Kirstie Allsopp has sparked a heated debated after suggesting young people could afford to buy a house if they quit Netflix, gym memberships and coffee.
The TV presenter told a newspaper over the weekend youngsters would be able to afford their own place if they cut out the subscriptions.
She said they could move in with their parents for three years to save or find homes in cheaper areas up north if they are struggling.
Allsopp acknowledge it required ‘enormous sacrifices’ but said it ‘enraged’ her when people claimed they simply could not afford to buy.
Some social media users joked cutting back their expenditure – which came to around £30 per month – would do little to help them get on the housing ladder.
But others backed the Location Location Location star and told their stories of stopping excess spending.
The Location, Location, Location star (pictured) was told online people were giving up the luxuries so they could afford to ‘live in a bin’
‘How I bought a house at NINETEEN’: Mother tells how she got on the property ladder
Vicki Brown, now 48, bought her first place when she was just 19
A mother of three has backed Kirstie Allsopp and revealed she got on the property ladder aged just 19.
Vicki Brown, now 48, who works in accounts after working in a bank for 14 years, bought her first place with her partner but they split and she took on the mortgage.
She said she was a single mother of three and saved up to start an investment property.
She told MailOnline: ‘I was 19 years old when I got my first mortgage with my partner.
‘We split up and I took over the property.
‘Despite being a single mum of three for many years I saved up and also purchased an investment property.
She said she was a single mother of three and saved up to start an investment property
‘I’m 48 years old and will be mortgage free on my own property in just over a year.
‘It can be done by working hard and cutting back.’
Both the houses are in Leeds, with the first bought in 1992 for £35,000 and sold two years later for around the same.
She moved to a three-bedroom semi detached which cost £47,000 and is now worth around £140,000.
She said she bought her investment property – a three-bedroom – 10 years ago for £85,000 and it is now worth around £120,000.
She added she hopes to buy another investment property in the next couple of years.
One young couple said they cut back ‘unnecessary costs and didn’t frequently go on nights out’ which allowed them to buy a £300,000 house when they were 25.
The tech worker and his HR employee girlfriend told MailOnline: ‘I started my saving journey during my latter university years and started leveraging the Help To Buy ISA before transitioning to the Lifetime ISA scheme.
‘The LISA enables you to save £4k per tax year and gain a £1k Government bonus. I saved up £16,000 over 4 years and received a £4000 bonus. My partner did the same with her finances.
‘We had the opportunity to use the HTB scheme but decided we didn’t want to share equity with the government and pursued a 15 per cent deposit on a £300,000 house.
‘We still had holidays and meals out but we just scaled back unnecessary cost and didn’t frequently go on nights out.’
Vicki Brown said: ‘I was 19 years old when I got my first mortgage with my partner. We split up and I took over the property.
‘Despite being a single mum of three for many years I saved up and also purchased an investment property.
‘I’m 48 years old and will be mortgage free on my own property in just over a year. It can be done by working hard and cutting back.’
Meanwhile Hannah Neill said she was 22 when she bought her first place for £98,000 in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in November.
Daniel Frost bought his first one in for £120,000 in Sheffield aged just 19.
He said: ‘I purchased my first house at 19 years old I saved up for my deposit by working full time since I was 16 all the way through my A levels and still kept up my mortgage throughout my degree.
‘It’s not difficult you just prioritise your bills and mortgage instead of going out clubbing every night like a lot students!
‘I still manage to have a life and go travelling too! Worked full time at uni whilst studying its not difficult just called time management!’
Jo Thelfall, 29, a PR manager from Manchester, saved £25,000 and has a Help To Buy ISA, which she planned to use to buy her first home.
She told the Telegraph: ‘I’m mindful that living costs are going up – and rent. A lot of people in my age bracket want to get out of renting if they can. I’m lucky to be in a stable job with a relatively good salary.’
Another woman said online: ‘She isn’t wrong. I know people who at 21/22 bought out of London, and travelled in then benefited from house prices increasing – think long term, not ease of access and comfort.’
Heidi Lindsay, now 20, from Malvern, Worcestershire, snapped up her first home with her boyfriend Sam Bradley in July, after saving since she was still at school for her first home.
She worked three jobs to raise £14,500 towards a deposit.
The finance assistant, who posts about her property buying journey on TikTok, and her partner, 29, snapped up the £217,000 home after putting off plans to buy earlier because of the pandemic.
While family gave the couple £5,000 to help with the £25,000 deposit, Heidi raised £14,500 by herself.
