One in ten parents would buy-to-let

Ten per cent of British parents would be willing to shoulder a buy-to-let mortgage to ease their children's entry onto the housing market, a study from Alliance & Leicester has shown.

By taking out a buy-to-let mortgage, parents can enable their offspring to rent part of the property while they study and manage the rental of other rooms to fellow students.

Letting a property through your children can also guarantee a steady stream of income, Alliance & Leicester director of mortgages Stephen Leonard commented.

"Parents should … remember that as well as helping their son or daughter to fly the nest, investing in a property through a buy to let mortgage … could benefit their own future financial security," he said.

In this way, the £21,000 parents in the UK devote to helping their child acquire a place to live develops into an investment, instead of being a handout which they never recoup.

Buy-to-let investment in university towns has surged in recent years as savvy parents clock on to the profit to be made by letting to students, with research from Halifax showing that prices in 20 university towns rose by over 20 per cent in the past year.

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