My folks own their own house. 120K mortgage left it's worth 475-550K. They want property down because I'm about 1 year away from leaving the country permanently because I will never afford a house. Because I foolishly went into a public servant job which means I can't dictate my pay and my pay rises per year will never outpace property and I simply will never have a high enough income to make what I do save work for a mortgage.

I'm approved for 200K of lending. That can get me the bottom end of rural towns property market. In 2 years that'll get me nothing unless I can save another 40K assuming 10% housing inflation. [Which is absurd, it's been 20% in the small towns the last few years].

My pay goes up 3-4% per year and I earn mid 50K at the moment.

I've crunched the numbers. If 20% rises continue I'm fucked. I'll have to leave or be a tenant to our new landed gentry. Which is why my ancestors left Europe in the first place. Meanwhile I crunch my numbers and my job and what I could have saved in 2 years gets me a house deposit in a lot of Euro countries OR a nice studio apartment.

Unsurpisingly my parents would rather they loss the 5 years of massively inflated gains and not have their child leave the country permanently because of the failures of National and Labour. They bought a house to have shelter and stable housing costs, not as an investment.