The cost of living crisis is upon us - and each day seems to bring more bad news about bills, petrol, and supermarket shops. For many young people, the dream of owning our own homes looks more and more distant.
Just getting by is hard enough. Martin Lewis is on our screens every week offering tips and tricks to try and ease the blow, while TV property guru Kirstie Allsopp suggests young adults cancel their Netflix and make coffee at home as a way to save for a deposit.
But let’s be honest, most young adults don’t pay for Netflix, someone else does. Granted, I pay £9.99 a month for Spotify, but I doubt the £119.88 I would save every year to not have music would get me a mortgage.
READ MORE:
In fact, I know it wouldn’t. My banking app has taken to advertising mortgage services to me and this week informed me that first time buyers in my area need an 18 percent deposit of roughly £34,000 to even think about buying.
It would only take me just shy of 284 years to save up my Spotify savings to buy a property in Manchester. So sorry Kirstie. I think I’ll keep my Spotify and instead listen to music from the 1980s when my dad and a friend were able to buy a two bedroom London flat for £71,000 with a 4.3 percent deposit of £3,000. In today's money, adjusting for inflation, that would be a £202,000 property with a £8,500 deposit.
Another reality facing first time buyers at the moment is the gap created by wages earned and wages needed to buy. My graduate, entry level wage barely covers the cost of living, so there is no chance it would be considered enough for a mortgage.
Instead, I can fantasise about one day having a job that pays over £35,000. Or wait until I’m in a stable and long term relationship where our joint income hits this threshold for house purchase.
Sadly, I doubt either of these options will be a reality before I’m 30. Maybe I should set my online dating bio to ‘looking for a long term partner to get on the property ladder with’, something I’m sure that will impress all my potential future suitors.
Joking aside, the combination of soaring rent, stagnant wage growth and inflation and property goods is boxing young people in.
“It’s inducing a lot of stress because just everything is getting more expensive and there’s nothing I can do about it outside of trying to pick up more work or do more freelance work. All of which is difficult because there’s a limit on how much I can do in a day and I already work a full time job so it’s not really feasible," is how Jay Plent puts it.
He is 25, a musician and box office assistant who lives in Hulme. “Compared to a year ago, I’m finding myself scraping by much more than I was as a result of prices going up," he adds.
“I think the thing that's most concerning is how, as a result of this, rent prices are going to go up and that’s going to price people out of areas of Manchester that were previously at the top end of affordable but are now not going to be affordable for people on my sort of wage for graduates and people coming out of university and straight into employment."
Rachael, a 23-year-old speech and language therapist, knows exactly what he means. “My partner and I have been priced out of the area in which we currently live, like we can no longer afford to rent where we are. It’s just a race against the markets to find somewhere before we get priced out," she says.
“Even Hulme is becoming out of budget and that used to be a literal haven for students and was always known for being reasonably priced."
Flats in Hulme, like other areas with the Manchester city boundary, have gone up in price considerably. In June last year, a two bedroom apartment in a complex around Stretford Road cost £850 a month, now flats in that complex are on Rightmove for £1,100.
Meanwhile, according to research by Eachnight , Manchester is ranked as one of the top ten most expensive cities to rent with the average cost of a city centre apartment being priced at £969 per month.
Factor in other rising bills and prices, and the cost of living in Manchester becoming a nightmare. As a fresh-faced graduate, happily out of university and working two jobs six or seven days a week, the cost of living didn’t even cross my mind.
Pre-2020 it wasn’t a phrase I’d even heard of, now in 2022 it’s something I worry about daily. How much will the cost of electricity go up? How much is council tax? Will I be able to afford to move when my tenancy ends?
Currently, I pay £425 in rent and £134 in bills each month. Then you’ve got the additions, a cheeky £20 phone bill, my ride or die Spotify at £9.99 and Amazon Prime that I really should cancel at £7.99.
