Summary
There are different ways to help your child get onto the property ladder. You have to decide which is best for you both. Weigh up the pros and cons.

Getting On The Property Ladder

You could consider re-mortgaging your property, either with your existing provider or with a new lender.

This would mean your mortgage term would increase to reflect the increase in borrowings, or your repayments could rise.

Another form of secured lending is a further advance with your existing lender providing the extra money. This would be added to what you already owed.

Using your home as collateral would make it relatively easy to arrange secured loans or a re-mortgage. If you apply for an unsecured loan and you don't own property already, repayment interest rates would be far higher.

Your own standard of living and your retirement plans could be affected by increased borrowing, so you have to consider all the implications carefully.

A guarantor mortgage might be the answer if your child's income isn't adequate to purchase a property with his own mortgage alone. Your guarantee would enable him to take out a larger mortgage than he could otherwise afford.

This method could be high risk for yourself as you would have to meet any repayments your child couldn't make, and if you already have your own mortgage to pay it could be tricky.

A joint mortgage could be a viable option for working parents. Both your income and your child's would be taken into account as well as the amount left to pay on your own mortgage.

One benefit of this arrangement is that both you and your child would be officially named on the deeds of the property and on the mortgage agreement, so you would have to agree to any future transactions.

The downside of being jointly responsible is that if your child doesn't pay his share of the mortgage you would be liable. It is unlikely to happen the other way round!

Another method of helping your child with his mortgage is when his loan and therefore interest payments are reduced because your savings are balanced against his debt.

If he has an 110,000 pound mortgage and your savings are 30,000 pounds, he will only pay interest on the difference – 80,000 pounds. This means that your 30,000 pounds will not be earning you interest, but equally you will not be paying tax on it, so if you are a higher-rate taxpayer it could be beneficial all round.

You can decide how much money is offset against your child's mortgage with this type of deal, and the beauty is that you have the flexibility to increase or lower the amount as you wish.

You will not earn interest on the savings you offset in this mortgage, which may be a problem if you can't afford to lose that money.

Many parents would consider buying a flat or a house for their child to live in while at university. In fact a survey on the subject had nearly a quarter of the respondents including 54 percent of people under the age of 45 agreeing.

Many parents don't want their child, in reality themselves, paying rent on top of other costs of higher education. Some just feel their child should have his own home. If you bought a property for your child near his university, that would solve both concerns, but if he left the area after graduation you would have to decide whether to sell it or rent it out to other students.

Income from flat-mates would help cover the mortgage but there can be problems when a group of students share. Friends can fall out over unpaid rent which can be embarrassing for everyone, and of course you would still have to pay the mortgage.

Of course the responsibility of managing their own home can be too much for some teenagers, and some parents might prefer their child to work hard at their studies rather than have to worry about housekeeping.