under £300 an adult. That's without budget airlines!

You've got to remember that some of these things are massively cheaper than they used to be. I remember when we moved into a rented place my parents said 'oh, we would never have just been able to go out and buy a bed' as though buying a cheap IKEA bed was some evidence of our profligate ways. The fact is they had to save up because things like furniture and appliances were far more expensive relative to salaries than they are now. They could have afforded foreign holidays and buying new furniture out right if those things cost the same relatively as they do now

We slept on the floor for months as a bed was more than a months wages.

Yet last week I needed a bed frame and picked one up for free via FMP

How times have changed.

She doesnt live in the real world !

Laughing at Ozzy to Manchester.

It'd take you about three hours

I know people don't want to hear this... BUT... I was born and raised in London and all my friends and family and my job were there but there was no way me and DH could afford a house there or even in the outskirts. So we took separate days off work to view houses in our budget travelling by train for 2.5 hoursout of London to view a run-down small 3 bed (downstairs bathroom, walk through bedroom 2 to get to bedroom 3) house. It cost us 6 years of saving whilst renting. Both have average salaries and 2 holidays to Spain in those 6 years. Hardly ever went out dinners etc (too tired after work anyways) unless free days out. Saved multiple times for deposits but the cost kept going up. Finally bout a house in outskirts of Hampshire for £150 which was so hard as I still had to travel to work. Dh stayed home weekdays to watch our 2 dd's who were 1 and 2 (result of not going out much lol)!! I'd leave home somtimes at 4.30am to ensure I got to work for 8am. Finished work at 5.30pm but often due to train delays got home around 8/9pm! Killer. One month we lived on peas and cereal. But we struggled through. Yes it sucks not having friends nearby. Haven't met my friends in years as its too expensive to travel to meet up in London for a quick lunch!! For me its around £150 and an all day trip. So I have sacrificed family and friends to give my kids a stable home and nice garden. You have to choose. Kids love it hete. Yes I'm lonely. Yes I wish oftentimes that I could catch up with my friends somtimes. But now I work locally (that took years as jobs not so easy to get here) its hard to find time and energy for anything other than work and home. So although kids and hubby quiet happy. I'm very lonely. But its ok, I chose this. And been here 8 years now. Hoping one day to move back to London. But for now... I chose my kids stability over myself. (got moved oyt of 3 rental properties as landlords needed flats back). That was the reason we decided to buy.

@Sankhomumof3 Could you try for a garden flat? I was just looking at one in my area (zone 3 north london), 100k more than my current 2 bed flat (£500k). 3 bedrooms, you can extend into the loft for 4th bedroom and you have your own private garden and you can get share of freehold. DH doesn't like conversions but most people don't have that preference from what I can see.

Houses in Hampshire and the home counties would be far more expensive than garden flats in London esp after transport costs. Actually now, even without transport costs, they are already just as expensive. Its trendy now to move outside London for a house

@Sankhomumof3 I think a lot of people’s point is that when people have to make the type of choices/sacrifices you have had to make it, it shows a society that is seriously out of whack.

The ability to maintain family and social structures is an important part of life, they have impacts on things like life chances and long term health.

Presumably dear Kirsty thinks everyone should live like this if she considers housing affordable for the price of gym memberships:

www.mylondon.news/news/property/londons-smallest-flat-up-sale-23002109

She was back pedalling like mad in interviews yesterday. It would be more convincing if she hadn't made much the same tone deaf comments many times before.

@WalkingOnTheCracks perfection. love TP and his world - so true - so clever.

A few friends have bought what they could, even single mum to 1 child bought a studio and 3 families with 2/3 children bought a 1 bed place (children had the bedroom and parents had a bed settee)
It was tight and overcrowded but it was much cheaper than paying rent and it allowed them to save and they had to sell everything that wasn’t strictly necessary.
All have now bought a house which they would never have afforded if they had continued in rented.
As one mum put it, It really focuses your mind on getting something bigger

which is bloody brilliant and hats off. But is it right ? why is our housing ownwership designed in such a ridiculous unfair way ? i’d be happy to rent forever if it was fair and secure like in other countries

There’s also the other issue of people owning houses in the middle that would have wanted to move up and can’t. A worthwhile move in my area is going to be at least £150k more. So instead people are extending and renovating like mad. Which is fine for them, but then that house becomes even more expensive if it does come on the market.
My road was built as fairly average sized 3 bed semis, but at least two thirds are now 4 or 5 beds and the prices for those will be much more than those that remain undeveloped. So it pushes those further out of reach for people on lower incomes and it’s not like those houses are replaced elsewhere to keep the balance.

