With home ownership amongst the younger generation becoming increasingly out of reach for all but a wealthy few, many are turning to their parents – the comparatively wealthy baby boomers born in the post-war years – for a financial leg up the property ladder.

As rising house prices continue to outstrip average income rises, the "bank of mum and dad" has increasingly come to the fore as a way of the younger generation realising the dream of home ownership.

It is certainly not new that parents should wish to help their children move on in life, but what we have seen in recent years, however, is an incre...