Find out how Gransnetters helped their DC get on the property ladder

We helped our daughter with her deposit when she married in the 90s, and our son is presently living at home.

He has looked at several houses, and we intend to give him a decent deposit. from our savings. However, as a single man with no children, and not earning a large salary, it would be quite difficult for him to buy a home and keep up with all the ever-increasing bills. He is still looking!

My daughter moved up to the North and purchased a newbuild 4 bedrooms etc for half the amount my son purchased his 1 bedroom apartment in suburban London.
Previously my daughter rented our buy to rent flat a 2 bedroom at a very reduced cost, to allow for saving up for a deposit to move.

We did what Wildswan16 did.
When we were young you saved every penny for years before getting married and stayed in and scrimped until mortgage payments went down.

One of my adult sons stayed with me for 2 years and saved "rent and lodgings" - this helped him with a deposit. I have managed to give them all a "gift" to help with the deposit, from my own savings and without strings.

My daughter and SIL, plus their two year old live in my house (which is not my home). They pay me a very low rent but still struggle financially. I have considered ways and means to help them get a place of their own, and get on the property ladder but we havent managed to find a way yet. To a certain extent, I am concerned about giving too much - I might need it, and also let's say I made over the house or part of the house to them, then SIL gets a huge chunk if they divorce. This sounds pessimistic but having been divorced twice myself and seen others lose money in the same situation I think I am wise to be cautious. I live with my husband and we rent (he pays the rent!). (I have another daughter and grandchildren to consider too but she managed to buy her first home on a mortgage at only age 19 as she got a lucrative contract - she was then a fashion model - this was more than 20 years ago). I think life is very tough for young couples trying to buy homes nowadays.

We already did years ago. We took out endowment policies when they were born in the mid 80s and it allowed both of them to put down a good deposit when they wanted their first house. Many of their peers are still unable to get in the property ladder and either tent or still live at home

We downsized 5 years ago and so were able to help our children.

I gave my son money so he could buy his house.He had lived in a council maisonette for 10 years with his wife and had been trying to save to put a deposit down.When my mum died she left me some money.That i was able to give them the money for the deposit and help with the mortgage.I know my mum would have been so pleased to help her grandchild

When my daughters both started work I only took a nominal amount (approx £30) per month for food so that they could put cash into saving for a mortgage. They did so and after several years they had enough for part of the deposit and we gave them a little to top it up, It helped them to budget better. This was in the early 2000s

My three all bought in the 2010s with their partners and didn't ask for financial help from us. They all worked hard, saved, and didn't have holidays or children until they were were on the property ladder. I'm very proud of them.

BUT. we are very well aware that things could have been very different if they lived in London or some other property hotspot, and didn't have partners and decent jobs.

The only way we helped (apart from turning out with the scrubbing and paint brushes when they moved in!) was when DS and DDIL moved in with us for a few months when DGS1 was tiny. DDIL had sold her first small flat and they were waiting to move into the house they were buying. The flat was in negative equity when sold so that was a tough time for them. We were glad to be able to help out by having them here.

My ex husband and I helped our daughter to buy a tiny basement flat in Camden in 1994 for £80k. She sold it for £250k in 2006 so she could buy (with a mortgage) a bigger property in Brixton which is now worth £900K.

We have 2 children and offered them both either money for a wedding or money for a house deposit. Both chose the latter. They bought their first houses about 10 years ago, and then we helped them both again - about 5 years later - to buy their next homes, which were more suitable to accommodate their children. This helped them to increase the deposit to 40% so that they could get a more favourable mortgage rate. We took the money from our savings and didn't make any formal legal agreement, though had an understanding that, if the relationship ended, the money would go to our son/daughter, not the partner. This worked well in my daughter's case when she broke up with her first partner. We regarded the money as a gift, and don't expect any return of this money. We also try to give them a small sum of money each year for home improvements, as they both live in expensive areas and bought properties needing considerable financial input! We didn't have any help buying our first house in the mid 1970s - just had to work and save for our deposit, so in many ways our children have been more fortunate.

