According to the Land Registry, the average cost of a house in Oxfordshire is now an eye-watering £313,000.

And it’s not just the price that’s the problem – raising a 10 per cent deposit on that amount can seem like climbing Everest, especially for people in their 20s.

No surprise then, that the average age of first-time buyers has been shooting up over the past 10 years and has now hit 30.

The end result is that more people than ever are stuck living at home with their parents or forced to rent.

The only way many manage to find the readies to put down a deposit is the good old ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’.

Apparently, more than one in three first-time buyers get financial help from parents or grandparents.

This is hardly ideal for parents, as it involves betting the house – literally – on their children.

And it can be impossible, if more than one child in the family needs help.

Luckily, several lenders have realised this is a huge problem and have launched schemes aimed at helping parents to give financial backing, without actually handing over any money.

Family Springboard, from Barclays Bank, is an example. A parent deposits the equivalent of 10 per cent of the value of the home into a Helpful Start savings account, in return for which, the buyer is asked only for a five per cent deposit. The mortgage is fixed for three years at 3.99 per cent and although there is a one-off fee of £499, it’s free to Barclays current account holders.

While the money’s in there, the parent gets interest on their savings of base rate (0.5 per cent at the moment) plus 1.5 per cent per, so a total of two per cent. Once the three-year term is up, the savings plus interest are returned to the parent, as long as all mortgage payments have been met.

But be aware, in the event of anything going pear-shaped, including repossession, the parent’s savings would be used to cover any shortfall.

Lloyds has a similar product called Lend a Hand, although this asks the parent or relative to place 20 per cent of the amount borrowed in a savings account. Borrowers pay 3.64 per cent, which is fixed for three years but there’s no fee and lower rates are available to Lloyds current account customers.

Don’t forget the Government’s Help to Buy scheme either. The first phase, launched in April 2013, allows first and second-time buyers to buy a new-build property worth up to £600,000 with a deposit of five per cent.

The second phase, which was due to launch in January but was brought forward and is now up and running, is particularly attractive because it covers all types of properties, not just new-builds, again up to £600,000 in value, again with a five per cent deposit. Lenders taking part in Help to Buy include Barclays, Halifax, NatWest, Nationwide and Santander and it is set to run until April 2016.