The ‘Bank of mum and dad’: Aussie adults relying on parents for housing costs and everyday expenses, survey finds
Rising property prices, particularly the return to price growth seen in Sydney and Melbourne after their market slumps, have raised fresh worries about how aspiring home owners can afford to get onto the property ladder.
“As a parent myself, it does concern me that we are seeing a future generation that relies on their parents for everything,” said Kate Browne, a personal finance expert at Finder.
“We know that a lot of younger people do rely on the family to help bolster them when trying to scrape enough money together for a home deposit.
Rising property prices meant relying on the bank of mum and dad for help with a home deposit had become “a fact of life” for many, Ms Browne said. However she noted such help made it even harder for other first-home buyers, who couldn’t get funds from their parents, to get onto the property ladder.
While some would be able to get assistance under the recently launched federal government First Home Loan Deposit Scheme, only 10,000 of the 100,000 or so first-home buyers who enter the market each financial year will be able to get assistance. All 3000 spaces released so far have already been reserved.
The great disparity between wage growth and property prices growth in recent years had made it more common for younger generations to rely on the bank of mum and dad, said social researcher Ashley Fell from McCrindle Research.
“They’re living at home for longer to alleviate some of the costs that they face,” she said. “The stigma of living at home into your late 20s has been removed, everyone knows the housing market is tough.”
“Helping your kids in any way you can is how many see the job of a parent, but mum and dad need to make sure they aren’t hurting themselves in the process,”