.jpg)
Marie Grundy Managing Director, Mortgages, West One Loans
First published in The Intermediary Issue #42 - July 2026
If you look at the way we talk about the property market in the UK, you’d think the only way for a twenty-something year-old to buy a house is if their parents happen to be sitting on a mountain of spare cash. Oftentimes, people tend to speak about the Bank of Mum and Dad like it’s a cash-printing machine where gifted deposits simply materialise overnight. But in reality, very few parents have £50,000 or more just lying around in cash savings.
Most parents aren't cash-rich, but they may own a house. Even though 63% of households in the UK do live in an owner-occupied home, under-30s own just 2% of the UK’s owner-occupied housing stock, worth £130 billion, while £3.84 trillion of the UK’s housing wealth is owned by over 60s. Many of these homes are traditional family homes that are now far too big for those living in them, while those who own the home have adult children that are stuck paying astronomical rents and struggling to save up a meaningful deposit to purchase a home of their own.
Instead of waiting around to leave the house to the children in a will, a lot of parents are starting to realise they can do something right now. This realisation has led to a growing demand for family concessionary purchases, through which a house is sold to a family member at a significant discount. Many are also finding that it is potentially more tax-efficient in the long run than property left to be inherited in an estate, which may incur inheritance tax. Additionally, by passing on the property equity as a discount, parents can enjoy seeing their children benefit now rather than leaving them to navigate a complex estate later.
The specialist mortgage market really comes into its own for these types of transactions. Specialist underwriters can both examine and interpret the case manually and can also consider cases where would be purchasers also need access to lenders who look beyond a credit score. This can be particularly beneficial for younger first-time buyers with a limited credit history.
Take the example of a £100,000 discount on a £400,000 property which would be accepted as the deposit, meaning the family member gets a mortgage with a £300,000 loan size, puts down zero cash of their own, and instantly owns a home with a large portion of equity already built into it at 75% LTV rates.
The practical benefit on the other side of the deal is that the parents are able to access equity they may have built up over many years from the sale of the property. This can enable them to downsize potentially on a mortgage-free basis.
It makes sense for everyone involved, because the parents get to downsize without the stress of dealing with property chains or open-market buyers, and they get the genuine joy of watching their children start a life in the old family home while they get a foot on the ladder without the pressure of saving for a deposit.
In the coming years, these kinds of transactions are likely to grow in prominence as the proverbial ‘great wealth transfer’ takes place. It will take a bit of human underwriting and some flexible thinking from specialist lenders to set it up, but it can be a much more fulfilling experience now for both parents and their children than the typically stressful experience of probate and estate administration later down the line.