Pity the plight of the first-time buyer? Not a chance

[Upwind]

Just got around to reading yesterday's times over breakfast and found this lovely little gem: No pity for first-time buyers

"...When I was a 29-year-old first-time buyer, in 1994, did I cavil and wail about not being able to move in next door to my parents in leafy (and far too expensive) Wimbledon, southwest London? Certainly not. Newly married, I charged off to Hackney, in the east, a district so far from the orbit of my family, it took 10 months before any relation plucked up the courage to visit me. It was rather fun."

"...In fact, there is no such thing as an average FTB; you merely have to be on the market without anything to sell. So, one half of a divorced couple could be a FTB."

I can't bear Rosie Millard

That article just re-affirmed my dislike of her

Imagine the wailing if the puerile Millard is forced to sell off her property portfolio at 1994 prices. I would suggest that any of her would-be tenants takes her bad nature into consideration before signing a lease.

Was the standard of journalism in the Times always that weak?

She is a landlady about to see her portfolio plummet Silly woman

Rosie Millard is the pass master of "Look at me, my life is so wonderful and I can still get away with mini skirts even though my face looks like a bag of spanners tie up ugly" sort of journalistic shite.

See her thing in the Body & Soul section of the Saturday Times where she embarks on some activity with her equally dreadful husband, like "shopping with oiks at Tesco"

silly bint

Oops meant to add to last paragraph

.."for evidence of her egocentric journalism"

Her life is obv so much better than yours or mine.

Can't wait 'til she gets her property portfolio valued

This last bit: "All right, FTBs. It is tough out there, but please don?t squeak too much about it. In a year or two, you too will be a rapacious seller on the housing ladder. It happens." is the biggest bit of bullshit for me.

I will never be a "rapacious seller on the housing ladder" because DP and I will never earn anywhere near what is needed to buy a property in this town. Even with a down turn in the housing market, it won't recede enough for us to be able to do it. Average prices here are around £250k for a shitty house in a shitty area - even the property prices of between 8 and 10 years ago are out of our reach, so instead, we have to pay the mortgages of nobbos like Millard.

FFS. The same Rosie Millard who expected sympathy for being a bit skint because she owned several properties. Some of these journos can't appear to see past the end of zone 6 on the underground.

she really does look like a bag of spanners

I rarely feel ill will towards anyone. But it seems that the thought of first time buyers, many of them young families, struggling to find secure accomodation prompts her to write such snide drivel.

What a vile article. She obvioulsy just spouted it from the top of her head and didn't do her research properly.
I had to move miles away to afford a house to FTB, I am actually concerned that the schools are not that great near by and I wouldn't be surprised if we do end up in negative equity.
I am surprised there are only 22 responses to her article.
Smug cow. Bet she only got her job because her Daddy knew the editor.

btw - that wasn't meant to sound like a "poor me" FTB whine. It was a response to her quote:

"...Nor should we see them as liberated souls, sans housing chain, who don?t have to worry about moving near a decent secondary school, or free spirits for whom a house-price wobble is only ever going to be good, since they will never be in negative equity."

DP and I earn OK money.

However, we pay 700 a month in rent for a shitty 2 up 2 down. This is a cheap rent for our area.

We are not, and never have been, frivolous spenders. We do not borrow vast swathes of money. We both have loans - mine was to buy a car which I needed for work, and DP's was to help his (evil) ex-wife out of debt nearly 10 years ago. We have 2 kids and have really struggled financially since DS1 was born, because I didn't work until August 2007, largely because we couldn't afford childcare.

We are not City workers who piss their money up the wall. We live modestly, we don;t have posh furniture or a flash car. We don't eat expensive food or buy expensive clothes. We live the same as almost all of our friends, who also struggle to afford to buy a house. Those of our friends what do have mortgages are paying upwards of £1k a month on repayments.

I found most of that article smug and patronising. Millard and her interviewees totally miss the point of why FTBs cannot afford to buy property. We can't afford it because of greedy twats like her who have "property portfolios"

My grammar is dreadful in the pp, sorry

What sheik said

Lizzzombie - Daddy must have known where the editor had buried some bodies. Nearly any mnetter could write better than Rosie Millard. Almost any human being would have more insight.

"Charged off to Hackney"?
"Rather fun"?
Has she just put down a Jilly Cooper novel?
The picture made me though. Supercilious gurning idiots squeezed into strapless taffeta always do.

Bag of Spanners {grin](feel like a name change coming on...)

Mrs. Millard is not a popular figure on MN, I have found.

I hate all this journos with egos talking from their own experience about their dull lives bolleaux. I have nothing against journalists - just lazy ones who can't be arsed to go out and find something that's really newsworthy. It's a shame the Editor indulges her.

Rosie Millard sometimes seem to write the whole ST supplement these days and it really puts me off.

me too fairy

She is certainly not doing the ST's reputation any favours. Is there really a market for this kind of mean-spiritedness? Is there anyone who looks forward to reading Rosie Millard's articles?

She should have her own supplement, then I can remove it from my paper and put it straight into the recycling box.

Newspapers have given up on real news. They can't compete with TV and the Internet. So they give us lifestyle stuff. I like RM. I think clearly a bit off her head, something of a chancer and a fairly witty writer. Her column is (mildlyd) And she looks perfectly normal to me. Prettier than most women anyway.

That was meant to say "mildly entertaining."

NKF, and anyone lurking who likes Rosie Millard's style

• what did you think about the article in the OP, did you like it?

Rosie, is that you?