Despite a slight drop in recent months, the average property price in London remains an astronomical £472,000 – more than double the national average of £225,000.
It's no surprise, then, that actually owning your own home seems like a pipe dream to many young Londoners.
But a new report – provocatively interpreted by the Evening Standard – may have found a solution. Apparently our progress up the property ladder is being stalled by our indulgent decision to hire cleaners instead of scrubbing sinks, dusting shelves and mopping floors ourselves. Who knew?!
Millennials are 'hiring cleaners instead of saving up for a deposit' https://t.co/oQYJRAj3yD
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) June 16, 2018
Predictably, the suggestion that paying for cleaners is thwarting millennials' home-owning ambitions is being ridiculed on Twitter. One user pointed out that the sums don't even come close to adding up.
Another noted that something is seriously wrong with the housing market when hiring a cleaner becomes more affordable than saving for a house deposit. Check out a series of reactions below.
The cost of a cleaner in London approx. £12.50ph. For a deposit in London, you're looking at £35,000 minimum. You would need a cleaner to visit 2,800 times, or once a week for 53.8 years, in order to spend the equivalent of a deposit. 🥑 https://t.co/sxlJGPiRPs
— Danny (@shckldg) June 16, 2018
honestly think people forget that millennials are up to age 35 now... do you not think something is wrong with house prices if they decide that hiring a cleaner is more viable than saving for a deposit? https://t.co/M6jBzkp6ay
— Ellie (@elliekiera) June 16, 2018
You’d need a deposit of £52,000 to buy a *studio* in Islington (20%), so perhaps it’s forgivable for millennial to give up on buying and just do stuff to keep their overpriced rentals nice to live in? https://t.co/8pvfEL9iI1
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) June 16, 2018
I have never known a generation more targeted, slammed, slurred and berated than the Millenials. It tells me they are doing something right. Keep going Millenials. We love u. And it is just jealousy. Besides why save for deposit to be enslaved to crazy unaffordable mortgage 😂😘
— Yasmin A. Choudhury #FBPE (@yasminisyasmin) June 16, 2018
Ok, I’m not a millennial but... Fuck anyone who talks down to you about hiring a cleaner. I am employing someone, giving them far more than living wage/paid holidays/sick leave - what’s wrong with that? https://t.co/0yunxF9ra0
— Melissa Cole (@MelissaCole) June 16, 2018
The original report by the app Airtasker actually found that 16% of under-35s hire a cleaner, compared to 9% of people in older age groups.
The app's UK general manager, Lucas London, placed a positive interpretation on the findings, telling the Evening Standard: "If you’re time poor, getting a cleaner isn’t unnecessarily indulgent. It’s an efficient way to make the most of your own time, which can then be used elsewhere to work towards achieving professional and personal goals."
So it's hard to deny that the article's headline was deliberately inflammatory, playing into the misleading media narrative that millennials are "lazy", "spoiled" and "over-indulged". It's hardly the first article to perpetuate this woefully inaccurate stereotype, and it certainly won't be the last.
Still, at least one Twitter user saw the funny side, joking that he was "going to hire someone to dust my avocados in protest".
Going to hire someone to dust my avocados in protest
— Paul Kendrick 🏳️🌈🇪🇺🐭🚣♂️🎭 🎮 📖 (@PaulyKendrick) June 16, 2018
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