Downsizing can help FTBs to buy

Parents are increasingly turning to the equity released when they downsize their property in order to help their children to buy a home.

That is according to Savills, which says that decreasing affordability within the housing market is forcing many first time buyers (FTBs) to seek financial help from their families.

"When you end up with your empty nesters, one of the first things they are going to want to do is to get [their children] on the housing ladder, and because of affordability issues for first time buyers, what we have seen is that the proportion of first time buyers who are getting an injection of capital from other sources – and relying on the parents to help them out – has increased," said Lucian Cook from Savills.

However, Mr Cook also pointed out that he does not believe people who downsize are preventing FTBs from getting onto the property ladder by snapping up the type of properties new buyers might be interested in purchasing.

"All they are going to do by downsizing is going to free up capital to enable their children to get on to the housing ladder," he said.

"I don't think that could be said to be squeezing out first time buyers – [they are] probably facilitating first time buyers getting in to the market," continued Mr Cook.

The Department of Communities and Local Government recently revealed that house prices increased by 0.3 per cent between August and September.

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