Three years ago when my husband retired we gifted £10K to our daughter as a deposit on a new build, affordable housing property from his pension payment. As someone has previously mentioned under the terms of the mortgage it had to be signed over as a gift which was arranged by the solicitor dealing with the purchase. As she is single she would never have been able to afford the deposit for a property otherwise. We bought a few items for the new house and she funded the rest herself and as it’s only a small two-bed property it’s about fully furnished now and she pays all her own bills etc.

My son and daughter in law lived in a home I owned (and had previously rented out) at a rent just enough to cover my costs. After about 5 years they asked to buy it from me, which they did, for the amount outstanding on the mortgage and significantly below the market value. This was all done formally, it was a good solution for all of us. I only have one child, so it’s better he benefits when he needs it, rather than waiting to inherit.

I helped my daughter and her partner with her deposit on a flat using my savings.
We did not use solicitors at the time but did suggest that they signed an agreement stating that in the event of a split, each of them would get back what they put in before any profits are divided. This agreement was witnessed by friends of each party but I don’t suppose it would stand up in court!
Once they had completed we also helped with decorating, curtain making etc.

Living on edge of London and none of our 3 have left home yet. 20-27.
We want to downsize and help them move to a shared place of their own at the same time. But don't know really where to start to be sensible and legal and not make things harder for them all. Do we have a share in property, do a loan? We need to consult a solicitor I think next year.

We will help our five buy properties if and when they are interested in doing so. At the moment they are more into seeing the world. None of them appear to be thinking of house buying as yet!!

Like others have said, our two AC scrimped, scrambled and scurried to get on to the property ladder. My daughter and her husband rented from us at less than market rate so that they could save. They have twice bought rundown properties, worked all day and came home to renovation and decorating tasks and every weekend too. They sold the first place, it was tiny, and then bought another house that had been neglected (we were horrified) which a year later is a stylish and artfully decorated home. They are staying put now a while thank goodness. We lent them £5000 because whether it lies in our savings account getting .01% interest (or whatever) or 'saved' with them is neither here nor there to us.

My son needed only moral support in that I sat in on mortgage advisor meetings (he was young). I will never forget the mortgage advisor's face when he asked my son how much deposit he had and he proudly said £3000. Which did buy him a tiny flat 15 years ago, and he was off.

As an aside, we have a young nephew and his girlfriend who lament not being able to afford to buy, but they are off for 'city breaks' every other month ...

One, married, no children, got himself stuck working abroad and unable to bring his wife back here, through finding this impossible. The other two, married, a child each, had terrible trouble with this, despite all being highly educated, hard working and sensible with money. Eventually, they got their own homes but the mothers have to work full-time, despite breastfeeding and emotional turmoil of this. They can't live nearby because of their jobs. They were proud and ashamed and would not ask for help but eventually let me give £20K each towards their deposits, which doesn't help much. However, I have been able to help with my daughter's baby, which helps against the additional cost of childcare. It's tiring but I love doing this. At all levels in society, housing is in crisis. No wonder so many are on the streets. We need a seriously funded branch of the police to act kindly to help the homeless and to gather statistics towards working out how to help. However, we all know what is needed: strict controls on those who could provide housing as after the 2nd World War, without this being dismissed as a Leftist idea.

We helped my grandson with the deposit for his first house as he and his partner had a baby at a very young age. They have both worked hard and recently married and moved to a larger property. I hope I will be able to do the same for my other three grandchildren when the occasion arises.

We have helped our three children with their first house purchases, giving them each the same amount of money towards a deposit. This money was from down-sizing ourselves to a small bungalow.

I helped my son and his girlfriend with their deposit by gifting them £5000 as they had a baby on the way and I didn't want them having to rent as I knew buying would be cheaper in the long run. I had been left money from my Dad who passed away. As my Dad was very careful with his money, I knew it made sense to put it to good use and it also gave me great pleasure seeing them move into their house and even more exciting when my grandson came along.

I was not in a position to help at the time but recently inherited some money. I was able to make use of a deed of variation to alter the will in favour of my children to help reduce their mortgage.

I lent my daughter a deposit out of my share of savings in a divorce settlement and she paid me back . She paid for the rest of the house with the government help to buy scheme at the time but she needed a deposit and I was happy to help

We helped all 3 daughters with their first home purchase. They all received the same quite considerable sum. We were able to do this using money my father had left me; he would have been more than delighted that his 3 grandchildren had benefited from his legacy.