She said: ‘It is sometimes still hard to believe I have been able to buy a home so young.
‘It has been a long journey to get here with a lot of hard work involved along the way, but I am incredibly happy with what I have achieved with Sam.
‘It is down to our hard work and saving, and also the help of our families that we have been able to do this.’
Ms Lindsay had been working since the age of 15 and saving money in the hopes of one day being able to achieve this goal.
She said: ‘I started working as a waitress and then when I finished school, I started working for a small manufacturing company as a financial assistant.
‘By the time I was 17, I was working three jobs which would often have me working from 9:00am to 1:00am the following day.
‘I moved to a new job at the start of 2021, and which allowed me to earn more money and I passed my probation so I am able to begin my training to become a full time accountant.’
Another put: ‘Kirsty has a point. These are luxuries not necessities.’ One woman added: ‘Team Kirsty.
‘I also made lunch and took it to work, no fancy coffees, limited social life, old-ish mobile.
‘Now I have my own house plus own 2 others rented out. It’s not hard, just need to make some sacrifices.’
Paul Davies put: ‘Kirstie Allsopp is right, if you can’t afford to buy in that area go elsewhere. It’s up to you.’
One woman posted: ‘Kirstie is right. Sorry, but that’s the hard truth. You have to sacrifice frills for substance.’
Another said: ‘Kirstie Allsopp is right. There are moaners and there are ‘doers’, I’d rather focus on the doers rather than the moaners..’
Heidi Lindsay snapped up first home with boyfriend Sam Bradley before 20th birthday. The couple paid £217,000 for three bedroom home in Malvern, Worcestershire, with Heidi paying £14,500 of her own money towards the £25,000 deposit
Daniel Frost bought his first one in for £120,000 in Sheffield aged just 19
But her comments were seized upon by some who hit out at her for buying her first house at 21 with her parents’ help.
Robert Knight said: ‘Thanks to #KirstieAllsopp, I’m going to cancel my Disney+ subscription and that means I’ll have enough money for a 1 bedroom flat near me by the year 3482.’
One woman called Grace posted a picture of her with a Wendy house and thanked Allsopp for her advice.
She wrote: ‘I’m not sure why you lot are moaning. I listened to Kirstie Allsopp’s advice and have managed to move into my first home.’
One man put: ‘Difficult times lie ahead, so I asked myself what would Kirstie Allsopp do? I’m no longer worried and neither should you be.
‘I made 3 simple changes: 1. Dismissed my butler. 2. Cancelled my weekly Fortnam & Mason hamper. 3. Rented out my villa.’
Another said: ‘Cancelled my Netflix Amazon and Costa subscriptions and off to buy a house thus morning.’
He added on Twitter: ‘Any recommendations for the best place to get one for £30 a month?’
A woman said: ‘Kirstie Allsopp was just a girl from the slums of Hampstead, the spawn of a Baron, but she had a dream…’
Another posted: ‘Young people could afford to get on the pre-apocalypse property ladder if they simply submit to never feeling joy until their inevitable death in the great water war of 2031, says Kirstie Allsopp.’
Piers Morgan said: ‘Every time Kirstie Allsopp trends, I check why and see she’s said another unbelievably stupid, ludicrously ill-informed and woefully privileged thing.
‘Then I wait for her to respond to the entirely justified outrage by throwing her toys out of the pram & quitting Twitter again.’
One man said: ‘Kirstie Allsop on new series of Location, Location, Location: ”You can’t afford to live in this box?
”’Well have you thought about downsizing to a bin, peasant?”’.
Allsopp, who owns a house in North Devon, had given an interview to the Sunday Times which sparked the ridicule.
She said: ‘When I bought my first property, going abroad, the EasyJet, coffee, gym, Netflix lifestyle didn’t exist.
‘I used to walk to work with a sandwich. And on payday I’d go for a pizza, and to a movie, and buy a lipstick. Interest rates were 15 per cent, I was earning £11,500 a year.’
The presenter acknowledged that interest rates were much lower today but added there are ‘new drains on the finances’ of today’s young first-time buyers.
She said streaming services, foreign holidays and gym memberships were now standard parts of young people’s lives, which was not the case for her.
Ms Allsopp said she bought her first home at the age of 21 with family help when owning your own home was seen as ‘the be all and end all’.
She added: ‘I don’t want to belittle those people who can’t do it. But there are loads of people who can do it and don’t. It is hard.
