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'The Bank Of Mum And Dad’ in 2017 Will Help to fund more than 1 in 4 property transactions in the UK

Legal & General, the FTSE100 financial services group and Cebr, the economics consultancy, have today published a new report into the role the Bank of Mum and Dad plays in helping their children get on, or move up the property ladder.

2 May 2017


The research shows the Bank of Mum and Dad will lend over £6.5 billion in 2017, up from £5bn in 2016, providing deposits for over 298,000 mortgages, and helping others to purchase homes worth £75 billion. The Bank of Mum and Dad is now on a par with the 9th largest mortgage lender in the UK (up from no.10 last year) and will be involved in 26% of all property transactions that take place in the UK market this year.

Nigel Wilson, CEO of Legal & General, said:

“The Bank of Mum and Dad continues to grow in importance in helping young people take their early steps onto the housing ladder. The intergenerational inequality that creates the demand for BoMaD funding continues to widen – younger people today don’t have the same opportunities that the baby-boomers had, including affordable housing, defined benefit pensions and free university education. Parents want to help their kids get on in life, and the Bank of Mum and Dad is a testament to their generosity, but it is also a symptom of our broken housing market.

“The UK is experiencing a supply-side crisis in housing – we are simply not building enough houses. We need to build more homes for the young, old and families alike – more quickly and cost effectively. Legal & General is playing our part by building and financing thousands of new homes. As well as providing much needed new properties, it will also deliver economic growth and new jobs.”

Other key findings from Legal & General’s “Bank of Mum and Dad” research include:

  • The Bank of Mum and Dad will lend £6.5bn in 2017, putting it on a par with the UK’s 9thlargest mortgage lender (Yorkshire Building Society, £6.6bn of lending, CML 2015)
  • In 2016, a third of prospective homeowners received financial help to buy from friends and family – in 2017 that figure jumps to nearly half (42%)
  • BoMaD assistance has risen from an average of £17,500 in 2016 to £21,600 in 2017 – an increase of 23%
  • Millennials are the biggest recipients of BoMaD funding – 79% of BoMaD funding goes to people under the age of 30
  • BoMaD will fund less purchases in 2017 than in 2016 (a -2.5% decrease from 305,900 to 298,300) – but only because overall housing market transaction volumes are down
  • 76% of BoMaD assistance goes towards the deposit – just 4% goes solely on mortgage payments
  • Parents in the South West of England are the most generous, providing £30,000 of financial support per transaction on average, even more than London (£29,400). Welsh parents give the least - £12,500
Equality Street?

Intergenerational unfairness is not the only issue. The Bank of Mum and Dad creates intrafamilial challenges too. Only 40% of parents provide equal financial support to their kids. 18% only help the eldest child buy a property, whereas 16% favoured the younger child. National house price differentials make little difference to the Bank of Mum and Dad’s criteria for extending support - most parents provide a fixed amount of financial help, regardless of where their kids choose to live – only 1 in 5 were prepared to provide more help for kids living in pricier areas. However, 2 in 5 homeowners in London (39%) receive BoMaD help.

Nigel Wilson concludes:

“This is the second year of our Bank of Mum and Dad research programme and the statistics show the problem is getting worse, not better. Transaction volumes are down in the housing market but BoMaD funding is growing exponentially. This is not a good thing, nor is it sustainable or equitable for our parents (the lenders) and young people (the borrowers). We need real action to fix the housing market and restore affordability for all. Institutions like Legal & General can regenerate not just residential housing, but the towns and cities in which the homes are built. Infrastructure, jobs and local economic growth are all key to creating thriving communities where people want to live.”

- ENDS -

Table 1: Largest mortgage lenders by gross lending (CML, 2015)

Rank 2015 Rank 2014 Name of group 2015 £bn 2015 market share 2014 £bn 2014 market share
1 Table 2: Average BoMaD contribution in 2017 by UK region*
1 (1) Lloyds Banking Group 38.4 17.5% 39.6 19.5%
2 (2) Nationwide Building Society 30.5 13.9% 27.1 13.3%
3 (3) Santander 26.1 11.9% 25.9 12.7%
4 (5) The Royal Bank of Scotland 24.7 11.2% 19.7 9.7%
5 (4) Barclays 18.8 8.6% 20.3 10.0%
6 (6) HSBC Bank 12.7 5.8% 12.6 6.2%
7 (7) Coventry Building Society 8.0 3.6% 7.4 3.6%
8 (9) Virgin Money 7.5 3.4% 5.8 2.9%
9 (7) Yorkshire Building Society 6.6 3.0% 7.4 3.6%
10 (10) Clydesdale Bank 5.1 2.3% 4.9 2.4%
Region Estimated value of the average BoMaD contribution in 2017
*Excludes those that did not receive any financial assistance from family and friends
North East £24,200
North West £23,100
Yorkshire and the Humber £15,800
East Midlands £21,000
West Midlands £21,400
East of England £24,300
London £29,400
South East £21,800
South West £30,000
Wales £12,500
Scotland £15,500
England (NET) £23,200

Further information

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Dan Williams

Senior Account Manager, Rostrum

Rostrum

T: 07341 127774

Email Dan Williams

Notes to editors

Established in 1836, Legal & General is one of the UK's leading financial services groups and a major global investor, with £1.2 trillion in total assets under management1 of which 40% is international. We have a unique and highly synergistic business model, which continues to drive strong returns. Legal & General provides powerful asset origination and management capabilities directly to clients, which also underpin our leading retirement and protection solutions. We are a leading international player in Pension Risk Transfer, in UK and US life insurance, and in UK workplace pensions and retirement income. Our purpose is to improve the lives of our customers and create value for our shareholders. Through inclusive capitalism, we are investing in long-term assets, such as real estate and infrastructure, that can help build a better society for the future.

1Data as at 31 December 2023.