Record numbers of first-time buyers received substantial help last year as family members used their own assets to help to get them on to the property ladder.

Research by the Council of Mortgage Lenders shows that almost half of first-time buyers aged below 30 were given or lent money by relatives to help them buy a property, against almost 10 per cent in 1995. One effect is to have pushed the average deposit of those first-time buyers who received family help to £34,200 – or almost 1.5 times their average annual income – compared with less than £13,000 in 1995.

The research indicates that more families are tapping into their own housing wealth to help fund the property purchases of their offspring.
Rising property prices have forced many first-time buyers either to borrow more or raise bigger deposits.

Halifax believes it now takes first-time buyers almost five years to save for a deposit to buy a property, almost twice the time it took five years ago.

Lenders have responded to rising prices by agreeing to extend greater multiples of buyers' incomes. Traditionally banks and building societies lent up to 3.5 times income. Now most lenders may offer multiples of four times.

More lenders are also moving to affordability criteria enabling them to lend up to five times income in some cases.

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Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Article Date: April 2006