Young people would have to ‘give up coffee for 834 years’ to afford a home in Bristol

A young man who decides to ditch regular coffee trips and saves the money he doesn’t spend to buy a new house in Bristol would have to stop drinking coffee for 834 years, new research has said.

Banking app Cheddar crunched the numbers and compared the average price of a coffee in a cafe in different UK cities with the average price of a house, and young people in Bristol have to wait the fifth longest for savings from giving up coffee to scraping together enough to put down a deposit.

People in Bristol who follow the advice to stop wasting their money on coffee and instead save for a house should consider themselves lucky – in London, Cambridge and Oxford, young homebuyers there should save more than a thousand years.

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The research shows that shoppers in London would have to go without coffee from a cafe for 1,226 years to be able to afford a deposit. Cambridge has 1,149 years, Oxford has 1,119 and Bournemouth has 852 years – all more than Bristol, which has 834 years. The research looked at the average amount people spend on coffee each week and looked at figures for average house prices in each city and the average amount needed for a deposit.

Luke Ladyman, co-founder of Cheddar, said: “We’re hearing that ‘Gen Z could get on the property ladder if they really ditched their expensive coffee habits.’ This is the common wisdom of many older commentators in today’s society. Except that’s not true, of course, and new data from Cheddar can prove it.

“For too long, British people have not been given the tools and education to properly manage their finances. The all-too-common wisdom that all younger generations need to save for their first home is to cut back on everyday expenses like coffee is a stark example of where our national conversation about financial wellness is missing the mark.

“We hope that by putting such ill-conceived common wisdom to bed, we can begin to truly empower young people when it comes to their finances. Our money just doesn’t go as far as it did last year – or even last month, and it’s vital that we look to give consumers the education and tools they need to improve their financial well-being,” he added.