Did you have any parental help when buying first house?

[forceofagreattyphoon]

Obviously inspired by all the Kirsty allsopp stuff about buying first houses.

Did you have any help from parents or partners parents in any way?

We didn’t get any ‘direct’ money but were only able to save a deposit by living with my parents for very-low rent for 2 years. So technically they did help a lot financially with the process. A lot of people wouldn’t have this option so I am very fortunate and wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise.

I’d say about 80% of people I know my age (late 20s-early 30s) have all had some form of parental help when purchasing their first house. Ranging from the whole deposit gifted or help with all the fees.

@FloBot7

I think this discussion would be helped a lot by posters including the year they purchased. These days it's near impossible without some help. I know I couldn't save for a deposit while paying local rental prices on a 1 bed flat right now. My DH only afforded his flat because he had an inheritance 10 years ago.

We purchased in 2006. Lucky that we were able to get a 100% mortgage, however, with that came a higher interest rate and we ended up being 'mortgage prisoners' for a while. We had no financial acumen back then, and just wanted to own our home.

With everything that happened, I'm still grateful that we had that option, and the chance to get on the property ladder. As we got older, we became more financially aware, and it turned out ok, albeit, we have probably lost thousands in extortionate interest payments, but I don't think about that.

Yes, they put the 50k deposit down on it and later wrote that off as a gift. I would still be renting if they have done that. I'm so grateful. It was in lieu of me going to university.

As we got older, we became more financially aware, and it turned out ok, albeit, we have probably lost thousands in extortionate interest payments, but I don't think about that.

If it bothers you to think about then I think it’s more helpful to take the view that had you not bought when you did you’d still have had to pay rent. You’d have “lost” the money one way or another, and that may as well have been in interest as in rent, it’s not as if, had you not bought at the time, you’d have had no housing costs.

No, but the house prices and deposits were so much less 20 odd years ago.

There is little chance dd will be able to do the same, for the same kind of house when she graduates in a couple of years. We have already been saving to be able to help her out.

No I got a 100% mortgage, my parents actually had to downsize as they struggled to pay their mortgage without my contributions after I left.

No, left having kids till later so worked & saved

Nope bought first house at 34 and 8 years later we are lucky to have paid it off.

Yep. 10k off my mum and dad cash, and we lived with them for a couple months whilst the sale completed.

I worked overseas when I was married to a citizen of that country, in a professional job with a pension programme I paid into. When I returned to the UK, I took my pension fund money out and used it as the 5% deposit on my first flat. My mum gave me a bed. That was 1987. Then the market tanked, and to get on with life, I ended up letting the flat for less than I was paying on my interest-only mortgage, until it caught up, eventually I made a little over each month. And come the late 90s the Jubilee Line extension was completed, and prices in my area exploded, so I sold the flat, and from the proceeds paid off our family home and put some into a pension, which will soon fingers crossed supplement our state pension.

No, but I was fortunate to be in a position to take on overtime, got some reasonable bonuses, and a 10% deposit was only £10k.

Couldn't do it from scratch now

No - I was lucky that I purchased a house that had been flipped and the developer was paying the 5% deposit - 1998 and it was 3x's my salary at 28 - now at 52 houses I am looking at are roughly 7 times my salary - things are tougher now (although my first house was in a less desirable area to say the least).

We got 10k from my parents and 10k from my grandmother when we bought our first flat in 2016. Moved in 2018 with no financial help and moved again last year, we were gifted £80k from my parents to help with the move. We are incredibly incredibly lucky and grateful and I am always honest with friends who are struggling about how we did it (not exact amounts) but make it clear it wasn’t just ‘hard work’ and ‘making cuts’ (although we also saved considerably to pay for it).

No, we paid deposit out of saves which we worked and saved up. Our first house was only £59k in 2000. We sold it 7 years ago for £150k and moved. Bought our current house for £30k under asking price and it's now £100k over what we paid for it.

We didn't have gym membership, sky TV, flash holiday (UK based) and furnished our home in second hand furniture. We bought a few things on a 0% credit card but only on terms we knew we could pay off. We just worked hard, saved hard and lived within our means.

20 years later and we have no debt, savings and a 4 bed detached in a beautiful area. We have worked hard but we're also very lucky with when we bought and sold.

Nope, not financial or housing. They helped with packing and moving from their houses to our rented flat, and then again a year later when we bought our house.

No help, although that was in early 90s. The standard was you got a mortgage for 3x your salary.

We’ve just helped ds to buy a flat. We paid some of the deposit, but he had saved as well. It probably means he’s brought a flat a couple of years earlier than if we hadn’t helped him. He’d rather be paying a mortgage than paying rent.

Not a single penny. Didn't even live rent free for the brief time I was at home, or have any other type of help. Everything DH and I have, is because of us.

Nope, not a penny. I paid rent when living at home (from the time I got a Saturday job I always had to hand over a large chunk of my earnings). My rent when I left home was actually more than half the mortgage on my house! I’ll also never inherit a penny. DF remarried after DM died, he has now died and ‘D’SM inherited - she is leaving all to her godchildren. 🤷. Just one of those things but the reason I make sure we help our children out as much as we can…..

No help at all. I lived in a horrible studio flat for 10 years and lived very frugally, saving everything I could. I was only able to do it because I was lucky in my career and progressed quickly to earn more money.

No, but dh's parents did give us some money towards renovations.

Yes but was in 1995 when I was 20, parents gave me £2,000 and house cost £40,000.

Yes I got my first home thanks to my mum coming to view it with me and charming the developer (it was an affordable property and around 200 people applied for it). Then mum and dad gave me the deposit. and then they helped pay off the mortgage. I was very lucky.

Yes. £45k given as a gift by my parents. DH (boyfriend at the time) and I saved another 15k. Together that was enough for deposit, stamp duty and legal fees.

I am eternally eternally grateful. I don't want to say I couldn't have done it without help - I would have eventually - but it would have taken a long time to save that money, and it would have negatively altered decisions I made about my career in my early 20s (eg. Dropped out of an alright job I hated to take a lower paid job I loved that led to a career. I knew I would have help with a deposit so felt I could do this - not everyone has that luxury).

This was in 2001, by the way.

No i didnt but my children will, it’s enormously important to me to help them. Ive bought one a house kinda, she pays a bit towards the mortgage and bills but she’d be paying rent elsewhere so she’s helping herself long term. When she finishes uni, she can either rent it out or sell it and because its in my name she maintains first time buyer status.

Yes, my parents paid our deposit. We had saved up enough to pay it ourselves, but it was greatfully accepted and appreciated.