Young people would be able to get a foot on the property ladder if they stopped eating avocado on toast, according to an Australian millionaire.

Tim Gurner, a luxury property developer in Melbourne has asked the youths of the day to buck their ideas up and eschew the green menace from their lives if they want to stop renting and be able to afford a home of their own.

He also claimed the housing crisis will be solved when young people inherit the "huge wealth" from their baby boomer relatives.

He has come under fire from his comments, as many have pointed out that avocado on toast is a small expense and wouldn't make a dent in the savings needed for the huge deposit required to buy a house.

“When I was trying to buy my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for $19 and four coffees at $4 each,” he said.

“We’re at a point now where the expectations of younger people are very, very high.

“We are coming into a new reality where … a lot of people won’t own a house in their lifetime. That is just the reality.”

In Dublin, at popular brunch spot San Lorenzo's for example, toast with avocado (with extras) costs €12.50.

The average deposit for a first time house in Dublin is around €50,000.

If one ate avocado toast at this spot every day, and stopped this in order to save, it would still take almost 11 years for the forlorn avocado fan to save the required amount for a deposit.

Mr Gurner claimed he did not rest until he had saved enough and the thought of shelling out on avocado never crossed his mind.

He said: “When I had my first business when I was 19, I was in the gym at 6am in the morning, and I finished at 10.30 at night, and I did it seven days a week, and I did it until I could afford my first home.

"There was no discussions around, could I go out for breakfast, could I go out for dinner. I just worked.”

Telegraph.co.uk