Families help those with first time buyer mortgages

Published: April 24, 2008

People with first-time buyer mortgages are managing to make it onto the property ladder with some help from their families.

Although it cannot be denied that the global credit crunch is having an impact on new buyers, many are managing to find ways around the problem.

A bit of help from the family can go a long way and the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said that people with first-time buyer mortgages are increasingly turning to them for assistance.

"[Family is] increasingly the main option for first-time buyers. It is another option," said CML spokesman Bernard Clarke.

"We have seen [parents] who have enjoyed equity growth in their own property over a period, being able to draw on that to help relatives who are first-time buyers with a deposit," he added.

First-time buyers were boosted by the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC's) decision to cut the base rate of interest by 0.25 percentage point in April.