That's monthly outgoings of £596.98, which equates to 46 percent of my monthly income. However, with proposed increases in rent, council tax, and gas and electricity bills, my monthly unavoidables will cost £691.
Add on my phone bill, Spotify and Amazon Prime, from late April my outgoings will be £729 monthly, or 61 percent of my monthly income. An increase of 15 percent, inclusive of a rental increase of more than 29 percent.
In their quarterly rental market report , Zoopla says that the rental market is currently seeing an ongoing ‘supply and demand imbalance’, with the supply of rental properties being 43 percent below the five year average, which has caused an increase in rent prices.
This means that landlords can be picky about who they choose to rent their property with many people offering above asking price on rentals to be in with a chance of securing it. As I try to find my next property, I have been hit with the reality that if you don't inquire about a property on the first day it is advertised and view it the day after, then you have no chance of securing it.
Meanwhile, letting agents can refuse viewings if you do not meet a set of criteria. For example, I was refused for a viewing of a flat on for rent at £1,095 per month, as my household does not earn £43,000.
And if it's not the rent hitting you in the pocket , then its utilities. Tilly Bell, a 19 year-old design student at the Manchester School of Art works in a bar, and is facing a utilities bill increase of more than 50 percent.
“So obviously food, utilities etc prices have increased because of Brexit and then the pandemic but I’ve only been in adult life for a couple of years and it’s literally impossible to keep on top of finances," she says.
“My friends and I live in a house with meters and over winter, when it was just me staying in the house, I was putting on at least £10 per week onto both gas and electricity. It’s so hard to think about or focus on anything else when money is so tight anyway and then the price of everything increases almost daily, it’s exhausting!
“It’s like students/young professionals are expected to have these subpar living conditions, housing, limited access to resources etc and we accept it because there’s no alternative. It just sets a precedent that we’re just to accept this for the rest of our life, it’s really bleak.
“I think [my gas and electricity] is going up by 55%. My friend (on direct debit) got a letter through recently and the price of gas with EF is increasing by £300 a year, daylight robbery."
The price cap increase is set to come into play on April 1 2022, upping the amount energy suppliers can charge by up to 54 percent. This means that, according to Ofgem, around 22 million customers will see price increases.
Those who pay by direct debit could see an annual bill of £1,277 increase to £1,971. Meanwhile, prepayment customers could go from paying £1,309 to £2,017.
Some people have already seen their bills increase - and by much more than 54 percent. A student at the University of Manchester, who asked not to be named, told the M.E.N. she had already had an energy bill increase of 220 percent.
When they signed up to a 'bills included' package last year, she and her flatmate were quoted £85 for their energy bill. In February 2022, this went up to £272 for energy alone.
Even simple pleasures are becoming out of reach. “I’ve noticed in shops, things are going up, you know, double the price sometimes. I know this is really trivial, but I went to buy a DipDab, you know the little sweets, and they’ve gone up by 25p from a couple of months ago," Freya McGreevy says.
She's a 25 year-old masters student at the University of Central Lancashire and assistant manager in a shop, and is currently appealing a 21 percent rent increase on her studio apartment in Chorlton.
“I was aware that house prices were increasing and the value was increasing as well, but to have an increase of 21 percent? I’m still going through it now, and again I’ve not had gas safety checks or anything," Freya adds.
"So I feel like everything is going up in cost, but the quality of life really is getting worse because places just aren’t caring about their tenants. It’s like, what are you getting for that extra money? If you’re paying more, you should get more. It’s frustrating.
“My rent is £400 at the minute, and then they’re trying to put it up to £485. It’s a one bed flat, a studio. As an assistant manager of a shop, I thought I could afford that but I’m still struggling and that seems a bit rubbish.
“When they put my rent up initially, the first thing I did was try and find somewhere under £500 a month and there’s just nothing. As well, I have a cat, and when you’re looking at studio flats for £550 a month and it’s not even big enough for a cat, that to me seems like a big issue. It does just feel like the world can be against you a little bit."
READ MORE:
READ MORE:
