Record numbers of people are withdrawing money from KiwiSaver to buy a first home - but the bank of mum and dad is still helping.Financial Markets Authority data this week showed that first-home withdrawals reached record levels in the year to March, when more than 50,000 people withdrew a combined $2.2 billion to buy a first home.Squirrel chief executive David Cunningham.Supplied / SquirrelSquirrel chief executive David Cunningham said despite that, and despite that increased amount of low-deposit lending happening, many parents were also still giving their children money."The bank of mum and dad is as alive and kicking today as it was when I bought my first house in 1990… that said KiwiSaver has radically changed the landscape to getting the deposit more easily. It's just the dollars needed are way more than when I bought my three-bedroom house for $140,000."In 2022, Consumer estimated that the bank of mum and dad would rank fifth in terms of helping young buyers on to the property ladder after the four main banks. It found 14 percent of all families had supported their kids financially to buy a property, with an average contribution of $108,000.But Cunningham and other mortgage advisers said the way that parents were helping had changed.He said parent guarantees or co-ownership had become a lot less common."Do parents really want to 'take on' a mortgage at age 50 to 70 years of age? What I would say is gifting in not uncommon, guarantee or co-ownership way less so. Especially now affordability is improved."When a parent acts as a guarantor, they put their house, or part of it, up as security for their child's loan to help them acquire sufficient equity.Campbell Hastie.Supplied / Hastie MortgagesCampbell Hastie, of Hastie Mortgages, said giving a lump sum of money was the cleanest way for parents to help."The concept of tapping into parental property equity, being a guarantor, is less of a thing these days and I reckon the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act (CCCFA) is squarely to blame."The CCCFA gives lenders obligations they must meet in terms of ensuring borrowers can afford any loan they take out."Any parent wanting to be a guarantor must show that they can afford to service the guarantee under their own steam if they ever had to. For older parents on limited incomes, demonstrating affordability is a problem. In the good old days, parents could offer their property up and that was more or less enough."To overcome that problem, bringing the folks in as joint borrowers is the answer - this set up means the bank can also take a global view of income, effectively relying more on the kid's income to carry the deal."He said either way parents had to go through an assessment process and many did not like that level of scrutiny.Float Mortgages head of accounting, wealth, and advisory Niran Iswar.Supplied / Float MortgagesNiran Iswar, head of accounting, wealth and advisor at Float Wealth, said it could also be easier for parents to arrange an equity release from their property to create some money to hand over.Claire Matthews, a banking expert at Massey University, said requiring guarantors to prove they could afford the loan represented a change in practice from the banks."Traditionally, parents are guaranteeing the loan due to a lack of equity, and providing additional security via their home has been the primary purpose of the loan…if the guarantee is called upon the bank would prefer that the guarantor is able to repay the loan rather than being forced to sell the parents' home to resolve the situation."I've had a look at a couple of the banks' websites, and it appears they would only require the guarantee over the shortfall amount rather than the full amount of the lending being provided. I would have thought that if parents were providing a guarantee they would have the capacity to repay the shortfall amount over time. A complicating factor may be the parents' ages, which may mean the banks are not willing to allow for repayment over the sort of timeframe that may be necessary."Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.