Buy a house or buy 26,954 avocados? Tough call …
FIRST time homebuyers saving for a deposit in the South East should focus on long term saving plans and ignore the hype about sacrificing avocado on toast.
The advice comes out of new research by reallymoving.com.
It says that the homebuyers would need to give up 26,954 avocados in order to save a typical 10% deposit of £27,632.
Reallymoving.com says that that amount of avocados is roughly equal in weight to 14 hippopotamuses.
But the firm says it has developed a new tool which it thinks can help first time buyers.
It says that its First Time Buyer Deposit Savings Generator enables first-time buyers to enter the deposit they need, to reveal the number of ‘luxuries’ such as avocados, lattes, beers, glasses of wine and monthly gym memberships they would need to give up in order to save that amount.
And with first-time buyers in the South East, paying an average of £276,322 for their home, the website says that they would need to pledge to give up nearly 7,500 beers, more than 11,000 lattes, more than 7,000 glasses of wine or 56 years’ worth of gym membership in order to raise a 10% deposit.
This, they say, highlights how unfair some of the criticism aimed at millennial first-time buyers really is.
While lots of small lifestyle changes can add up, giving up avocado on toast isn’t going to make much difference to the savings mountain most first time buyers have to climb.
However, there is more to the First Time Buyer Deposit Savings Generator than the comical look at how many avocados the buyers will have to deprive themselves of.
The website says it has published series of new guides to help people make serious changes to their financial habits, offers genuinely helpful advice such as managing living with parents as a young adult, tips on earning extra cash and links to the best savings rates available on Lifetime and Help to Buy ISAs, which give first time buyers government bonuses on their savings. The guides include: Starting Saving for a Deposit for those just starting out; Sacrificing to Save for those who are working towards their goal; and Supersizing your Savings for those who have the end in sight.
Rob Houghton, CEO of reallymoving. com said: “Saving a deposit is without doubt the greatest challenge when buying a first home and this research highlights how unhelpful it is to suggest that millennials only need to be willing to sacrifice a few luxuries such as takeaway
coffees and gym memberships, to get on the housing ladder.
“While small changes can add up, we urge first time buyers making New Year Resolutions this year to look at the bigger picture, make decisions such as moving back in with parents or downsizing, opening an Help to Buy ISA and paying in a fixed amount each month, or setting up a money saving app on their devices, to help monitor spending and saving.
“Our First Time Buyer Deposit Savings Generator is a fun tool designed to help first time buyers challenge any suggestion that saving for a deposit is easy, alongside a range of free resources to help them actually achieve their goal.”