September 2026 · Issue #7
The Bank of Mum and Dad is now a third of the market
Anyone who’s stood at an open home in Thornlands or Cleveland lately has met the couple who can comfortably make the repayments but are staring down a deposit that keeps moving away from them. More often than not, Mum and Dad are quietly part of the plan. A survey doing the rounds this week puts a number on it: 34% of Australians received, or expect to receive, family help to buy a home, and 61% of current owners said they needed it.
Compare the Market survey, April 2026
| Got or will get family help to buy | 34% |
| Current owners who say they needed it | 61% |
| Say they couldn’t buy without it | 48% |
| Need help but parents can’t afford it | 29% |
| Most common form: gifted deposit | 14% |
| Family guarantor / repayable loan | 9% / 7% |
It isn’t a scandal, it’s a system
Compare the Market’s Stephen Zeller made the obvious point: “With Australian house prices having risen so much, the amount needed just for a deposit is significant.” On a $760,000 Thornlands townhouse, a 20% deposit is $152,000 before stamp duty and costs. Saving that on a normal wage, while paying Redlands rent, is a decade’s work. So a gift, a guarantee, or a few years in the old bedroom has become how a lot of first homes get bought. The uncomfortable half of the survey is the 29% who need the help and whose parents simply can’t give it.
A gift, a guarantee and a loan are three very different things with three very different consequences.
If you’re the parent
Framed generally, because this is where I stop and your broker and accountant start: a gifted deposit is the simplest but it’s gone, and lenders will want to see it’s genuinely a gift. Going guarantor means your own home is security for part of their loan — it can get them in with a smaller deposit, but you’re on the hook until the guarantee is released. A family loan keeps the money in the family but needs to be documented properly, or it can complicate both their borrowing and your estate. None of these is wrong. All of them deserve a conversation with a professional before anyone signs anything.
If you’re the seller
This is who your buyer is in a softer market. A family-backed first-home buyer has the deposit sorted, is usually pre-approved, and wants a home that’s ready to live in — not a project. The homes winning with that buyer right now are clean, well-presented, priced realistically, and easy to say yes to. Investors are stepping back; these buyers are stepping in.
The Redlands read
Where the family-backed buyer is shopping
Townhouses and smaller homes in Thornlands, Alexandra Hills and Capalaba; the first rung of Victoria Point and Redland Bay; anything walkable to the train at Cleveland or Birkdale. That’s the demand behind the 17% rise in Thornlands units and townhouses over the past year.
If you’re selling into that market, present for them. A tidy, move-in-ready home with the paperwork ready beats a bigger, tired one every time.
A word on the source: this is a survey by Compare the Market, a comparison site that earns commission on home loans, and it didn’t publish its sample size. I’ve used it because it matches what I see on the ground, not because it’s official data. Nothing here is financial advice.
Helping the kids buy, or selling a home that’d suit them? Either way, happy to talk through how it plays out around here.
Get in touch
Greg Leigh — local Redlands specialist, Queensland Sotheby’s International Realty. Published 16 September 2026.
Sources: Compare the Market survey (27 April 2026), as recirculated by realestate.com.au and Real Estate Weekly (16 September 2026). Deposit worked example is illustrative only.