As the saying goes life is stranger than fiction and never would I have imagined in my too many years to mention in mortgage, that there would be news and a whole debate on ‘Avocado toast homeownership’.
If you are unfamiliar with this, long story short, an Australian multi-millionaire basically said millennials are struggling to buy a home because they are buying smashed avocados on toast.
To offer some context the Avocado toast homeownership debate Australian millionaire property developer Tim Gurner did an interview with 60 Minutes Australia in May 2017. Gurner from Melbourne, which is the fifth-least-affordable housing market in the world and stories of people borrowing ten times their salary to get a mortgage are not unheard of.
However, Gurner stated, “When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocados for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” and hence, the whole Avocado toast homeownership debate was born.
Can Milliennials get a Mortgage?
A millennial is defined as someone born between 1981 and 2001. I would have loved to have had some actual statistics based on our experience but due to a change in IT systems recently I am struggling to run the reports, however I have just had a look over some of our files and we do have a number of customers who are homeowners born between those dates.
The latest I came across was 1992 but there were a couple who were born in the 90s.
Admittedly most of our customers were born before around 1982, but that does not mean your age is a barrier to becoming a home owner. If you have the deposit and the income then there is no reason why you can not purchase your own home.
If you are spending within your means, then there is no reason for your smashed avocado (or whatever you spend your money on) to prevent you picking up the keys to your own pad.
UK house prices have been rising faster than earnings making home ownership a more difficult ambition to attain than for Generation X and the latest English Housing Survey, published in January 2018, showed that the average age of a first-time buyer has now risen to 33. Given that someone aged 33 was born in 1985, the data does suggest that Milliennials can indeed get a Mortgage and are getting mortgages.
Think your age or spending habits are a barrier to getting a Mortgage? Get in touch, lets have a talk and see what we can do. If we can not help, we can at least give you some pointers on what will improve your chances.