[quote SamphiretheStickerist]I just worked out a meal deal costs £3 a day. X that by 5 days a week 52 weeks a year is £720. Netflix is £8 for 2 screens (?) so times that by 12 months is £96 a year.
Let's add a £20 takeaway every 2 weeks for good measure. £520. Gym costs £14 a month so £168 a year.

Yet I also know people who have multiple Sky screen thingies at about £60 a pop
Who chose to buy a family MacDonalds for Sunday breakfast
Have takeaway every Friday
Would be at the pub if it was open
Have multiple phone contracts with the newest phones and a huge amount of data

Which gets closer to £4-500 / month. And they aren't unusual round here. DHs work coleagues don't undertsand why he doesn't have the same and many of my customers are in a similar position.

I suspect that there is a bit of 'worst case scenario'ing going on on all sides of this debate. But one thing is indisutable, the 'necessary' accoutrements of modern life are far more in number and cost than they were a few decades ago!

This seems to be the most recent data, which would show that Kirtsles is over egging the pudding, but that you @kirstyalslap might be underestimating - I love your username, please keep it

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/articles/familyspendingexplorer/2020-03-26[/quote]
I think this is very true. I absolutely question the gym prices supplied. Our local CrossFit box is £95 per month. Their main clientele is young people.

I’m not saying it’s that straightforward. I’m quite sure that some people would argue that they need it for their mental health or why should they give it up, both perfectly valid. But I don’t think it’s a black and white situation. Some people will not be able to cut anything or save a penny, others will live relatively extravagant lives and would easily be able to afford a deposit with a bit of restriction.

Scraping together a deposit is the easy part. It's the being offered a mortgage and being able to borrow enough that's the real killer, especially if you're single.

I agree there are plenty of people - not just the young - who spend without any thought for the future, but nipping that in the bud isn't going to magically mean they have enough.

For many, the idea of owning a home is a pipe dream. It's never going to happen for them. So why should they aim for a target that's completely unrealistic.

Kirsty works for the Property Industry which makes its money from the housing market continually going up. At this time of inflation and rising interest rates, it’s important that people keep drinking the Kool Aid by believing that if they just tried a little harder, they too could buy into the dream.

But just giving up costa and Netflix- we are looking at hundreds of years

@fridgepants
Have you ever tried commuting by public transport from Oswaldtwistle to Manchester? Let's hope you don't work in a call centre or anything else involving shift work
You've completely missed the point of my post which I've explained numerous times. But as a reminder the OP said there was no houses at 90k.
There are. Maybe not in the S or Se though. As another reminder I never said everyone should come to north just in case that gets thrown at me again!
While we are at it why does it have to be a commute to Manchester? Not everyone is going to want city work.

The only young people ( under 30) I know who go to Manchester daily are at uni there.
Not everyone who works in Manchester uses public transport 🤷‍♀️
I commuted to Trafford Park for 18 months from Church so I know what it's like and had to negotiate a later start and finish time on some shifts to help with traffic congestion.
I mentioned Chorley on another post which is on the commuter run to Manchester and that was sneered at and asked why a someone would want to live there. Like places are too good for first time young buyers setting out!
If people aren't going to lower their expectations it probably will take them longer to get a starter home!

Kirstie Allsop needs to shut up and fuck off. It's fine fir her, she's aristocracy.

Everything is so expensive and it's alright for her saying that people should go without the one bit of enjoyment they have to possibly be able to buy. It's like with her crafting, whilst it is a hobby most of the stuff is not cheaper than buying.

I'm looking around and even with a good deposit and a decent job because there is only me I can only loan so much.

I would hate to be as far gone as her to think that I could lord it over others.

Yes and her crafts are generally shit.

To be honest it's probably cheaper to get Netflix for a month than it is to make one of her crafts