Millennials are being urged to give up some of the luxuries of life, including the likes of Pret sandwiches and Costa coffee, to save for a deposit.
But the campaign has backfired on Twitter, with contributors calling it patronising and misguided, and tenants saying they ‘want a life’.
Strutt & Parker, which now looks to have withdrawn at least some of its campaign, says that sacrificing just six luxuries over a period of five years could save a total of £33,378 for a couple wanting to buy their first home.
The savings it recommends are:
- Buying coffee: from the likes of Costa each day, this could add up to a cost of around £700 a year and the five-year saving would be £3,500 (Thermos flask and Nescafe stewed at 7am, anyone?)
- Gym membership: over five years, that could save £5,500
- Annual mini break: over five years, the saving comes to £3,500
- Takeaways including sandwiches bought at lunchtime: five-year saving would be £13,200 (so we’re talking packed lunches instead)
- Lottery and scratchcards: five-year saving of £4,160
- Mobile upgrade: the five-year saving would be £770
If would-be first-time buyers cannot bear to give up all or any of the above, Strutt & Parker suggests they could simply forego one night out a week for the next five years. Estimated at £60 per night out for our young couple, the five-year saving would come to £30,161.
Strutt & Parker’s suggestions follow those of Australian housing mogul Tim Gurner who called on would-be first-time buyers to forego their cafe-bought breakfasts of avocado on toast.
However, the suggestions from Strutt & Parker have received a brutal backlash.
Housing journalist Peter Apps described the advice as “economically illiterate”.
Apps said: “Don’t blame the sandwiches: blame the agents.”
One critic wrote: “Another great idea on top of giving up your social life etc would be to give up renting a flat and live on the streets instead. You could save up in no time.”
Another tweeted: “I never buy coffee, I cook from scratch, and my phone is several models out of date. I can assure you that even if I never left my flat I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a house. This isn’t about making a few economies – the economy is f***ed and the housing ladder with it.”
I remember George Daws xFNAEA had some wonderful discussions with Sibleys ba5tard child, Japan Dave and the other HPCrash canutes in 2010/2011
The problem is a lot of people don’t understand money and how at ultra low interest rates £1 is worth so much against a glacial advance in property prices that are still relentlessly compounding at 6.9%
If Japan Dave or SBC read this, George was right, you were wrong. You should have bought when he told you to. You guys missed out because you so confidently and arrogantly knew best.
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Its true though to a point. Got a mate in his late 20’s moaning he couldnt get on the ladder cos couldnt afford deposit.. I asked where he was going on holiday. Greece, bargain at £2500…. mmm didnt like it when i said that could have helped towards a deposit… thats how much my first deposit was in 2000 though …
i blame govt. for not keeping interest rates higher and property should be included in the general inflation figures.. its all a conn i tell you.
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Just as our parents and grandparents once said – the young today don’t know they are born. No, really, they don’t.
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To be fair though your grandparents bought their houses for £30 off the council and then spent 30 years chucking extra money into a pension…. and they still want cheap golf, free buses and heating…. and they gave us brexit… cheers old gits.
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That made me laugh out loud – thank you 🙂
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You can see why it has rankled….. but there are some valid points about assessing your income carefully and eradicating the obvious money vacuums.
But getting a deposit in this climate seems like an impossible dream for so many.
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Buying a house within your budget is affordable – its just that a lot of people wont compromise on location.
Im sure like most others my first property was rented, then a small run down 2bed house in the back end of a boring town which needed so much work doing to it. We had 2nd hand furniture and things to go inside. I walked to uni for 3 years as I could save £500 odd pounds on bus fares towards a deposit.
I dont think a lot of those looking to get on the ladder really have compromised in their lifestye which includes perhaps living somewhere where they dont really want to live to start with.
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The first time buyers must start saving asap and yes it does take a sacrifice for the majority to buy a property as it did/does for each generation although the price/loan amounts is different now. What Strutt and Parker says makes common sense and that probably erks with some commentators because common sense isn’t taught on a course , you learn it from life. What is is with this ‘must grab a coffee’ etc etc. Only now after some ten years is a generation beginning to see a slight creep forward in interest rates and it will hurt a lot more when inflation gets going and rates go up even more. Although silver savers may be tempted then to spend a little?
I remember attending repossessions in the late 1970’s just before Christmas and a couple and their very young baby had bought the lot on credit – Tv, washing machine, fitted carpets throughout, soft furnishings, and interest rates jumped and , sadly, bingo. Their answer was they did not understand money. Nowadays a generation does not handle cash – they have a coffee – swipe; they get on the tube or bus – swipe; they pay on line for a holiday – swipe. If they counted and saw pound notes counted out of their wallet and paid over would they do it so readily?. I make no apology for saying eight half crowns make a pound etc etc and a generation that understands the value of money but sadly many now do not and it doesn’t grow on trees.
