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."

RM witty? Prettier than most women? NKF, you must be.......Rosie Millard!

smug tosser rosie millard

The original aticle? I thought it was a bog standard Sunday Times lifestyle piece.

NKF, are you Rosie Millard?

Surely the Sunday Times does not usually print articles that so blatantly dismiss and sneer at those who are less fortunate than the author?

she used to go out with dp's flatmate and he was a bit of an oddbod so shes not the full ticket|!

NKF?

Well all the drivel she has written over the years has paid for that massive property portfolio.

This is yet another example of lazy female (sorry) journalism. Don't bother with boring things like research just drone on about your life all the time.

She isn't witty she is self obsessed. I don't want to read about her life, houses, children, nannies, fitness regime, clothes or dull husband.

The Times needs to have a clear out of lots of journalists who are stale, lazy and dull.

If only they would pay me to write such drivel. Can't be hard.

Still feel annoyed about that article, so just googled for Ms Millard and found this

It seems that they were able to trace that she owns the following:

? A £900,000 Grade-II* listed Georgian home in one of Islington's most exclusive residential squares.

? A £ 600,000 four- bedroom Victorian house in Hackney.

? Two buytolet loft-style apartments near Liverpool Street worth a total of about £600,000.

? A 'chic' Paris apartment near the Moulin Rouge nightclub valued at about £150,000.

"Ms Millard, 37, started dabbling in the property market in 2000 after she decided that simply living in one house with a mortgage was 'boring'. At first the dream went to plan with property prices soaring and a booming buy-to-let market. She started a column in a Sunday newspaper chronicling her experiences as a landlady."

I used to read The Times and the ST. But I had to stop as I found myself shouting at it!

As small ishoo Ms M seems to have overlooked is that of the short term nature of renting in this country. I rent privately. I therefore have exactly 60 days security, which means in that period of time I might have to desperately search for a 3 b/r house locally, or for DH and I to find new jobs and to put the DSs into new schools. Such things have social implications. We have no roots whatsoever in this 'community' as it could cease to BE 'our community' in 60 days time. This is no way to build up a caring, sharing society. It will only get worse.

I must say I DO wish some of the FTB folks who have wrung themselves out sideways to afford a
mortgage over the last, say, 2 years had put the energy into lobbying the government to increase the lot of the tenant- like they have in Europe! Not only would it make people like us have more security, it'd would also have nipped the amateur BTL landlord in the bud, if they knew that being a landlord was a long-term proposition with RESPONSIBILITIES.

Sadly, what will end this racket is when those poor beleaguered middle-classers on another thread find their own offspring forced to rent forever. THEN we'll see change.

I can't believe I am still so about this, I think it is not because that ignorant bint wrote it, but because the editors saw fit to publish such sheer maliciousness.

She bought her house in Hackney in 1994. It is probably worth four times as much now. So newly wed first time buyers like her and her DH would, if they were trying to buy now, not have a hope of buying a house in Hackney.

Is it that she doesn't understand that or is it just fun to boast about how well you've done while poking fun at us pitiful proles.