Allsopp comes under fire as she tells first-time buyers they could buy a house if they just stop paying for Netflix.
Location, Location, Location presenter makes headlines after feeling “enraged” when she heard that first-time buyers couldn’t afford to buy a house. Her response was, “move in with your parents,” “cancel Netflix subscriptions, gym memberships and stop buying coffee or move to a cheaper area of the country.” Allsopp denies the fact that she’s too privileged to understand the struggles that young buyers are currently facing, despite buying her first property at 21 when the average house price in the UK was roughly £51,000 compared to the current price now being around £276,000, nearly six times the amount.
Allsopp is the daughter of Henry Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip who is worth an estimated £16m.
House Prices vs Salary
According to the Halifax Index, house prices are constantly increasing, and cost of living is also soaring at the same pace. January hit a new record with the average price for a property now sitting at £276,759 after increasing by around £24,500 over the past year, which means you need to be earning a total of almost £60,000 a year to afford the average house in the UK.
Houses in London are now at a staggering £661,000, increasing by 4.5% with annual house price inflation accelerating for a third straight month.
Monthly increase began in June 2021 and followed four consecutive months, increasing by more than 1%, with the annual growth being at 9.7%.
According to Jobted, the average salary in the UK is £29,600 per year, £1,950 per month before tax. This is just under half of the salary you need to be earning in order to be able to afford a deposit on a house, making it incredibly difficult for first-time buyers.
“Affordability remains at historically low levels as houses price rises continue to outstrip earnings growth” Russel Galley, Managing Director of Halifax.
Does cutting back matter?
Allsopp suggested that graduates should either move “up north” or back with their parents to help them save or be able to afford a deposit for a property.
Secretary of Living Rent, Meg Bishop said that parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh have seen massive inflation in rents and people are having to give up half of their earnings for rent and bills, which means they are unable to save for a deposit.
“To tell tenants to move elsewhere in order to be able to afford a home is ludicrous and [a] destructive opinion that shows no understanding of renting in Scotland or the realities of tenants’ lives.” Bishop added, “as tenants, we live where we can access jobs,” explaining that it “widely misses the point” as tenants are unable to consider buying houses anywhere outside of their area when rents across Scotland are already increasing massively.
Allsopp denied being an “out of touch rich b*tch” after making her comments, “when I bought my first property, going abroad, the easyJet, coffee, gym, Netflix lifestyle didn’t exist,” as well as adding “I do think you have to ask yourself what your degree is giving you, could you get a job at eighteen, stay at home with [your] parents for three years, and save every single penny, enough for a deposit?”
This caused a massive uproar and even trolling via Twitter.
Allsopp fired back saying, “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.” She also claims that her words were “twisted” and she will now be sticking to radio and podcasts.
