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.

Yes, £5K from each parent. I work full
Time now with a view to saving a pot for each child (for university fees and house deposits). They are going to need it and I find it motivates me on the days I don’t feel like working!

We had saved hard, but went to look at a new-build 2 bed terrace(? - 4 houses on 1 side and 4 houses backing on to them so the end houses had a front and a side wall, middle houses were surrounded on 3 sides with only 1 wall to the outside) as what we could afford. A DAunt and DUncle came along for a second opinion, and asked why we weren't going for the 3 bed semi-d across the road. The difference was £20.5k at the time, but the deposit difference was £1k. We could squeeze the £20.5k into a mortgage, but couldn't afford the additional £1k up front for the deposit - so DAunt and DUncle loaned it to us and were paid back within 6 months (i.e. just as we took possession of the house). We had the remaining £11k deposit already saved ourselves, on a £122k house.

And various family and extended family helped with filling it - a DAunt of DH was downsizing and gave us the spare 3 piece suite, old washing machine and tumble dryer (she needed a combo machine) from the old house, I got a small kitchen table from clearing the flat of a DAunt of mine who had died, DBIL bought us a bed as a wedding present (wedding was 5 months after we got the keys), DAunt/Uncles joined to buy us a dining table and chairs as a wedding gift, we got a lot of lamps, "good" crockery, towels and a toaster also as wedding gifts. And a set of pots and a set of kitchen cutlery for engagement presents, which was just a few months before putting down the deposit.

One graciously died without significant care costs.

Couldn't have done it otherwise, despite making plenty of economies.

I got £10k from my parents which paid my 10% house deposit about 15 years ago - it was from an inheritance they'd just received from my grandfather and was unexpected and a wonderful gift.

No, nothing. I wanted to do it myself. This was over 15 years ago now.

My mum passed away and it was her scheme through her work and her pension that she paid quite a bit into that enabled my brother and myself to get on the property ladder. There was no way in hell that either of us could have done it without that money for our deposits. I'd give it all up and ho back to renting to be able to have my mum back though.

I borrowed £30k for my first property. I'm now in property number 3 and was able to pay it all back when I sold my second house. Would have struggled to have got where I am without it.

Kind of. DH's grandparents died when he was very young and he inherited shares in a family business, so our deposit was essentially 18 years of built up dividends.
However, my DBro is about to buy his first property aged 21 and the only help he has had from parents is living at home while studying.

I think it's a combination of luck and sacrifice (a lot of 21 year olds would not be prioritising getting on the property ladder but equally not everyone had the start in life that we did)

We got nothing from anyone, we saved 10% deposit, but we’re boomers so easier to achieve on our own.
Our mortgage was still my whole monthly salary though and dh salary paid for everything else.
We had a new bed and everything else was secondhand including the shop rail we bought when Chelsea girl was closing down and used for 5 years until we could afford wardrobes.

Nope. But we bought when a £20k deposit was plenty. We lived at home though while we saved so we did have their support that way

And it totally depends where people live. It's SOOOO much harder in the South East than North East for example.

Not a penny

nope. We got given some saucepans and stuff (hand me downs) to bulk out the wedding gifts and £20 housewarming which we spent in MFI. that was around 1978

Mine gave me £10k which covered stamp duty. It was nice to have but wasn't essential as i had already saved enough to cover that

Yes we did. MIL loaned us a chunk of deposit money when Covid meant we needed a 20% deposit when we had 15%. Will be paid back this autumn but we couldn't have bought without her.

FIL inherited some money and gifted some to DH and SIL equal amounts as she was buying too.

And my parents have no money to give but we bought a house that needed some work and my family is full of tradespeople who have used their discounts to save us money and done work for very little / free.

Yes. DPIL gave us £30k and we had £15k which allowed us a pretty decent 15% deposit in 2009.

We decided not to get married then as property had crashed and thought that buying was better at that time. We got married in 2011 instead.

That £35k deposit was become £400k equity in 12 years due to combined payments and house price increases. Fucking mental.

No, but we were able to get a 100% mortgage then.

No none. I bought with my boyfriend at 19 in East Anglia early 2000s

For my first property no. For the second 4k deposit for a new build, so not much, but I suppose it helped as we only had money in our current property. We had a doer upper and made money on it.

Yes. I was pregnant when we bought our first house and we hadn’t a full deposit saved. MIL very kindly gave us £10k from a recent large legacy which enabled us to buy.

I got no help and neither did DH. I sold my car to boost our 10% deposit as we were just short. I fortunately lived close to work and cycled. This was in 2009.

I inherited about £20k from my grandpa.

That, and what I'd saved, was plenty for a substantial deposit in the 1980s.

My DHs best friend died in his early twenties they were very close. He was an only child then shortly after his mother got cancer she had noone to leave it to. She was like a second mum to my DH. She offered my DH the house but he was not in a good place to deal with the discussion so he said to let his Mum and Dad have it. She left the house to my in laws. A few years later when my DH and I got together and were settling down in the house. They called round one day and gave my DH an envelope with a letter from the solicitors saying the house now belonged to my DH. We are thankful everyday but my DH lost two people he loved to get it so it came at a big personal cost.

If a relative gifts you money for a house/deposit and they pass away within 7 years don’t you then have to include this as an asset of the diseased estate and pay inheritance tax on that?