Words from Jonnie

WORLD

TV presenter and property expert Jonnie Irwin gives his thoughts and views on first time buyers and the housing market

I’m not a natural spender. I think it comes from my experience of being absolutely skint. My dad was against me going to university for reasons beyond comprehension, so I funded myself. Thankfully, those were the days where you didn’t have to pay for the course fees, otherwise my uni career would have been a non-starter.

There were, however, a few positives coming from my situation; I got various jobs including working at an estate agent part time which was valuable experience for later in my career. I also learnt how to live on a shoestring while still managing a social life, and because I didn’t rely on handouts from mummy and daddy it gave me a real idea of the value of money early on.

It also means that unfortunately I’m not great at spending money, even though I’m a lot more financially comfortable. Before having a family I’d often enjoy a weekend of going out to bars and restaurants, getting taxis and buying clothes, only to find myself doing the weekly shop in a supermarket on Monday and painfully deliberating the pros and cons of two brands of pasta with a potential saving of about nine pence!

I’m getting better at spending money on myself, but I’m probably more of a saver than a spender – and many freelance people are the same.

My latest bit of fiscal procrastination is property related. Being a property finder I’m pretty good at sifting through the chaff and making objective decisions on behalf of clients. I’m pretty rubbish when it comes to my own life. I recently commenced some renovations to our new home. I plan this to be a house we stay in long term, so ended up paying top money in order to close out the fierce competition. Now I’m in and have lived there for a few months I know I made the right decision.

I’m a strong believer in living in a house for a while before making big decisions. There are some things, however, that I don’t need to wait for and that’s the decor. I charged my wife with the task of choosing the colours, my job was the radiators and the energy calculations, and all seemed to be going well until it came to choosing the light switches and sockets. Everything came to a stop while I visited countless sites comparing style and price. Do I go for fancy switches but buy standard sockets? How much can I save if I do? After all, I thought, half the sockets will be hidden by furniture. I won’t bore you with the detail but I ended up selecting the posh ones even though most will be hidden – ultimately, I’ll know they are there! You see I can spend money, but it takes a bit of hand wringing to get there.

Next came selecting the trades people. Gone are the days when you’d obtain multiple quotes – its hard enough to get one to answer the phone. I remember it was only a couple of years back that plumbers and builders would suck air through their teeth and announce that whatever you were asking for, “it won’t be cheap”. Now they do the same when you merely ask when they might be free. The cost of materials post- lockdown has gone up to such an extent that when you eventually get a price for something substantial, the quote has a shelf life of a month and then will need to be adjusted according to the rise in prices.

This inflation is acutely alarming. The big housebuilders and developers will also be feeling the pinch and ultimately the rising price to build will have to be passed along to the consumer. The problem is compounded by our national rate of inflation at 7% which is the highest for 30 years (since March 1992).

With banks paying little or no interest on bank accounts, our savings are effectively going backwards at a rate of 7% each year. First time buyers will really have to save hard to get ahead of this, but in my opinion the best choice is to lock your money into an asset as soon as you can. While, strictly speaking, a home with a mortgage is classed as a liability, the portion of bricks and mortar that you do own is an asset and I for one, am a lot happier with my eggs in that basket rather than with those bankers!