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Consumer Home
17 February 2006
As much as a half of all first time home buyers need assistance from their parents to cover the cost of a deposit, figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) have shown.
The same house price increases that have caused the affordability problem are fuelling the trend, with many parents drawing money from their homes to help.
This still leads adults whose parents live in council or housing association property, or are unwilling to help, with difficulties in getting onto the property ladder, however.
The trend has escalated rapidly since the mid-90s, when just one in ten of all homebuyers bought property with a deposit greater then their savings.
"For some homeowners, helping out their children with a mortgage deposit may represent an efficient use of funds, in the light of low returns on alternative investments," said CML senior statistician James Tatch.
"For others, the assistance may not represent an investment decision so much as a case of the family 'pulling together' to enable the younger generation into home-ownership."
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