The secret to affording a home is to be born rich and I’m sick of people pretending otherwise - Alexander Brown

I am unlikely to ever own a home in the city I work in and I’m sorry to be yet another journalist doing this but we need to talk about class.

Now I should preface this by saying I went to a state school, am the first person in my family to go to university, and didn’t know Oxbridge had colleges until my second year of university.

But I also grew up in an idyllic 18th century house and went on ski holidays with school, so it’s not so much a chip on my shoulder about class as a dauphinoise.

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When I was short on rent, funding a journalism course or even buying a Glastonbury ticket, my parents could front me knowing I would pay them back.

Buying a home is out of reach for so many people. Picture: Getty ImagesBuying a home is out of reach for so many people. Picture: Getty Images
Buying a home is out of reach for so many people. Picture: Getty Images

My life has been by any measurement comfortable and easy, and I did all the things I was supposed to in order to succeed.

I worked hard, got an education and went straight into work, with the concept of a gap year seeming a financial indulgence to those able to afford it, with the race to get ahead in my career always at the forefront of my mind.

Yet I have absolutely no chance of owning, condemning me to pay £10,000 a year to the worst people in the world; landlords.

My generation was told if you work hard, you’ll succeed, that anything is attainable if you put your mind to it.

But it’s a lie. Success and wealth are not goals anyone can achieve, no matter what Molly Mae says.

I’m 30 and see friends and dates buying houses, not because they’ve worked harder or done more, but simply because they were already rich in the first place.

The secret to buying a home is instead to be born into money, or have parents in a city you work so you can live at home and save.

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Yet every week we read attacks from columnists about how we could all save money if we tried a little harder, gave up our Netflix accounts, or simply lived somewhere else.

It has become a game played by my generation online to share articles about young people buying their first home, which without fail always mentions they were given a deposit or lived at home.

The ladder has been pulled up by those above, who now sneer at us for enjoying a little dinner and television, as if we should trade 20 years of misery to afford a semi-detached somewhere shit.

But I don’t want to live somewhere else, my work is here, and I’d rather rent in heaven than own in hell.

The average UK house price rose by £27,000 last year, which is £2000 more than the average salary, yet we continue to hear from people born rich how we can all buy if we are frugal.

It is not revelatory to say being rich makes things easier, but in a time where any millionaire can get a platform on being poor, calling it out still feels revolutionary.

We are a generation abandoned, and if I read another column with advice from a rich home owner I’m taking their house myself.

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