Helping kids on property ladder

[Lm1981]

All signs are that house prices go up over the long term. As mortgage/rent make up a huge portion of wage are you planning any help for kids? Even if kids are still very young does it cross your mind of something to start now?

My children are small.

9 & 2 - we will contribute a 10% deposit towards their first homes. We have a significant amount of money (six figures) locked away in long term savers (5 year fixed at 5.8%) and this money is for them. We are fortunate that we can save around £2.5k per month - no childcare costs due to grandparents and own oldish cars outright.

We are in NI, where the properties are very cheap - my 5 bedroom/4 bathroom, detached house 15 minutes from Belfast cost me £275k 2 years ago.

We will keep the house until they're married and then downsize, however we also own another detached house that's rented out and will be signed over to them at the appropriate time.

*However
*
If they are financially idiotic then they won't see a penny of it until they're in possession of sense. I've worked hard for those savings. DS9 is a very sensible chap who saves his pocket and Tooth Fairy money, so I have high hopes for a positive outcome.

We would like to help them more than we can but with four of them it's not easy. As others have said the best way we personally can help is by letting them live rent free so they can save. DS2 is doing this, he earns reasonably well and saves a lot and we do not charge him any board / rent and never have done. Ds1 not so much and he has just moved to a rented flat. We are mortgage free and in a few years time should get a significant lump sum form an NHS pension so may use that to help the kids. We currently have the youngest two both at uni for the next 3 years so savings anything whilst helping them is hard.

My mil left us her house in 2003. I sold it and put the money into 3 buy to lets. They are all now paid off with the rental income and I will gift each of my 3 kids a house each when I feel they are responsible enough. Not done many things right in my life but that was one

I have 1 dc and have been saving in a LISA that I will take when I'm 60. I will also open a Lisa for dd when they're 18.

does how much you are able to save affect your decision on many kids you have. i think I could comfortably save a hose deposit for 2 kids but 3 would be a push (however I would like 3 children)

I am 32 and have 1 x 2 year old. I think my children (and others i their generation) will not be able to buy a house unless they have help.

I also worry about what if the NHS isn’t there doe my kids like it was for me and if I newd to pay for braces and other expensive non life saving treatments not available on the NHS?

does anyone else worry about this or factor this into the decision of how many kids to have and the long term future costs.

We didn't plan in advance, but did downsize on retirement with the express intention of giving each of the DC a significant sum.
They have never expected it, but we've made it very clear that we would rather see them getting the benefit of the money now, when they most need it, than after we're gone.

DCs are 5 and 1. We've recently bought a 4 bed house in London where we plan to raise them, staying here at least until they've gone to uni (but realistically maybe longer). Then we plan to downsize and give them money for a deposit.
If they are happy to continue to live at home we'll stay here longer and allow them to live rent-free. But that might not appeal to them as they might want the experience of living with flatmates etc. I moved out when I was 18 and wouldn't have wanted to live with my parents for any longer, but I hope my dcs have a better relationship with me than I did with my parents!

Yes, absolutely. DS had the choice - he had offers of moving in with friends but chose to stay home and save.
DD is a different character and I can see her not moving back home for long.

I had help as did my partner so we plan to help our two boys when the time comes. Makes a significant difference for getting that first flat. London prices are nuts at and I’d like them to be able to stay close to me.

I'm downsizing and giving my 3 40k each.

whilst i’d be very very happy with my children wanted to live me with and save during their twenties as i’d charge no rent

I would prefer them to have the freedoms that i enjoyed in my twenties sharing with friends in a rental and having a bloody whale of a time!

hence also saving so if they want to have some frivolous years in their twenties…. then there will be a nest egg to help when they decide to buy

Yes - the desire to be able to help our children financially was the reason we stuck to two. Both big things like house deposits to driving lessons, first cars etc. teenagers are expensive!
We were fortunate to have lots of financial help from my parents, and I wanted to be able to do the same for our two. I can’t imagine how daunting starting adult life must be for a young adult who doesn’t have the prospect of a bit of family money to rely on.

Well I did and now they are in their twenties I am glad. I've mentioned it on a few threads here and been shot down - been told it's materialistic and I'm assuming things like university costs when not all young people go.

I wanted financial flexibility to help where we could.

I know the standard Mumsnet teen doesn't want brands/is high achieving/pays for all their own driving lessons but mine did want some branded items, needed tutors for certain school subjects and I wanted to pay for them to learn to drive - alongside this they always had part time jobs.

