Estate agent says London's millennials should stop buying sandwiches, holidays and splashing cash on nights out in order to afford a house

Millennial couples priced off the London housing ladder could save enough for a deposit in five years by giving up six “luxuries” ranging from phone upgrades to overseas mini-breaks, it was claimed today.

New analysis suggests that potential homeowners from “generation rent” could accumulate the £64,000 they need for an average London deposit — after help from parents — within half a decade by making “relatively small changes” to their lifestyles.

According to the calculations from agents Strutt & Parker, giving up a night out once a week could save more than £6,000 a year, and cutting out takeaway meals would knock £2,640 off household spending.

Preparing lunch at home rather than buying sandwiches or salads saves £2,576 on average, and cutting out an annual foreign city-break could be worth another £700 a year.

Young Londoners could save £13,200 over five years by not eating takeaways
Alamy

Finally, Strutt & Parker suggests that the average annual Lottery habit, costing £832 a year, could be sacrificed.

Millennials are being told not to buy expensive sandwiches and make their own instead
PA

A mobile upgrade typically takes up a further £154 annually.

Stephanie McMahon, head of research, said: “Affordability is a problem for every major city around the world.

Millennials could also save £832 a year by ditching their lottery tickets habit
PA

"In London, it is raising the deposit that is a particular challenge.’

“Getting on the property ladder in London is harder than ever, and with an average deposit of £94,000, people are thinking, ‘What luxuries am I willing to forgo now that will pay off five years down the line?’

The Millennials' view: can't we have a life?

Charlotte Windsor, 22, sales worker from Walthamstow. Currently rents with friends paying £625 per month, bills included, to live in Zone 3. 

She said: “I think it’s ridiculous. Even if I did give up all of these things, it would still take 94 years to save that up. I pay £625 all inclusive and with the sort of job I’m in it is just ludicrous to expect us to save that amount. Just cutting these things out would save money, but does that mean we aren’t allowed to have a life while we save up for a home? I don’t see any other generations having to have done that. Maybe you could have fewer takeaways, but cutting it all out is going to be a depressing life.

“You have to make some sacrifices, but why should we be deprived of all luxuries? It feels like they are trying to curate who can live in London. You have to be rich enough.”

Lauren Whelan, 20, sales assistant. Lives with her mother at home in east London. 

She said: “I think it’s a joke with the prices in London. I would like to get out of London so I can live a bit more. What’s the point of having a house and nothing to put in it?”

Annabelle Gater, 21, works in performing arts and lives in Walthamstow. 

She said: “I rent with two others in a flat that costs £1,600 per month. Where I come from, near Manchester, it costs £500 for the same thing. I don’t think people should have to give up their social lives to afford a house. I want to be able to have a family in my own home and not to be renting for my whole life.”

“Those lucky enough to have family that can help will receive an average of £29,400 towards their goal, but that still leaves £64,000 to find.

Our research has shown that if a couple sacrifices six luxuries for at least five years, they can put away significant savings to help stretch up to that all-important first rung.”

Charlotte Windsor said: "even if I did give up all of these things, it would still take 94 years to save that up"

The advice mirrors comments from Australian property mogul Tim Gurner, who earlier this year urged millennials in Melbourne to stop buying avocado on toast and expensive coffees and save more towards a deposit.

Rates of home ownership among young Londoners have collapsed over the past 25 years as the spiralling market has lifted the bottom rung of the ladder out of reach.

Since 1990, the proportion of 25- to 34-year-olds in London owning has dropped from 57 per cent to 27, leading to claims that millennials have become “generation no hope”. It has also triggered a spike in young workers moving to the suburbs.

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