Despite a year of falling property prices, British parents are still buoyant about the property market in the years to come. This was evident from a study which showed that nearly half of British parents have offered financial assistance to their grown up offspring to help them to get on to the property ladder.
The study was carried out by market research firm BDRC. The study revealed that 40 percent of parents over the age of 45 believed that investing in the UK property market will give secure returns to their children in the future.
The results are in line with the findings of a similar report recently published by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML). The report says that the strict lending criteria that has been introduced as a result of the global credit crisis, has led to scenarios where more and more parents are being called on to help their children buy their first property.
The CML believes that those who are privileged enough to get this help from parents will be reducing their risk profile.This is because they are borrowing less from the banks and therefore the debt ratio with the bank will be lower. On the other hand those who cannot benefit from such handouts will feel the pinch as their finances remain stretched.The report by the CML also showed that the average loan-to-value on mortgages for first time buyers is now 75.3 per cent. This is down from 80.6 percent twelve months ago. Again this lower debt ratio is due to the tightening of lending criteria by the banks.
