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8 October 2019

Millennial buys own home by cutting out luxuries and being the Duchess of Southwark

“My story shows that, with a bit of hard work, anyone can do it.”

By Jonn Elledge

A hard-working millennial has managed to buy their first home without whining about it, simply by cutting spending on luxuries and by being the Duchess of Southwark.

Sophia Plantagenet de Pole successfully saved up a £30,000 deposit in just two years, simply by cutting back on takeaways and Ubers, taking a packed lunch to work three days a week, and by living on her parents’ large Surrey estate for 18 months to save on rent.

The Duchess, who earns £24,000 a year as a financial PR and is the heir to a £2.8bn fortune, paid £150 a month to her parents to contribute to bills, housekeeping and servants.

That rose to £175 after she was promoted at work.

She was also able to stash £1,000 in a savings account every month, thanks to buying second-hand instead of new clothes, scrapping her morning takeaway coffee, and owning both a medium-sized Angolan gold mine and 400,000 shares in Google which she received as a 21st birthday present.

With the assistance of her godmother Kirstie Allsopp, she found a two-bed, one-ballroom flat in London’s up-and-coming Belgravia district for a little under £2.6m.

“My story shows that, with a bit of hard work, anyone can do it – and without the help of the Bank of Mum & Dad,” the 24-year-old Duchess told the Sun, in comments later re-reported by the Mirror, the Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, the BBC, Russia Today, the FT’s How To Spend It supplement, and the foreign news pages of the South China Morning Post.

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In October 1989, around the time your parents were thinking of buying their first home, the average London property price stood at under £80,000.

At the time of writing, your auntie Jacqueline said she does not understand why you are still wasting your money on rent.

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