Cash is anything but cash to the younger generation as it is just another process like sending a text or email and I feel desparately sorry as unless they are shown how to handle their finances by parents etc and others with knowledge it will continue to be difficult.
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Whilst you are cuttingly correct in your post, in fairness, Mr Turner, I would suggest that ‘counting cash’ is fast becoming a forgotten art for many of ‘our’ generation also.
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People in this day and age really don’t want to hear the truth. I’m SOOOO sorry you’re offended (not!).
I am a father to one of these pampered millennials and she drives me nuts claiming that sh never has any money but visiting one coffee shop or another every day.
And she was one of the first with an iPhone X.
And she has Bose headphones that cost a small fortune.
Etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera…
However, none of these things existed when I was young, all I ever needed to spend money on was my motorbike and my girlfriend.
When we decided to settle down, we just saved up a bit. It took us a few years, just like everyone else at the time and guess what, NOTHING has changed, not really.
As my mum once said to me – GROW UP! I was five years old, sitting in the back of the car, crying because I couldn’t have any sweeties 😉
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*Edit – AC pretty much beat me to the punchline by seconds!
But may I still suggest a new headline for this article, Ros?
ESTATE AGENT IN HOT WATER FOR STATING FACT TO WOULD-BE BUYERS.
Who would have ever thought it possible…
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In light of the backlash, maybe a better suggestion, and a more positive one at that, would be to offer advise on how to increase one’s earnings rather than reduce one’s expenses i.e. move out of your comfort zone if you want things that you cannot currently afford.
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‘Peter’
Suggesting that Estate Agents advise people on increasing their earnings is maybe a tad… unwise.
Don’t you think we’re in enough bother already?!
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I am not really saying they should, just making an observation that we tend to look at negative ways (spend less) to create savings rather than positive ones (earn more).
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Err…
…and somehow you think that suggesting an aspiring homebuyer get a better job/second job/sell a kidney will be seen as positive??
Good luck with that one!
;o)
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Fair points methinks.
One of my neighbours rented a cottage to a young couple for a year to give them the opportunity to buy. They got turned down for mortgage after mortgage yet at various times had a latest plate registration Range Rover Evoque and Mercedes convertible on the drive.
Problem is so many of the would be FTB generation want it all now, new car, latest iPhone, holiday in Mexico with their mates et al.
As for Peter Apps describing the comments as ‘economically illiterate’ for a ‘housing journalist’ you’re the one that’s illiterate chum.
You aren’t much of a property journalist if you think estate agents are responsible for the inflation woes of the property market as opposed to the basic economic laws of supply and demand (not to mention the legal duty of care to our client).
Of course you may be one of the many journalists out there who blame estate agents for everything and will of course have the courage of your convictions in declining to accept market value for their property when they come to sell instead saying to the agent ‘That’s a ridiculous figure, I insist you sell it at a far lower price’.
Oooh, what’s that flying past my window? Hmm, bacon roll anybody?
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It starts when you are very young, I had a morning and evening paper round, I delivered the Sunday newspapers on my bike, having to make 3 trips back to the shop as I couldn’t carry them all, I washed and polished cars for neighbours, and served petrol on Sunday afternoons to save for my first car, then just continued in the same vein… ..My first boss told me that the first £1000 was the most difficult to save and this was in 1967 and it is still true today. just multiply it by 10.
The younger generation have been mollycoddled and really do need a bit of tough love…..
Rant over
I do have a lot of sympathy for youngsters starting out now, who has papers delivered, who lets their 12 year old neighbour wash their car and how easy is it for youngsters who get ferried everywhere in mummy’s Chelsea tractor to earn money and start that saving habit.
oh God I am off again…….
If only estate agents ruled the world…….
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One thing which does come to mind…When discussing with people who own homes… in 1990 their salaries were between £15,000 + at the age of 18-22 and the cost of property was far far lower than what it is today. We’re talking about £60,000 for a 2-3 bedroom house with 100% mortgages. Nowadays I think a lot of people don’t seem to understand that the salaries are still close to £15,000 + for 18-22 year olds only fractionally over yet the cost of properties have gone up four fold to £240,000 for your average 2-3 bedroom house…and there is absolutely no 100% mortgages…Did many people outright save up £25k back in the 1990’s and buy 50% of their property? I’ve not heard of many cases of this…. please shed some light on this?
Further to the point…”Strutt & Parker, which now looks to have withdrawn at least some of its campaign, says that sacrificing just six luxuries over a period of five years could save a total of £33,378 for a couple wanting to buy their first home.”
