The number of young people who rely on help from relatives to get a foot on the property ladder has surged by 80 percent in 20 years.
Almost half of first-time buyers now rely on handouts from the bank of mum and dad and other relatives to get a foot on the property ladder.
Some 36 percent used gifts from the family and another nine percent relied on a windfall in the form of an inheritance.
The figures come from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which said these figures equated to an 80 per cent rise in the number of buyers who hand help from others.
Details were revealed in the ONS Milestones report, which examines key life experiences and the ages when they are reached.
The figures make clear that increases in the cost of housing and other bills is forcing young people to push back key goals.
For example, the average age a woman has their first child has risen from 26 in the 1960s to 30 in the 1970s and is now put at 32.
The ONS findings also revealed that ‘cuckoo’ young people are effectively being forced to live at home with their parents through to a later age.
In 2011 the majority of young adults had moved out of the family home by the time they reached 21, but the high cost of finding a home meant it had risen to 24 by 2021.
Similarly, more couples are putting off getting married because of the costs involved. As a result, the proportion of couples aged 25-29 who are unmarried or in a civil partnership was up from 56 percent to 72 percent in a decade.
On the difficulties in buying a first home, Kerry Gadsdon, from the ONS, said: “Financing a first purchase has changed. In 2021, 80 percent more first-time buyers in England had help from friends and relatives compared with 20 years ago.”
She added: “Everyone’s journey through adulthood is different, but we can use a range of data to explore key events in life. We’ve examined how these milestones of adulthood have changed over the past decade and can see how society is shifting.
“People are doing many things later in life, like leaving their parents’ home, getting married and retiring.
“But not everything has changed. Most people still enter the workforce at 23-24 years old and make the most money in their 30s to 50s.”
