Cut out avocados, property firm urges first time buyers – sound familiar?
Home moving services platform ReallyMoving says wannabe home buyers need to cut out 21,700 avocados to save up for a deposit, as Strutt & Parker did a year ago.
Avocados and first-time buyers have a chequered history in the property game, something home-moving services platform ReallyMoving.com appears to have forgotten.
It has released a survey that highlights how, in order to get on the property ladder, buyers need to eschew some 21,700 avocados costing £1.08p each in order to save up a deposit. In London the avocado count reaches a ‘ludicrous’ 37,817.
These figures have been calculated using ReallyMoving’s new online tool that enables wannabe home owners to plan how to save, including details of which luxuries – including avocados – they will need to cut out.
This all seems eminently sensible on the face of it. But ReallyMoving.com is swimming in shark invested PR waters.
Strutt & Parker
In November 2017 venerable estate agency Strutt & Parker made a similar claim, suggesting that couples could save up a £33,000 deposit in just five years through energetic thriftiness including ‘growing their own avocados’.
Although the stunt was well-intentioned, it triggered an avalanche of online bile from ‘Millennials’ offended by their cheek, and negative media articles.
Like Strutt & Parker, ReallyMoving also claims that amassing a deposit to buy the average UK first time buyer home (£219,600) requires savers to lay off luxuries such as beers, lattes, wine and gym memberships.
“Our First Time Buyer Deposit Savings Generator is a fun tool designed to help first time buyers challenge any suggestion that saving for a deposit is easy, alongside a range of free resources to help them actually achieve their goal,” says Rob Houghton, CEO of ReallyMoving.com (left).
