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.

I had no parental help at all. I moved out from my parent's home when I was 18 into a council flat, lived frugally and saved money on a low income. Boosted savings with shrewd investments, met DH who lived in a house share so no help from his DPs either. He had a decent chunk of savings too, which we combined and we bought my flat under RTB after we got married. We were early 30s when we bought so it was over a decade of savings and investment returns, and we first bought in 2012, so just under a decade ago. My flat was in London zone 1 so high prices, but we had the max RTB discount.

We bought in the very late 80s with a 10% deposit and a 3 times joint earnings mortgage. The house was £60k so mortgage was £54k.

If we wanted to buy our house now we wouldn’t be able to borrow enough! We would need to borrow 7 x our current (quite high) joint income! Or 6 x if we had a £50k ish deposit. This a not large terraced house in north Kent! House prices are, quite simply, ridiculous.

No but I did get help buying ex husbands share when we divorced on paying off his equity. They helped keep a consistent roof over heads 🥰

I had no support ever, no family to live with so I could save, no inheritance as my parent both died with cancer and therefore no real way to save what was needed, so still paying rent. For all the years paying rent I would be mortgage-free by now, had I been able to get on the ladder.

Interesting to read just how many people have had support and have had that security for a lot of their lives. I've never had that. It's a totally different life experience when you have someone else's roof over your head but it's never actually home.

Hopefully, everyone really appreciates the leg-ups they've had. It must be wonderful.

Yes, got 10k instead of a wedding.

Like lots of people, I had no help from my family or his, neither would have been able to help financially.
What blows my mind is that we were given a 100% mortgage. I guess interest rates of 15% made my mortgage worth their while.

Never forget, a bank appears to give when it's profitable (they could charge me 15% interest) and refuse to help savers when it's not (see interest rates on savings). So when I had no money, they lent me some at v v high interest rates. Now I have some spare cash, they don't want to know.

Banks are never our friend. They are the opposite

No support from parents, interest rates in double figures and mortgage offer fell way short of market rates. It was a kind word from my husband's then manager , to our bank , that he was about to be massively promoted ( he didn't k ow!!!) that secured our, then massive mortgage.

No help.
We bought our first house 13 years ago-before we had kids.
We were renting (including house share); living very frugal ( spreadsheet with every pound spend accounted for; only basic - food and bills) and managed to save for deposit on "project" house in fairly cheap area in affordable part of the country ( street where even now you can buy a 2 bed house from 150k).
We were lucky that we were in position where we were both healthy so we could both work ( slightly above minimal wage but with occasional overtime) and we made decision to prioritize saving.

No, no help towards the deposit. I sold my shares in the Woolwich Building society for the deposit.

My parents bought us a table and DHs parents gave us their sofa.

No

Yep £80k not even inheritance, just a gift. We were very very lucky.

I had some money from an inheritance.

I would rather have had my dad. He died when I was a teenager.

Bought our first house in 89....my parents paid for new kitchen units ( which my partner fitted) ....we were very grateful ....my aunty's gave us £400 .....which was very generous

Yes. I was lucky to be gifted larges amounts since I was a teenager by my parents and my grandmother, and always saved it for later days.
Now, this pays for more than 40% of my London flat, and I realize how incredibly lucky I am. I would never have been able to buy it, and I am not a big spender and am well paid. I am forever grateful to my family.

No….we both took out “car loans” in the form of personal loads and used the money as a deposit….we told the mortgage company that we still had the cars…

Not a single penny. Bought in 2015, saved our 5% deposit of about 8k while at uni, renting a house, with one child and another on the way. We didn't make too many sacrifices, life gets put on hold when you're busy anyway.

No. Unlike literally everyone else I know. Not bitter

@TheHumanExperience timely reminder to make sure that everyone has life insurance, my biggest fear has leaving my children unable to secure a roof over their heads and as a result my kids get a substantial amount of money if I die before they’re on their feet. £100 a month well spent

Yep. My FIL gave us some money - half was a gift and half we paid back slowly over about 5 years. The money he gave was about a third of our deposit. It was a massive help. Like many people, we could easily make the repayments but found it hard to save while renting.

I bought quite a nice flat when I was still at University... in the days of 100% interest only mortgages. The flat was 41k, and the mortgage was cheaper than renting (despite the high interest rate at the time). The only help I got was my dad went guarantor for 1 year (which was also a thing at the time... and the only 'condition' they had about lending to a uni student with a part time job oddly enough)
I got burned with a fixed interest rate though, as I was worried since it had been at 12% a year or two before. I fixed it at 9%... for 5 years. Think it was less than 4% by the time the fixed rate ended. Ouch.

Still worth it though.

Nothing.

My mother was a widow and when I lived at home I contributed as she couldn't afford to keep me. I then moved away and flatshared for several years before I could scrape together enough money. I could get a 95% mortgage in those days and had an annual bonus which helped.

Yes, FIL gave us the deposit. We couldn’t have bought otherwise.

Yep. FIL lent us the deposit money so we could buy via the Help to Buy scheme. We paid him back when we remortgaged. I was 34 so not exactly a youngster.

Yes- my parents gave me (and my other sibling) 10k each for a deposit, which at the time was enough for a one bed flat in a niceish part of South London. Had I not received that I could have still just about afforded it as could have got a 100% mortgage based on my profession and earnings trajectory. Had I cut down on my social life I could have afforded it pretty comfortably (to cede a point to Kirsty)

BUT there are so many things that are way harder for young people now - tuition fees (didn't exist when I went) , way more international competition for graduate schemes, higher house price multiples. Basically Kirsty's talking out of her arse. I accept that a lot of things are better for this generation than for ours, but even so, in terms of asset acquisition, Gen X was way better off.

Nope, we saved our deposit while still staying at home separately.