"I just bought a house and so can you... If you're rich like me"

[WonderLand1345]

So I just read this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-12431853/I-earn-40-000-year-afford-buy-house-Im-converting-parents-barn-450-000-home.html

Yes I know it's a DailyMail article but I'm using it as an example; my local newspaper also does a lot of articles like this, also about people having a successful business but they leave out the part about them having a massive inheritance when they started it.

I'm also open to people completely disagreeing with me.

Now the title makes you think "oh she earns 40,000 pounds and is single and she's been able to afford a house by converting her parents barns". And that's supposed to give other young people hope that they can get on the ladder?
As if most young people will read that and think
"You know what, I never thought of converting my parents barn into a house... Oh wait, my parents don't have a barn".

AIBU to think most of these articles are basically bragging?
And a lot of these type of articles, not just this one, often are about people with some sort of privilege i.e. a well of background, a partner with a good job, having parents who let them live with them for years to save for a deposit..

I mean it's the Daily Mail - the article is designed to annoy us so we rage-click on it.
But I do agree with you that many of us don't have parent's with a spare barn we can convert, and it ignores the fact that she has a headstart that most of us will never have.

That said, we all take the opportunities that are offered to us, and if I had the same chance to do something like that I probably would - I just wouldn't brag about it in a newspaper 🙂

*parents

I agree, I see quite a few articles that seem to say that there are no issues getting on the housing ladder if only young people would stop eating avocado toast or whatever it is they are supposed to be spending money on and just save that money, add it to the £100k present from their parents and voila a house!

Yanbu... But you realise these are clickbait articles deliberately designed to get people frothing? Just ignore

@Insommmmnia yes I read an article similar a few months ago, but it was about a young couple and the title said something along the lines of, "we were able to buy a house after giving up takeaways".

But when you read the article, they actually both lived in their parents house until they were in their late 20s, which many people don't have that opportunity

Sarah Beeny did a whole ridiculous series about this- basically people exploiting really tight and situation- specific loopholes which don’t apply to 99% of the population- like be an agricultural labourer and persuade your employer to let you live in a trailer in a field he owns and after 7 years you can buy the field and build a house. I mean… fml.

@illiterato honestly, it is laughable isn't it? I think, if anything, it is a case of "how the other half live".
Like this article makes out £40,000 as a single person is not a good income whereas I swear a lot of couples have that as a shared income haha!

The media wants us to be fearful and/or angry - these emotions drive likes, shares, comments etc. which in turn drive advertising revenue. This article is INTENDED to provoke an emotional reaction. Just ignore it and deny the DM the advertising revenue...

You know what, I never thought of the "clickbait" aspect of it all before some of these comments; I think from now when I see an article on the premise of "we bought a house and so can you" or "I started my own successful business and so can you", I'm not even going to bother clicking on as 99percent of the time, they're a load of nonsense for the average person

She is incredibly lucky. Housing is relatively cheap in the rural were we live but a small plot with planning permission would still set you back about £100,000 IF you can find one. A plot with a building on it would be around £200,000. That is some gift from her parents. You also have to be able to afford to live in the area to take advantage of said gift. The reason why housing is quite cheap around here is because there is no work!

That article is just her advertising her cosmetics company, dressed up as some kind of human interest story about her converting a barn.
She's lucky. She has been given a plot of land and a barn and she's now spending money doing it up. That money is also coming from somewhere - loans? parents? savings she has accrued while living with parents?

What annoys me is the articles about not eating takeaways and drinking Starbucks coffee and suddenly being able to afford a house. The implication being that those who aren't able to afford a house are wasteful in some way - splashing money about on crap. You can't afford a house just by giving up those things - yes, you can save money, but not a whole lot.
I gave up McDonalds in May (I was at rock bottom and very stressed and got into a bad habit of buying McDs to try to make myself feel better). I am shoving €12 in a piggy bank every time I resisted the temptation to have one. I have ended up with about €250 in 4 months (which I then used as holiday spending money). Fortunately I own a flat as I'd never get the money for it just by giving up McDs... and nor will other young people who forego their avocado toast.

If you actually read the article, she is not converting, as such, merely redecorating/updating as the "barn" was already in use by her parents as their therapy rooms.
Massive difference between updating and actually converting, which probably requires all sorts of planning permission. I assume she has applied for change of use, if appropriate. When finished it will be a 1 bedroom dwelling. Presumably it could then be sold at the inflated price quoted and enable her to buy something larger, mortgage-free?

Total click bait. It's not even a barn!! A barn, to me, is a wooden shed, but on a massive scale, full of hay or odd tractor parts, perhaps with an upstairs for storage. Whereas that looks like a brick bungalow, and was already being used as an office before she started "converting" it. Pull the other one DM! I don't know why the media are so set in insulting the public's intelligence.

This type of shit really irritates me.