Parents pay £825 for child's first owned home or £631 for first rental

A survey of 1,000 parents has apparently revealed just how much they pay when their offspring first leaves home to live independently in another property.

And whilst we hear much of the Bank of Mum and Dad paying literally tens of thousands of pounds to help their children set up a new home, for the vast majority the sums are less onerous according to the survey by Nationwide Savings.

The cost of equipping a child for university was the highest initial outlay at £1,114, including an average £144 spent on computers, £109 on transport costs, £107 on books and stationery, £106 on mobile phone and call costs and £100 spent on kitchen equipment and bedding.

If the offspring was going into privately rented accommodation but not connected with any higher education, parents spent an average of £631 on helping, This includes £135 towards the rent itself, £83 on home furnishings, £61 on kitchen equipment, £58 on food, £47 on bedding and £27 on bathroom essentials.

For those parents contributing towards setting a child up in their first owned home, the average bill totalled £825, including £281 towards the initial deposit. They spent a further £80 on home furnishings, £60 on kitchen equipment, £58 towards solicitor’s fees and £57 on decorating and renovations. For some parents, the costs could mount up even further as their children will have done all three – been to university, set up a first rental and bought their own home – costing a combined £2,570.

As well as the initial set up costs, parents continue to give their adult children cash or buy them goods to help them out, with a quarter contributing once a month and one in five forking out twice a month or more. On each occasion, the average amount gifted is £44, though 19 per cent fork out £90 or more.

More than half of parents funded this spending from savings and a third covered the costs from their normal income. However, some parents put themselves into debt in order to assist their children, with six per cent using a credit card, five per cent an overdraft and three per cent a personal loan.