LISTEN: 20% of parents think children will need help to get on property ladder

A fifth of parents in Scotland believe their children will need "substantial financial support'' to ever be able to buy their own home.

Published 21st Apr 2016

A fifth of parents in Scotland believe their children will need "substantial financial support'' to ever be able to buy their own home, according to new research.

A quarter of parents asked said they feel under pressure to help their children financially, the Bank of Scotland survey found.

Just over one in ten parents aged 25-34 are looking ahead to the future and already feeling pressurised to help with costs towards getting on the property ladder.

Morna Thorburn from Bearsden got money from her family for her deposit and says she doesn't know what she'd have done without it, you can listen to her interview here:

More parents in southern Scotland (17%), Glasgow (16%) and Aberdeen (15%) than anywhere else think it is normal now that their children's generation will never buy their own home.

The findings, contained in the bank's latest How Scotland Lives report, showed parents are also concerned about helping to pay university or higher education costs and repaying debt.

The YouGov-completed research, based on 3,056 online interviews in December, showed a fifth of parents aged 45-54 and 35-44 feel under pressure to help their children with education costs.

Those as young as 25-34 are already thinking ahead to when their child may go to university and around 15% are concerned over finances, despite this possibly being a few years away yet.

Nicola Noble, mortgage director at the bank, said, "As their children struggle to be financially independent, more parents are now feeling under pressure to help by providing money towards university or higher education costs, repaying debt or buying a home.

"The younger parents, especially, are already feeling very pessimistic about their children ever being able to buy a house without them providing substantial financial support.''