Do you agree? Agent joins chorus of disapproval following Kirstie comments
Sussex auctions chief Simon Caplin says it's unfair to lambast young buyers for their spending habits and suggest they should 'buy somewhere cheaper'.
A Brighton estate agent has weighed in on the social media storm following remarks by broadcaster Kirstie Allsopp about young people’s inability to save for a house.
The Love It or List It presenter sparked mass outrage after telling The Sunday Times she was “enraged” when people claimed they could not afford to buy their first home, insisting they could afford it by giving up luxuries such as coffee, their gym membership, Netflix and foreign holidays – and looked at cheaper areas instead.
Agents with longer memories may recall Strutt & Parker sparked similar social media derision when it made similar comments about first-time buyer affordability in 2017.
Allsopp bought her first property for £51,000 on a salary of £11,500 nearly 30 years ago with help from her father Baron Charles Allsopp; adjusted for inflation, that’s £112,000 compared with £255,556 for the average home today.
Simon Caplin (pictured), auctions director at Lextons, says: “Based on three-times-income as it was at this time, she would have been able to borrow £34,500, have a deposit of £16,500 and have no stamp duty to pay. A much easier scenario than first-time buyers are faced with today.”
He adds: “Yes, you can save a little by not having Netflix, living at home, waiting for payday to buy a lipstick and a pizza. However, with property prices at the level they are currently at with salaries nowhere near keeping pace, it is, without doubt, very much harder now for first-time buyers to get onto the property ladder.”
Social media users rounded on Allsopp for her comments – which she now claims were taken out of context – pointing out her privileged background. One joked: “I can’t wait to watch her new property programme, ‘Homes you can’t afford because you’re poor and lazy.’”
Allsopp has since claimed that here comments to the newspaper were taken out of context.
I’m with Julian.
For generations, a credit and spend on fashionable, rather than essential items has been advertising fodder.
The benefit system has only encouraged many ( not all ) to remain at the lower end of the economy.
To be fair to her if you look at what people spend on take away coffees at £3 each, gym memberships they use for a week , “Prime” they accidentally subscribed to and other items you could save on, it’s not unreasonable within a context to save an extra £250 a month just on those items – PER PERSON. The best way to make money is to save it.