A record number of young first-time buyers are getting help from their parents to enter the housing market, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), sending the number of home loans granted in May up by 4 per cent.

The CML said today that around 80 per cent of first-time buyers under the age of 30 appear to be receiving help from their parents after failing to save the necessary deposits to climb on to the housing ladder.

Over the past two years, banks have reversed their policy of easy credit and significantly clamped down on offering mortgages to customers without large cash deposits. First-time buyers are been particularly hard-hit by the squeeze.

The CML, which represents most banks and building societies, said that while first-time buyers have had to rely increasingly on help from parents, the signs were that the market was improving and banks' lending criteria stopped tightening in May.

Since reaching a record 25 per cent in February, the average first-time buyer deposit has remained unchanged. A typical first-time buyer’s income multiple has held at 2.97 from April.

The total number of home loans rose by 4 per cent from April to May, although this is still 28 per cent lower than a year ago.

Home movers typically borrowed 67 per cent of the value of the property in May, unchanged from April, and borrowed 2.68 times their income, up from 2.63 in April.

This morning, Barratt and Redrow, the UK homebuilders, both said that there were small signs of stability emerging in the housing market, but that a lack of available mortgage finance was hampering a speedier recovery.

The Bank of England is today expected to increase its scheme of "printing money" by £25 billion to inject into the UK economy in a further aggressive move to force banks to lend to consumers and businesses.

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