Our Help your Child to Buy scheme is aided by our joint ownership agreement to protect the financial aid typically given by parents when they are helping their children to access the housing ladder.
In just five years, the number of young professionals who rely on 'the bank of mum and dad' to help fund the deposit for their first home has doubled. Two thirds of first time buyers now require this assistance.
Share a Mortgage launched the Help your Child to Buy scheme to assist these parents and family members loaning their finances in this way not only to ensure that their money is used in the right way but also that it is protected. If the money is to be loaned, then the joint ownership agreement, which is legally binding, sets down how - and when - loans are to be paid back. The scheme also gives assistance to those gifting money to their children or wishing to act as guarantor for a mortgage.
Click on Help your Child to Buy or call us on 0207 112 5388 to find out how you can protect your investment in your child's property.
What is the problem?
The National Housing Federation has warned that a whole generation might miss out on home ownership. A report from the NHF calculated that an average first time buyer now needs to amass £30,000 for a deposit.
The spokesman added that house prices reached their highest point in seven years in July and, startlingly, are presently projected to increase to 13 times annual salary by 2030.
For many young people, the prospect of ever buying their own homes is a receding one; Help your Child to Buy can help reverse this predicament.
Help your Child to Buy: many ways to help your children buy
Share a Mortgage launched Help your Child to Buy to help parents who wish to aid their children to achieve the independence that is only achieved by owning your own home.
Among the devices parents can use are; gifting money, loaning money, getting an offset mortgage and buy to let (with their children being the tenants with an option to buy the property later). There are, of course, tax rules accompanying parents passing money to their offspring. In the case of pure gifting, the tax man is not involved.
In contrast, any arrangement where, for example, the parents hold assets in their names and/or stand to make a profit undoubtedly could involve tax law so it is advisable to take as much professional guidance on this as possible. Further, if both parents die (or a surviving parent does) within seven years of making a gift, inheritance tax may be payable, depending on the value of the whole of the deceased parents' estate.
Other strategies which parents can use help their children include using their own house as collateral, deciding to appear on the mortgage deeds or opting to hold a beneficial ownership percentage in a property.
Shared Ownership Protection: the joint ownership agreement which gives security for all parties
Share a Mortgage's Shared Ownership Protection is our unique joint ownership agreement and is a vital part of our Help Your Child to Buy scheme. The document ensures, through its Deed of Trust element, that the particular ownership structure for a property is agreed beforehand between the parents and children.
This legally-binding commitment makes it quite clear for example whether money which parents have paid over is to be regarded as a gift or as a loan, and if the latter, when full repayment might be due. It can, for example, be written in such a way as to optimise tax planning.
Critically, it also sets down how any of the parties involved can leave the arrangement and what will happen if they choose to.
At present, the trend for first time buyers increasingly to rely on support from their parents to buy properties is an upward one.The good news, however, is that there are many ways in which 'the bank of Mum and Dad' can be used effectively to help children get on the property ladder.
