See more This is Money on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy JAMIE BOYS, REPORTER Updated: 12:48 BST, 8 June 2026
More than half of first-time buyers received financial help from family members to enable them to get onto the property ladder, new research shows.While roughly three in five first-time buyers used their own savings for a house deposit last year, some 53 per cent were helped by their family to fund their deposit. The gifts had a total value of £8.3billion in 2025. When inheritance is included, family members gifted £11billion to first-time buyers, showing the reliance on family wealth to purchase property. Twice as many buyers received an outright gift from their family compared to those who received a family loan. More than half of those receiving gifts got them from other family members, not just parents, the Savills data reveals.
Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills, said: 'First-time buyers continue to feel the impact of higher mortgage rates, which have stretched affordability and kept the average deposit high and maintained a reliance on the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad.'While first-time buyer activity held up better than expected in the early part of the year, the outlook remains challenging in the current interest rate environment. 'Less stringent mortgage regulation and gradual easing of rates over time should help to broaden access to home ownership to a degree. 'While that will pave the way for more lower deposit mortgages, it's clear that family support will remain a crucial component of getting first-time buyers on the housing ladder.'The average first-time buyer used £24,261 of their own savings to purchase a home, according to Savills. That's around 44 per cent of the deposit required for the average first home, meaning more than half of the average first-time buyer's deposit came from some form of financial assistance.This was made up of parental gifts, inheritance or government home buying schemes such as Help to Buy. David Thomas, chief executive of Britain's largest housebuilder, Barratt Redrow said previously it was the hardest time to be a first-time buyer since the financial crisis.He said that it was a 'challenging, very, very difficult' time for young people trying to get their foot on the property ladder. The average age of a first-time buyer in England is now 34, according to the latest Skipton Group's annual home affordability index published in March. It was 29 in the 1990s. Hopes that interest rates would be cut this year have been dashed by rising inflation triggered by a spike in oil prices following the outbreak of war in the Middle East in late February.This means that mortgage lenders have sharply increased the rates they are offering on fixed-rate deals. Data from property website Zoopla also revealed that there are 6 per cent fewer first-time buyers than there were a year ago. The Savills research shows 63 per cent of those aged 20–24 receive some form of assistance, falling to 44 per cent of buyers aged 45 and over.
