Are you thinking of helping a family member buy their first home or have you already helped them? Share your experience - £200 voucher to be won.

I gave my daughter £10K towards her first home. It was given as an interest free loan but I'm sure I won't ask for it back. She is an only child and I'm a single mum. She had saved around £27K herself so has worked hard. She needed it now, not when I'm gone and I'm proud to be able to help her.

There is no law that limits how much you can give your children to £3,000 a year, in fact you can give them £millions if you want to. The £3,000 refers to the sum you can give that will not be taken into account for Inheritance tax, should you die within 7 years.

Yes, gave money both my daughters with the deposits for first house. Money was needed for second move due to unexpected circumstances and money was a loan, almost paid of now

I am going to give my daughter a flat sometime later this year and I am very happy doing this.
I have talked talked to friends about their experiences and problems seem to have arisen when there has been an informal loan and repayment has not been sorted out and understood at the very start of the arrangement.

The R4 programme 'You and Yours' devoted its call in programme yesterday to money loans between friends and family.

The key point that came out of it was, that for a loan to work and their to be minimum of recriminatons, the details of the loan, repayment schedule etc etc should all be written down and signed. It doesn't need a solicitor or anything like that, but the amount of the loan and repayment terms and schedule etc etc, need to be agreed, each memeber of the transaction should have a copy and all should sign all copies, plus, of course, being realistic about whether the borrower can manage the repayment schedule. Better to just give the money, than have constant rows about a repayment schedule that is unrealistic.

I am currently wanting to help my son to buy his first house with his girlfriend. Even with a good deposit there are hefty repayments over longer years!

In all honesty, I don't think it has to be just financial help that's important. With my children, each has been gifted money towards their wedding and when my son decided to retrain as an electrician, we bought him a van to help out.
More recently he's moved and we've given as much time as we can helping him with the move, donated furniture and helped decorate the house.
Money's great but some have more than others and time with, is I feel a gift that's never forgotten.

swifty999 I so agree, both our children were able to buy 'project' flats first time round because we had the skills and expertise to give major help with renovation.

We have had to help my daughter since she split with her partner and had to rent a house for herself and our 3 granddaughters, thankfully they live local to use so we also get to see them several times a week.

Yes we’ve helped our daughter. We bought her a house. So she would have a roof over her head & not have to worry about paying a mortgage if she lost her job.

We gave my son £50000 to buy his first home part as deposit and the rest to renovate the property. More use to him at that time than when we are not here.

Yes me and my husband have helped both of our daughter's by giving them them some money towards a mortgage, we haven't given them as much as we would like but enough to make a difference.

We have helped all of ours. They are now well established and, only last week, one of them refused to let me pay for something I had asked him to buy because we can given him such a good start in helping him to buy a house

We have gifted all three of our children a substantial amount of money towards their first house purchases otherwise they would still be saving to get on the property ladder.

Set up a savings a/c for my daughter . She chose not to go to uni . When she was still living at home and paying keep , put that into the savings as well. When she wanted to buy her own home , she had a good deposit from the savings.

Yes we helped our son by providing deposit on their first house. They had been saving for their wedding and renting a small town house, which they had been told was an investment for the owners retirement, then 3 mths before the wedding the owner decided he was moving abroad and wanted to sell and would offer them first refusal. They tried to look for other properties to rent in their price range but couldn’t find anything. My husband was retiring in 6 mths and would get a lump sum so we took out a short loan and gave them the deposit.

I helped both my children to buy homes in 2018. I was lucky to be loaned £1000 by my dad back in the 1970s which enabled me to get on the property ladder. My dad was working abroad for a couple of years and I was able to repay the loan plus interest on his return. I have also inherited money from grandparents which helped my move to a bigger property.
I have therefore felt it only right that if I was in a position to do so, I would help my children withe their respective house purchases. It is lovely to be able to see them benefit from the money now rather than after my death.
It will also reduce any inheritance tax due and reduce any liability I might have to contribute to care costs in the future.
But, I am very aware that I am fortunate to be able to help them will little impact on ky own day to day finances

We helped both our children to buy houses, giving them the option of money towards a wedding or a house - and both chose the latter. We were also lucky enough to be in a financial position to help them take a step further up the property ladder a few years later when their families started to grow. We started off our married life with nothing, and have built up our financial reserves through sheer hard work and not wasting money; we feel as if we would rather give money to our children than to the taxman - and while we are alive to see them take advantage of it, rather than after we've gone! One problem linked to this issue (which friends have experienced) is when you help your child to buy a house with a partner, and the relationship ends. That can cause huge problems - so it's best to have a proper legal contract to secure any money you have invested in your child's property and prevent a financially and emotionally unpleasant potential situation later.

Yes we have helped all 3 of our children with house purchase. For a long time I thought they should all have the same but during Covid my daughter needed major help to get her out of a flat with no garden into a house with a garden. My other two children raised no objection and were happy for her and her family.

We are very committed to helping our daughter (20) and grandchildren from another child in the future and have already started plans to do this. We are in the process of purchasing a small 2nd holiday property by remortgaging part of the house we live in, we are hoping that the equity will grow in our 2nd property and by the time our daughter is ready to purchase her own we will then be able to sell it & have a nice contribution to our daughters deposit.

We have offered a modest amount to help our DS and DDIL to get onto the property ladder. The amount is modest so that we can help our younger two DC when it is their turn.

I don't have children or grandchildren, and rent myself because I can't afford to buy and maintain a property

We helped our daughter with a deposit when she was buying her first home with her partner. It helped them considerably as they would have struggled without help.

Our son still lives with us and has a full-time job, but his salary isn't enough to pay a deposit on a home. We have offered to give him the deposit, but at present (as a single person), he hasn't found anything suitable.

As we have always been savers and have enough money for our own needs, we didn't have any real concerns about helping our children. We just wanted to make it as easy as possible for them to get on the housing ladder.

Yes, I helped both of my daughters with a combination of loans and gifts. As I can afford I shall write off the loans. They do not know this as I think it’s important for them to not expect money to be handed to them on a plate

We have helped both dds with outright gifts, and feel very fortunate to have been able to do so.

Dd1 and her future dh actually refused help when buying their first house, which I admired in them. However some 3 years and a baby later, they wanted a somewhat nicer area with a better primary school catchment.

In the meantime prices had shot up, so while they made a profit on their house, the differential been theirs and ‘a bit bigger and nicer’ had widened quite a lot, so they were very grateful for the help we could offer.