This is a great question, particularly with Finder’s First Home Buyer Report 2025 – based on a survey of 1,006 first home buyers in Australia – revealing almost 1 in 5 (17%) first home buyers relied on the financial help of mum and dad to save their deposit, up from just 11% in 2022.

That’s almost 20,000 first home buyers a year who were lucky enough to receive financial assistance from their parents. Graham Cooke, Head of Consumer Research at Finder, said that family support has become a crucial step towards home ownership for many Australians. In contrast, for many young buyers, purchasing a property without assistance feels almost impossible. Cooke says that those who can lean on mum and dad are typically entering the market not just sooner, but in a much stronger position, and that this adds to the inequality in the market for those who don’t have this option,” Cooke said.

Nearly one in three experts who participated in the Finder survey (31%) believe the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ is distorting the property market. Mala Raghavan from the Tasmanian School of Business and Economics said, “With a limited housing stock in the market, any demand-driven actions are bound to distort house prices.”

Craig Betalli, Senior Finance Specialist at Our Broker, agrees that relying on the Bank of Mum and Dad can be problematic. Often, parents lack an understanding of the low-risk loan products available and are fearful of jeopardising their home or limiting their retirement plans by helping their children. In some cases, a parent’s financial or partner changes after a relationship break down, or a blended family situation can make financial support difficult anyway.

These issues, according to Craig, can generally be resolved with a frank conversation with a finance expert from Our Broker. Moreover, Federal and state governments continue to roll out first-home buyer schemes, but Craig notes they can also be a double-edged sword. They stimulate demand, which pushes up prices, so it’s a bit of a catch-22, he says.

Craig believes “rentvesting”, which involves buying an investment property while renting where you want to live, remains a smart approach. However, those with limited deposits also face additional costs, including stamp duty and lenders’ mortgage insurance (LMI), which can make this strategy challenging.

That said, successful rentvesting often means looking beyond capital cities, suggests Craig. For instance, if you’re eyeing a $400,000 property in a regional town, you’ll need a minimum deposit of around $45,000, which is a lot more achievable than a deposit for a property in a capital city such as Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

Craig adds that with the flexibility of working from home, many younger buyers are now using government incentives to purchase a home in regional areas and commute to the city a few days a week. After a while, they might move back to Sydney and rent out the property, which is another resourceful way to establish a foothold in the real estate market.

For more information about the financing options available to first home buyers, contact Our Broker today on 1800 913 677.