Parents offering children a hand on the housing ladder

Almost four million parents across Britain have either given their children a loan to help them to buy property or are planning to do so, new research shows.

A study from independent financial advice organisation unbiased.co.uk revealed that 25 per cent of parents are giving their children loans of between £1,000 and £6,000, but 13 per cent provide loans of as much as £20,000.

Parents are overall happy to provide the money, the research found, with only 14 per cent of 18 to 29-year-olds expecting parents to put their hands in their pockets, compared to 40 per cent of parents that are intending to do so.

Around 76 per cent of parents who had helped out said that they did not expect any money that had been lent to be repaid.

However, a further 40 per cent of parents said they would love to loan their children money for a house but felt that they were not in a position to afford to.

Alternatively, one in eight parents provided support a different way by acting as a guarantor on the mortgage