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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

We have 2 DS. DS1 and DDiL live overseas and have been renting from DDiL's parents for several years. They have now been able to buy the property. DS2 and DGF are our tenants in a house we bought when we realised our savings were making very little money. We only charge them what they were paying for a small flat five years ago, probably not market rent. We keep their rent money in a separate account and have only used it to improve the property. (Patio, new boiler and half a new roof.)

Should have said that I bought my first flat when I was 27 with no financial help from my parents but I paid not much more than 10% of what my son pays in rent so could save for the deposit.

My dad paid the deposit on our first house in the eighties and I volunteered to do the same for my daughter about five years ago. We are not a wealthy family but ‘ comfortable’ as they say.
I want them to have their own house and it gave me pleasure to do so.

Our eldest daughter (29) and her husband are currently trying to buy a house and I have given them money towards the deposit for their first house although their first house fell through and the current chain has problems. Our eldest son (26) works in London and thinks that buying a property there is out of his reach despite having a good job.

My 3 AC each scrambled onto the ladder through sheer hard work and saving. We managed to give each a lump sum several years ago, to do some maintenance or pay off their mortgage, one had a new roof. Its the DGC I worry about now so I have put a nice tidy sum into premium bonds for each of them, it will go a fair way towards a deposit, one day

I had forgotten that they each inherited when my DM died and her property was sold so that will have helped towards deposits on houses although nothing was specified so they could have blown it all on anything..

We helped one of our sons and his partner buy their first house by lending them part of the deposit. That was five years ago, when they were in their late twenties/ early thirties.

Ok, we couldn't officially 'lend' the money, as that isn't allowed by (I think) the mortgage lenders. It has to be a gift. However, a loan is what they came to us asking for, because they had found a small new build in our area that seemed perfect, and they were keen to act as quickly as possible , and unofficially a loan is what they got from us.
They also borrowed from one set of grandparents, plus the partner's parents.

The arrangement was informal, but they kept their word and managed to repay all of us within a year.

We could not afford to make a gift of the money we lent them, as it was our savings, our safety net.

Our other son and his then-partner bought their first house (a modest terrace) without any financial help from us, but we helped a lot in practical terms, with things like decorating and gardening.

We helped with the deposit for our DD to buy a flat in Thurrock.
She sold a few years later and had built up some equity .
She moved into our buy to let property with her partner. We expected them to stay for a short time and buy near us.
Didn’t happen, they married, she got pregnant, he left when she was 7 months on.
He moved back and they are still there! Very happy. That’s a good thing ?
The money is mostly gone, she needed it to live on when she was on her own.
Our retirement pot is a little compromised now?

My DS deliberately decided to look for a job well away from London and the south east, where the rest of his family lived, because he chose a profession he wanted to follow, but which is not particulary remunerative and he said he would have difficulty finding anything family sized in the south that he could afford.

I didn't help them. But I did make sure they knew how to respect their money from an early age. They knew how and why to save. They understood choices about going on holiday/partying/buying stuff, versus looking to the future. They knew to buy the most modest house they could find and not the big one to show off to so-called friends. They started small and worked their way up to a little bit bigger.

They all had their own home by the time they were 25.

Both of our DDs were able to take advantage of 110% mortgages and fast increasing house prices.
DS, who is much younger, won't have this opportunity and so will need to save hard for a deposit or rent.

My exH and I gave DS £6000 towards the deposit on his first house. Then, when I was given a substantial pay out from my work, I was able to give DS and DIL another £12,000 when they moved to a bit bigger house because GD was on the way. Sadly, I'm no longer in a position to help them financially any further now but I'm so glad that I could when they needed it.

Our children bought houses in the mid 1990s when prices were at the bottom of a slump. We had been saving, £5 a month for them since they were born and this amount was boosted after my sister died in a road accident and they received £1,000 each.

Each had about £5,000. DD bought an ex-Council flat, about the cheapest type of property available, in south London, the area where prices had fallen most. We helped her with all the negotiations and then helped her sort it out.

We are a family who never buy new if we can buy old and restore. She furnished a two bedroom flat, including appliances with change from £500. Everything was begged, borrowed or acquired at auction or in junk shops. She lived there for nearly 15 years before selling up for 5 times what she paid and bought another ex-council property ,this time a house outside London, entirely on her own.

DS bought 4 years later when prices were rising. He had to pay twice as much as DD for his flat in Oxford. Fortunately we had just inherited a tiny rural bungalow that we sold and that provided two thirds of the price of the flat he bought. He got a mortgage for the remaining third, he was a post-grad so had little income of his own. For both of them DH and I acted as guarantors for their mortgages. Once again we raided the junk shops and auctions to furnish it.

He only stayed their two years, but the prices were rising fast, so we bought him out of his share of the property, less the mortgage, that I took over, and he had a enough to buy a house on his own account in the city his new job was in. I then let the flat out for about 5 years and when prices stabilised, I sold it.

Both my sons lived at home for a nominal rent while saving to buy their own property, we live in London so saved them a fortune. I'm on my own and giving them a lump sum wasn't possible. I've since become disabled and rely quite heavily on the pair of them for getting about and getting to hospital appointments etc. My younger son and his wife and baby have moved back in with me and are renting their place out so they don't lose out property wise. It's working well for us, I don't make unreasonable demands and we all get on very well. So far so good.