Kirstie Allsopp on life in lockdown: 'People think I’m a robust, gung-ho person. I’m not'

The presenter is filming a home crafts series to help take everyone’s minds off things. She discusses privilege, pressure and her worries about Britain’s housing divide

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There is a “terrible fight” going on in Kirstie Allsopp’s kitchen. Her two sons, who are 11 and 13, are making a chocolate cake. Allsopp, speaking on the phone, takes a pause to listen out. At least they’re not on screens – she has been trying, and not always succeeding, to implement a no-screens-before-6pm policy. How is that even possible? “Screaming. Threats. I haven’t resorted to physical violence yet,” she says with a laugh. (In 2018, Allsopp became notorious, briefly, for saying she had smashed her children’s iPads because they were spending too long on them.)

Allsopp, 48, has presented the property show Location, Location, Location since 2000. And there are other TV shows, including a property renovation programme, Love It Or List It. She has also become known for shows about home crafts, and is about to begin filming a lockdown crafts special for Channel 4, with a team of 11 who are arriving at her house this week. They have all been in self-isolation for a couple of weeks in preparation – the channel believes the team can travel and work safely – and Allsopp has turned her tennis court into a kind of field canteen, where they will all eat together twice a day. She is putting them all up, and somehow, she says, will all observe the physical-distancing rules (yes, her house must be huge).

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This crisis has changed our experience of home – and exposed the deep pain of poor housing | Suzanne Moore

Do you have a garden? Do you live on the 17th floor of a tower block or in a castle? Coronavirus is making old divisions sharper, clearer and more damaging than ever

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How does your garden grow? My local neighbourhood app is full of people swapping compost while my Facebook feed is full of photos of daffodils – little explosions of hope and rebirth. Who can resent that? Well, quite a few people, actually; the hashtag #selfishpricks has been trending on Twitter. The selfish pricks are people who go to parks and don’t observe social distancing. This may well be selfish, but another kind of selfishness is growing alongside it, from those who fail to recognise many people don’t have outside space. To live through this pandemic is to feel this viscerally; so much inequality is being played out.

One can refuse this knowledge or fake it. Every time I see a Tory minister saying they know what it’s like being indoors all day with small kids, I catch myself thinking: “What do you actually know? Have you ever lived in a tiny flat with small kids and no garden? Do you really know what it is like not to have a tiny scrap of land where you can sit outside, set up a swing and still know you’re at home?” I lived this way with two kids until my mid-30s. The memory of acquiring a small concrete yard stays with me. To this day, I cannot garden, but to be able to sit outside is a luxury.

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This crisis has changed our experience of home – and exposed the deep pain of poor housing | Suzanne Moore

Do you have a garden? Do you live on the 17th floor of a tower block or in a castle? Coronavirus is making old divisions sharper, clearer and more damaging than ever

• Coronavirus – latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

How does your garden grow? My local neighbourhood app is full of people swapping compost while my Facebook feed is full of photos of daffodils – little explosions of hope and rebirth. Who can resent that? Well, quite a few people, actually; the hashtag #selfishpricks has been trending on Twitter. The selfish pricks are people who go to parks and don’t observe social distancing. This may well be selfish, but another kind of selfishness is growing alongside it, from those who fail to recognise many people don’t have outside space. To live through this pandemic is to feel this viscerally; so much inequality is being played out.

One can refuse this knowledge or fake it. Every time I see a Tory minister saying they know what it’s like being indoors all day with small kids, I catch myself thinking: “What do you actually know? Have you ever lived in a tiny flat with small kids and no garden? Do you really know what it is like not to have a tiny scrap of land where you can sit outside, set up a swing and still know you’re at home?” I lived this way with two kids until my mid-30s. The memory of acquiring a small concrete yard stays with me. To this day, I cannot garden, but to be able to sit outside is a luxury.

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Homes with some of the best views in the world

They're jaw-droppingly good...

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We can't raise a mortgage against our £1.25m home for our holiday let barn

We need £50,000 for a second bathroom but mention ‘holiday let’ and lenders just shy away

Q My wife and I jointly own a listed manor house with a number of outbuildings including a converted barn which is used as a holiday let. We own the house and all outbuildings plus about 10 acres of land.
We were intending to add a second en-suite bathroom in the holiday let and hoping to take out a mortgage for around £50,000 to pay for the development. We wanted to raise a mortgage against our home which is valued at £1.25m. We have lived in it for three years and are mortgage free. My wife is 53 and works full time and has an annual income of £40,000. I am 61 and retired, so look after the holiday let and all our gardens. Please can you advise as to what type of mortgage options would be available? We expected to be able to get a normal residential mortgage. The payment is not dependent on the holiday let income. As soon as we mention a holiday let all standard mortgage providers shy away. I cannot understand why. We have a 100% equity in our property and only require a small mortgage over, say, 15 years.
JK

A The reason that standard mortgage providers shy away from your pretty niche proposition is quite straightforward. According to independent mortgage advisor Luther Yeates of Clifton Private Finance, “banks and building societies aren’t really set up to look at your fairly complex set-up and then work out if they can offer a solution. They’re looking at the criteria for the loans they’ve got on offer, and ticking off if you match”. Yeates explains that high-street lenders can also find it challenging to consider other less standard areas such as ex-pat mortgages, funding for property renovation and home-owner builders, as well as people looking to borrow more than the usual 3.5 times their income.

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UK house sales will collapse in 2020 as market goes into deep freeze, says study

Major analysis of coronavirus impact stresses property prices will dip only 3% and then rebound next year

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House sales in the UK will collapse this year as the coronavirus pandemic puts the property market into deep freeze. But prices will fall by only 3% and will rebound next year, according to global consultancy Knight Frank.

In the first reassessment of the property market by one of the major forecasters, Knight Frank said the number of house sales in the UK would plummet from 1,175,000 last year to just 734,000 this year.

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What happens to my joint mortgage if I separate from my partner? Nottingham Estate Agents

Around a quarter of new mortgage approvals are now based on a couple’s joint earnings so financial issues involving a relationship break-up are extremely common. Relationship break-ups are sadly a fact of life. They can be messy and if the couple breaking up are living together, and co-signatories to a mortgage, the messiness can increase […]

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