Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124

Wwhy can’t anyone of my generation get affordable housing? Andy Burnham, who will make a surprise hit on Channel 4’s new satire How to Cheat Your Way on the Property Ladder, has two words: “Margaret Thatcher.” Housing problems are a matter of policy, but an indicator It’s Butler they want to try wackier workarounds for millennials who are interested in serious sports.
Butler’s tongue-in-cheek film explores a twisted ideology, using himself and two young first-time buyers, Mohammed and Insaf, as guinea pigs. Have you ever tried the bank of Mum and Dad? Let’s try to convince a real estate agent to sell us a place for five bucks. Maybe it’s about cutting Netflix and coffees? Or would he steal the king’s property?
This magical comedy has Butler’s roots as a professional comedian. The filmmaker began writing for Vice in his time, creating viral posts such as “I Tried to Sell My DIY Sex Robot at a Maker Faire“. Since then, he has gained a following for pranking agencies including Tripadvisor and Amazon (persuading the latter to name bottles of urine as the #1 drink on the site).
There’s a lot more to the old millennial mindset of spending more money on pears. It feels tired the first time it raises its head, let alone the third time. When Butler provokes talking heads in the style of Philomena Kukusometimes you wonder if the profit made these funny trips worth everyone’s time.
That said, the clever and unexpected are always fun, like when Butler explores the possibility of buying a cemetery instead of a condo. It’s 200 times cheaper than the average London rent, we learn – but you need a death certificate.
As things progress in the show’s 47 minutes, there is a sense that although the comedy is the same as Butler’s education, this is a downgrade of the British housing market. The article takes a clear, well-researched and politically rigorous position: that the housing market is crooked because it is politically and economically beneficial to those in power. At the beginning of the period, Butler creates images showing that housing is one of the largest components of the UK’s GDP, and shows how many people involved in the economy depend on house prices. Burnham describes the problems with the failure of the Conservatives’ right to buy scheme, introduced in 1980, which gave council housing tenants in Great Britain the ability to buy their properties at a lower price (and still works in England).
We hear from interesting research and experts. Also Burnham, includes Aydin DikerdemWandsworth cabinet member for housing, and Ben Twomey, outgoing chief executive of Generation Rent, along with MPs, housing experts and people affected by the housing crisis. We learn about the political processes that laid the foundation for the events that young(ish) people are involved in. There are also some amazing ideas that come with it. The monthly cost of owning a house can be cheaper than renting, for example, but you have to be rich to save money. As in many areas of life, being poor makes you poor.
Butler also reveals a little-discussed aspect of housing injustice in Britain in his discussion of the Duchy of Lancaster’s. happy holidays opportunity. This feudal hangover allows the duchy – in fact, King Charles – to collect property from people in northwest England who die intestate and have no known next of kin. In recent years, it has increased tens of millions of poundssome of them have been used to benefit the king’s property. (The Duchy has said that the money raised after the fund goes to his charity, the Duke of Lancaster’s Foundation.) Butler initiates an intervention with a group of elderly people, encouraging them to write wills. Again, you feel a little sorry for the academics not knowing this. Things get tough when Butler comes back to attack, following King Charles and describing Buckingham Palace as a public house.
There are sections here (which are usually aimed at young children) that are mind boggling. Yes, Our goods contain mold; yes, the studio stairs are small; yes, council houses have been abolished. The thought that this everyday life could surprise anyone in the UK saddens me as I write from my council-owned studio.
But How to Cheat Your Way on Goods The ladder also begs the question of what this means for the future. House prices in the UK are expected to rise by 19% over the next five years, according to Savills Estate Agency. Despite the government’s promise to provide 1.5m new homes, Butler is showing us an example of a prison cell-style apartment building and can get MPs to sing its praises as the future of affordable housing. He also lists it online and manages to find a renter who pays him £2,000 a month. As Dikerdem says, we are facing a race to the bottom, where desperate tenants are faced with few options.
Amidst its many youthful antics, the cartoon offers a few lighthearted human moments. Harry Hill, co-founder of Rightmove, of all people, is emerging as the ultimate hero. Several organizations reach into their pockets to support Butler’s, Mohammed’s and Insaf’s businesses.
But, as Butler admits, we are disappointed. “Really, there’s no quick hack or magic formula,” he says. There is no silver bullet that will unlock the market of foreclosed homes, which are mixed with their design.
Don’t try to sell pears to breeders at £20 (the price they would be if they rose in line with house prices); not buying a place the size of a storage cupboard for £40,000; not to set up shop at the cemetery. The third event is a losing crime. But it feels like there is something symbolic in the idea that we will have a better life after death. Even so, the king can still confiscate our wealth.
How to Cheat Your Way on the Property Ladder is streaming on Channel 4 now