£33,378 would’ve been 50% of the property value back in the 1990’s for most areas…and over a 5 year saving period? Did anyone really buy a property after they were 25 working for 5 years and saving to have a £30K + deposit? or was it a lot easier to get 100% mortgage with no deposit and no savings when you were between 18-24?…
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i love the gross generalisations here. Whilst there are many who have no concept of the value of money – I know plenty who simply can’t afford to save. With mortgages at 4 – 4.5 x income it is hard particularly for those in the South where house prices have outstripped incomes for that multiple to come anywhere near to be able to buy a house.
I pay more for my monthly rental than i would if I was to buy the same property on a 100% self cert mortgage (if they still existed).
I have two children, work two jobs – over 70 hours a week and don’t have any of the luxuries listed above. I would love the enlightened on here to show me how I can save – perhaps by not going on the holidays we already don’t go on.
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I think the article is very aimed towards young first time buyers without the financial worry and need for extra space that comes with children, as a millennial could save and buy a studio flat that needs work, if they could lower themselves to the idea!
For yourself, that is where the government needs to have something in place to help and make sure you’re not killing yourself each week with those hours, losing your time with your kids and only just covering your bills!
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DavidB
I feel for your predicament. You need to perhaps consider relocating to a different part of the country where housing is more affordable. I know that is difficult with children, but I guess it is never going to get any easier down south. If you are in agency, perhaps you could set up your own? Maybe we could help.
In the Midlands we still sell some houses for less than £150,000….though if the government keep doing things that limit supply, like scaring people about the future, without building more and more homes, that will change soon as well.
Crazy situation where people have to live in rented accommodation, costing them twice as much as it would on a mortgage, but they can’t get through affordability checks to get the amount of mortgage they need to buy.
Not being able to buy probably costs the average couple an accumulated wealth of at least £250,000, they will never have, over a working lifetime.
If generations are pushed more and more into full working life renting, who is going to pay all the housing costs when all these people retire?
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I remember selling my prized Mini Cooper S for £325 and buying a Mini Pick-up for £35 instead. This helped fund my purchase of my first house, a run down Victorian terrace in a poor area, no bathroom, no heating and just a sink in the “scullery” I could through bags of cement and plaster in the back of the pick up, go home to my parents for a bath twice a week, and fortunately there was an outside loo in the back yard. It took 6 months before I had a working bathroom and heating and another year before it was finished. All my mates did much the same thing, we met for a pint or two, helped one another out and I still see some youngsters doing the same thing now almost 50 years later. However they are the exception not the rule.
If you ain’t worked for it, you don’t appreciate it!
There are too many “Princesses and Princes” around and it is the parents who have made them like that…..
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Clever bit of ‘Controversy Marketing’ by S&P though – how many houses do they sell to FTB versus how many do they sell (or would like to be instructed on) to whinging old gits like me, who agree with every word they’ve said?
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We bought our first house at the end of last year – It can be done. At 23 I don’t think I am considered a ‘millennial’ although it was still hard very work saving with a very boring one drink rule if meeting friends at the pub!
It makes my blood boil hearing a group of girls sitting round a table taking pictures of their expensive coffee talking about how poor they are!
I think this is a great article and we need to stop wrapping these “adults” up in cotton wool and trying not to offend them!
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S&P have a good point, but didn’t get it over particularly well – lot’s of us scrimped and saved for a 5 or 10% deposit – and therein lies the issue. Todays 25 or 30% deposit requirement is a pipedream to most youngsters. The Chancellor has to do MORE to reverse this massive first time buyer deposit requirement.
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I saved £5,000 in 18 months to buy my first property in 1987. Had to do loads of on call, an extra part time job and work as hard as I possibly could. It covered my deposit at 10% and the costs.
If I had had to save two to three times as much as that it would have taken over 5 years….by which time house prices had doubled….so then I would have had to save for another 5 years…and so on.
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How patronising, I’m sure most of the staff in our local s & p don’t own a home and what is it with everyone that they will need 5 years to save a deposit!
Surely as parents you started a savings account for them, put money in at birthdays and Christmas and once old enough to understand, you handed over that savings book and asked them how much they were going to save of their birthday and christmas present money? teaching them of the value of money thus helping to make it just a little bit easier for them to get their own home.
If they need 5 years to save up then they and you haven’t been doing it right from an early age but its never too late, is it!
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What the actual f*ck are you on about. Handouts from parents do not teach anyone the value of money.
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I am a millenial, and definitely think this comment was not controversial. Its absolutely true, people want anything and everything without doing anything to achieve. I too am guilty of this occasionally. But there is nothing wrong with cutting out the expensive coffees and sandwiches, if you are saving then you need to be willing to put in the effort. Its easier to just say well everyone else has f*ck*d it for us so I’ll go and get my self a skinny latte with some fairy dust and caviar sandwich with gold flaked bread.
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