After more than 15 years of renting an assortment of accommodation I eventually managed to buy my first home last year.
And Netflix and flat whites had nothing to do with it.
Kirstie Allsopp hit the headlines on Sunday when she became the latest in a long line of privileged folk telling non-privileged folk that their lack of home ownership was down to too much money spent watching Tiger King.
That we only have to give up our holidays, our nights out, our happiness and everything else to help squirrel away an extra £15 towards that far off £15,000 deposit.
If only renters would trudge home from their second jobs, crawl into bed in a dark, cold room and enter a cheap, deep sleep – then one day we could be rich like them.
It’s all nonsense of course.
The mindset that home ownership is within your grasp if only you could give up those little luxuries that make life worth living is detached from the reality of extortionate rents, low housing stock and wage stagnation.
I bought my first home last year at the age of 32.
I got lucky and I got help.
I wasn’t “savvy” or “shrewd” or any of the other buzzwords that privileged folk use to describe their position when they bought a three-bed at 22.
And nothing is more annoying to a long-time renter than being told you’re just not as clever or hard-working as that 22-year-old as you wait for the inevitable reveal…
…They were given the deposit by their parents and lived at home rent free.
There’s an exception to every rule of course, but that’s the overwhelmingly common theme.
The pad of mum and dad
I moved out my parents’ house at 17.
It wasn’t for a bad reason – they live in rural Ireland and I wanted to go to college and then university.
A lot of people have worse situations, meaning they can’t just stay at home while they save.
Being able to live in the pad of mum and dad while they pay your bills, food and Netflix subscription isn’t smart – it’s incredibly lucky.
For me, location was the problem – there’s not a whole lot of journalism jobs in Donegal.
Around 2008, when I was 19, there weren’t a whole lot of jobs full stop. The recession hit us extremely hard.
A lot of my town went to Australia and America for work – quite the commute if you’re being “savvy” and living with your parents.
But that’s the reality for so many renters.
You move to get work, you work to get money, and then you spend all that money paying someone else’s mortgage.
The mortgage of someone “shrewd” enough to buy two houses while they were still affordable 20 years ago.
Gaslit by the well-off
I couldn’t buy on my own.
As I said, I got help.
And even then it was through a fairly unique set of circumstances.
Some money was saved during lockdown.
I also had the benefit of cheap rent in Perth – a house share for £375.
It’s the second cheapest I’ve had in 14 different flats spanning four different countries.
My parents chipped in at the end too.
There’s no secret formula, I was very fortunate.
So I find it contemptable the lengths some well-off people will go to gaslight those faced with a forever worsening housing crisis.
Kirstie Allsopp is just the latest in a long line to trot out the ‘It’s not our second homes, it’s your stupidity’ line.
As if we are dumb for living in this relentless reality of rising living costs and unaffordable rents.
Home ownership means a room without curtains
So what did I buy then?
A three-bed in Perth.
A fixer-upper that is currently more reminiscent of a building site than a home.
And buying the house is only half the battle.
These bricks cost money.
Money I spent buying these bricks.
Now when I watch Netflix I do so in a room without curtains.
There’s bare floor boards and unpainted walls.
But I’m told it’ll get there.
I’ve been getting told that for a while.
Hold on though, there’s still the reveal.
The inevitable paragraph explaining how I really managed to afford to buy my first home aged 32…
“I once bought my own house after Kirstie Allsopp advised me to stop buying food and sell one of kidneys..” pic.twitter.com/n9fpoXSsSR
— J.R.Hartley’s Armchair (@JRsArmchair) February 6, 2022
…I’m not single.
My girlfriend paid for half of it.
And how did she save for her half of our house?
You guessed it, she lived with her parents while she saved.
For years.
Oh how savvy and shrewd we are.
Buying a house is incredibly difficult and home ownership is slipping further out of reach for a lot of folk.
People in positions of wealth and power need to realise that and join the conversation in a helpful manner.
Otherwise here’s some advice Kirstie Allsopp – just stay in your posh house and wheesht.
