The Location, Location, Location presenter suggested more people could get on the ladder if they gave up luxuries or bought in cheaper areas. Allsopp also said she felt “enraged” when people claim they cannot afford to buy a property.
Giving up gym memberships and foreign holidays or moving back in with parents are among the ways that young people can buy, Allsopp said in an interview with The Sunday Times.
Allsopp said: “When I bought my first property, going abroad, the easyJet, coffee, gym, Netflix lifestyle didn’t exist.”
She added: “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.”
Allsopp said “I don’t want to belittle those people who can’t” buy a home but added that “there are loads of people who can do it and don’t”.
She added: “It is hard. We’ve fallen into the trap of saying it’s impossible for everybody. I was brought up to believe owning your home is the be all and end all and in a way I still believe that … It’s about where you can buy, not if you can buy. There is an issue around the desire to make those sacrifices.”
Allsopp acknowledged that high house prices in London and the South East make it difficult for first-time buyers to afford these areas, but she suggested that moving further north could be a solution.
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,” she said. “If I had any roots further north and I was trying to buy [I’d do it].”
The presenter made a valid point, according to Jane King, director and mortgage adviser at Ash-Ridge.
She said: “I see clients who rent the most rubbish accommodation and hold down three jobs making do with just the basic necessities in order to save a deposit. And then on the other side I have met first-time buyers almost throwing a hissy fit because they would have to give up their new car loan/lease, expensive phone bills and holidays in order to save sufficient to buy a home and afford the mortgage.
“I think there is a sense of entitlement among some younger buyers who assume that parents will stump up the deposit, many are correct in this assumption, but if you are not that lucky then cutting back on some frivolous purchases would certainly help them save faster.”
Colin Payne, associate director at Chapelgate Private Finance, added: “I do believe that there are many young people who can make sacrifices in order to save to build up a deposit, we do have a culture of not saving, wanting that immediate purchase using credit, that new car on a PCP arrangement, that contract on the latest iPhone.
“That is not to say it works for everyone because it clearly doesn’t and there are many reasons for this which makes saving challenging. But I do agree that there are many young people who can make sacrifices, many have done and now own homes. For others though it is still a pipe dream and will continue to be as house prices and the cost of living surges.”
However, Mortgage Advice Bureau adviser Andrew MacLean-Finney said that Allsopp’s comments were “astonishingly out of touch”.
He added: “In Kirstie’s little bubble she doesn’t have to think about how low wages are for ordinary people, and how difficult that makes it for those without recourse to the ‘bank of mum and dad.’”
The average home today is worth a record £276,759, Halifax today reported, while the average deposit for a first-time buyer is £59,000.
Advisers said most people will need to make large sacrifices to save a deposit and buy a home.
Rob Gill, director of Altura Mortgage Finance, said: “Buying a first home has always involved compromises and sacrifices. The problem for young people today however is that, with house prices higher than ever, the savings and sacrifices are also higher than they’ve ever been before.”
However, he added: “It should be possible for young people to enjoy their youth, have holidays, a gym membership and even the odd avocado on toast while also saving a deposit to buy a first home.”
