KIRSTIE Allsopp has been blasted for suggesting renters struggling to get on the housing ladder should give up coffee, going to the gym and Netflix to buy their first home.
The Location, Location, Location presenter drew ire when she revealed she felt “enraged” when she hears young people claim it is too expensive to buy property.
She told the Sunday Times: “When I bought my first property, going abroad, the easyJet, coffee, gym, Netflix lifestyle didn’t exist.”
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The paper reported Allsopp – the daughter of Charles Allsopp, 6th Baron Hindlip – bought her first home aged 21 with help from her wealthy family.
Na I’m done, “Of course young people can afford a home - just move somewhere cheaper,” Kirstie Allsopp in the Sunday Times pic.twitter.com/aHFEyFwNMl
— Ethan Lucey (@luceyethan) February 6, 2022
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%, I was earning £11,500 a year.”
The paper pointed out the average house price in the UK when Allsopp bought her first home was £51,000, which is £112,000 in today’s money. The average price for a home is now £255,556.
Many took to social media to criticise the TV presenter’s remarks.
One said: “For someone who fronts a TV show about houses, Kirstie Allsopp really doesn’t have a clue about houses.”
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Another said: “Only last year, the Tory candidate for London mayor advised the homeless to save for a deposit on a home. Shaun Bailey and Kirstie Allsopp are the level of detachment we are dealing with here.”
Taking aim at Allsopp’s suggestion people should move to opposite ends of the country to find more affordable places to live, one Twitter user said: “Toff Kirstie Allsopp spent years exploiting an obsession with home ownership and talking up the market when prices were destined to plummet, causing many to lose homes.
"She then did a patronising show about how to do stuff & now tells people to leave loved ones to buy property.”
Another said: “The sheer blithe ignorance of these people is just breathtaking. I should be used to it by now but it never ceases to amaze and appal.”
Allsopp was among 200 celebrities and public figures who penned an infamous letter to The Guardian urging Scots to vote against independence in 2014.
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