The bank of mum and dad is making the Australian dream of home ownership come true – for some

The bank of mum and dad is ‘growing in importance’, an expert says. Of the $1.5tn gifted in Australia between 2002 and 2018, about 90% was in the form of inheritance. Composite: Getty

In 2020, Laura Turner was ready to buy a house. She’d scraped together some savings while living with her parents and had been told she could borrow up to $650,000 from her bank.

But something held her back - she had only just moved to Wollongong from Sydney and wasn’t sure yet if she wanted to call the city home yet.