A survey of first-time home buyers in the UK has found that many receive help from relatives, but as a loan rather than as a gift.
A study has found just a third (31 per cent) of relatives offered cash as an outright 'gift', while almost a fifth said they had asked for part-ownership of the property to collect their money when the home was eventually sold on, the British bank HSBC says.
Its survey of 1,000 first-time buyers found that while around a fifth of them had received family finance in the last year, 52 per cent of parents expect to be paid back.
Some 73 per cent of parents who do want their money back also expect interest, ranging from 2.1 per cent to 2.5 per cent on average, which is close to the current rate of inflation.
The typical size of a parental gift or loan varied widely, with first-time buyers aged up to their mid-20s receiving around STG19,000 ($A29,692) and those aged from their mid-30s upwards receiving more than STG42,000 ($A65,635) on average.