With university nearly done we can still help a bit either housing so I'm glad we stuck at two.

Yes definitely, we stopped at 1 child because we knew we would be able to be comfortable financially barring any unforeseen events. We have savings for her, for our retirement, to cover us in the event of a job loss.....

We can't guarantee what will happen 10/20/30 yrs from now but we want to do what we realistically can to make sure that financially we and DD are OK.

@Lm1981 What are your plans OP?

We have paid for our two sons to go through university. I don't like debt, we are both old enough to have had our university courses funded by the state, and I wouldn't have wanted to have started my working life with a 50k debt.
However I'm afraid our two sons will have to wait until we are dead before they get an inheritance to buy a house. Don't think either of them mind, or expect anything different.

That's interesting as we've done pretty much the opposite! My children have taken loans for fees but we have a lump sum for each of them for a deposit.

Interesting to see different viewpoints.

I gave my older son money for a deposit, as did his father and my daughter in laws parents and they saved up a decent deposit too.

For my younger son, I bought a house. He rents from me at cost so he is able to save up his deposit with a long term plan to buy the house off me, as its in a London Borough so increasing in value. I'll gift him 50% equity and give the other half to his brother.

I didn't get any help at all from my parents and bought my first house at 18.

@CyberCritical @Backtobacky

Thanks for your reply. Didn’t even think about tutors, my husband and I don’t excel at anything so if our children are the same, tutors will be needed!!

DS couldn't live at home after Uni as there are no jobs in his chosen profession around here, so he's had to move to a city a few hours away. We've paid half his first years' rent. If we hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to afford to live there and therefore couldn't have accepted a job in his chosen profession. It was a no brainer to "facilitate" him to move for the job. It has a very steep earnings growth if he passes all his professional exams over the next 5 years, so within a year or two, he'll start earning enough to pay his way, and then in another couple of years, he should have a relatively high wage which will finance a mortgage and deposit.

We also gave him an old car we have so that he can drive as public transport between the only place he could find to live and his work in the city centre is poor!

I’m passing on £50k of my recent inheritance from my dad to each of my 3 DC as house deposits. They’ve been welcome to live with me while saving up but they all wanted to share with friends while in their 20s, which I’ve actively encouraged as I believe that’s the time to have fun and grow. Now late 20s, early 30s - it’s up to them. Two have health issues though so I’m keeping hold of the big house for the next few years in case they need to move back permanently. If this doesn’t happen (which I fervently hope!) I plan to downsize in 15 years time and give them a big chunk of cash each at that point. Then I hope I’ll live another 7 years and thereby avoid a bloody massive IHT bill which my estate wouldn’t have if I’d stayed married to their idiot DF 😡

That's the plan. Whether it will happen or not is in the lap of the health gods!

Pretty much same ideas as what others have posted

but there’s been a very significant variety!

We just taught our to save some and spend some from a very early age- whether that's birthday money, Christmas money, pocket money, earnings from enterprises (car cleaning/leaf sweeping/making craft stuff etc) or actual jobs. Even pre-school, we could take eldest with her birthday money to a big toy shop and wander round for a good couple of hours but if there was nothing she REALLY wanted she would say so (and it meant we could walk out without a tantrum ), and we'd go to the bank and put the money in.
Our eldest is 23 and has a small-house-not-in-the-south-east deposit already saved. Just needs the job to go with it to fly the nest. Her friend A has had similar opportunities to save but opts not to, and lives off credit card, has 2 degrees and still no job.

I think teaching your children about money and saving (and the trap of credit cards) at a young age is perhaps more value to them than handing them lump sums I'm confident they'll not get into debt unnecessarily as they won't whittle away available cash on yet more shades of grey hoodies (when 1 would do).... as A seems to.

However being older parents we did pay Uni fees from an inheritance (that would have paid Uni fees had they remained alive, it was pre-allocated). I think given the current 7.3% interest rates and basic graduate salaries increasing far above the repayment threshold means this in the longer term will pay off.

@Ariela

I think teaching your children about money and saving (and the trap of credit cards) at a young age is perhaps more value to them than handing them lump sums

That's why we went halves with him. We pay half, he pays half. It's the Philip Jones method, i.e. he "matches" what his kids earn themselves to encourage them to make their own way in life rather than rely on his wealth, but at the same time, give them a "leg up" so they can benefit from his wealth without having to wait for him to die!