Kirstie Allsopp was right. Wasn’t she?
I thought I would wait a good few days for the storm to calm down before I wrote about, and commented on, the recent comments by TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp towards young people and affording first homes.
Now, if you are believing everything you read and watch via the gutter MSN then my style of writing is not likely to appeal to you as I have zero regard for all the main stream news outlets who report nothing more than paid for agenda news and love getting their horns stuck in to damning people. It is long since I paid for a BBC TV licence and today I gain most of my news purely from user generated media outlets across social media, this way I get a fairer picture of what is happening – ‘Here is the news and you decide how you wish to digest it’ format suits me fine. Since her comments it has been a frenzy of fake press hysteria.
Now Kirstie Allsopp, a celebrity face from television thanks to the popular TV show that she hosts alongside Phil Spencer that is Location, Location, Location caused a stir in the social media world with her recent comments towards young people and the affordability of property. Since then the typical trolls have been out, to include Piers Morgan, and countless other haters throwing abuse at Kirstie. Some have been waiting for such an excuse as many disagree with her political views and those on the covid19 agenda.
There have been great sensible debates and comments to0 from those agreeing and disagreeing on her points which have expanded the conversation outwards with people looking at facts and figures to delve in to affordability and the problem faced by first time buyers. There has also been some funny satire:
So, Kirstie says to The Sunday Times that to afford your first home youngsters should consider getting rid of some additional costs such as Netflix and the gym and also should consider moving to another location in order to find cheaper property. My first comment would be, sound advice? I remember saving for our first property and we had to move location from wanting Northeast London to accepting a northern Essex town and having to travel extra miles in to London instead. I also remember ditching one of our cars and also being more careful with spending money.
I will agree that today youngsters have far more things available to them than we had a generation back. Part of daily life today for some will be that £5 coffee each morning in Costa, catching up on movies via Amazon, mobile phone contracts with the latest iPhone and more. If I were young once again and thinking about purchasing my first property, assuming at that moment I would not have enough income / deposit, then I’d want to ditch some of my monthly non essential costs.
Generalising is what Kirstie was meaning as far as I am concerned, there is no point in moaning that you can not afford an average priced local property when they are cheaper options open to you. Many of us want better than what we have, but we usually have to accept what we can afford – The route out of this for most is hard work, saving, a bit of luck, family support which sees us landing more money which in turn gets us up the property ladder and gives us added spending money.
Yes property prices have gone up, cost of living as gone up especially in the last 3 years, interest rates up and business has been effected for many following government lock downs across the country – It is tough times at present and affordability is a real issue for many wanting a nice home locally especially with continued rocketing house prices. It would be good to see a heated debate with the government instead to get an idea of what they are doing about it!
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