‘We’ve fallen into the trap of saying it’s impossible for everybody… It’s about where you can buy, not if you can buy. There is an issue around the desire to make those sacrifices.’
Allsopp (right) presents property programmes Location, Location, Location and Love it or List It with Phil Spencer (left)
Allsopp went on the offensive this morning following the backlash, and challenged people to try to get her cancelled from her TV shows.
She wrote: ‘Anyhow who thinks I have spent the last 22 years pretending to understand the needs of British homebuyers must think me a very good actress indeed.
‘If you don’t like the shows don’t watch them. But I’m beyond caring what the press or social media think about me, life is too short.
‘If you don’t like me do tell @Channel4, though the best way to put an end to me is not to watch the shows.
‘We’re filming the Christmas Show on Friday, maybe by the time it comes out in December it will have 0 viewers. You’ve got 9 months to achieve that. Ready, steady go.’
‘For all those people who bizarrely bang on about my Dad (who is a lovely man but had nothing to do with my career btw) I had a Mum, she was a huge influence on me and she mattered.’
Her father is Charles Henry Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, a British peer and former general manager of Christie’s New York.
Her mother was Lady Fiona Hindlip, an interior decorator, who died from breast cancer in 2014 aged 66.
Allsopp later added on Twitter: ‘Housing is the most serious issue in the UK today. It impacts everything education, health, relationships, pensions, fertility, the environment, productivity etc etc.’
She also got into a spat with actress Amanda Abbington, who posted: ‘I’ll just leave this here: In 2020, the average first-time buyer deposit in the UK was about £57,300.
‘And: Allsopp is the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip, a former chairman of Christie’s. Look. I’m not saying ANYTHING…’
Allsopp hit back: ‘Word to the wise, if you believe what you read in the Murdoch press you’re an idiot.
‘If you attack other women in the public eye you’re even more of an idiot. If you attack a 50 year old woman on the basis of who her Father is you’re a moron.’
In the interview, she recommended first time buyers consider moving north to cheaper areas.
She related it to a couple who found a two-bed maisonette in Newcastle for £160,000 after moving back in with their parents during lockdown.
She said: ‘It is difficult: if you were born down south, and have family down south, my life is down south, but if we want a family house we have to move.
‘If I had any roots further north and I was trying to buy [I’d do it].’
A first-time buyer who gives up a Starbucks latte every weekday, a Netflix subscription, gym membership and two return flights to Europe on EasyJet a year would save about £1,600 annually.
The average deposit for a first-time buyer is £59,000 according to Halifax, which means buyers would have to forgo these for 37 years.
EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: Sold! Kirstie Allsopp is all for some facial renovation
Some women in the public eye let themselves age naturally; others pay secret visits to cosmetic surgeons.
Kirstie Allsopp, by contrast, is disarmingly honest.
The wholesome television presenter, who turned 50 last summer, has revealed that she plans to have a facelift.
‘So far I’ve been very lucky, really: I made it to 50 and my face hasn’t collapsed,’ Allsopp tells Saga magazine. ‘But I reckon I’ve only got about another five years or so. I know it’s only a matter of time before I have to think about evasive action.’
Paraphrasing Dylan Thomas’s poem about death, she declares: ‘I will not go gently into the dark night; I will rage against the dying of the light and I will get a facelift.’
Allsopp mocks those famous figures who publicly claim to enjoy the ageing process.
‘I always marvel at those who say: ‘Getting older is brilliant. I’ve never felt better.’
The wholesome television presenter, who turned 50 last summer, has revealed that she plans to have a facelift
‘Sorry, but getting older means more aches and pains; it means you have to work harder to keep your weight down; it means your hairdresser has to use more dye every time you go to see her.’ The Location, Location, Location co-host (below) has two children and two stepchildren with her property developer boyfriend Ben Andersen, 59. She’s the daughter of former Christie’s chairman, the 6th Lord Hindlip, and doesn’t mind being called posh.
‘Not at all,’ she says. ‘I am posh. What drives me potty is when people assume I’ve only managed to get where I am because my dad’s a baron.
‘Same as everybody else, I’ve had to work bloody hard — nothing to do with my dad.
‘Yes, I have famous friends, but I’ve also spent two decades talking to ordinary working-class and middle-class people in every county. I probably understand the people of this country far better than some MPs.’
Allsopp mocks those famous figures who publicly claim to enjoy the ageing process
- Are YOU a young homeowner? Email: james.gant@mailonline.co.uk
