Browse Forums Home Finance 1 Dec 02, 2014 11:29 am My husband and I have been saving to buy our first home for a long time but it's been tough on one income + paying rent. My father in law has offered to give us $30,000 to help get us into a house and we have $14K of savings which have been saved over time. We are looking at a house around the 350K range. I know that we need 5% genuine savings - which we don't have at present. Can the gifted money be counted as genuine savings? We are happy to hold it for a while if that means it will be counted as savings rather than a gift. Someone also said to me that we may be able to use our rental history as proof of saving (we have rented for almost 5 years through agents and have a perfect rental history) but no bank I have researched mentions this in any of their home lending info. Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you. Re: Gift as deposit and genuine savings 2Dec 02, 2014 2:20 pm Hi Kowhai, You've been given the right info - there is a bank who will take your rental history as "genuine savings" along with the cash you have, the lease needs to be in the same name as the borrowers - so yourself and your husband if you're applying together. And otherwise, yes, pop the cash in your bank account and keep adding to it - in 3 months when it has sat there and not been spent most lenders will consider this genuine, just the same as if you had sold an asset and banked the proceeds. Well done - where are you looking at buying? Bec Rebecca Jarrett-Dalton Property crazy expert mortgage broker, love building new homes! Two Red Shoes mortgage broker http://www.tworedshoes.com.au/building Re: Gift as deposit and genuine savings 3Dec 02, 2014 4:27 pm Great thank you for that. We are planning to buy in the Blue Mtns. Not sure where yet as prices have increased dramatically since we've lived here. We used to be able to afford Springwood and then Faulconbridge but both of those are pretty expensive now. We want a do up so you never know. We might get lucky! Re: Gift as deposit and genuine savings 4Dec 02, 2014 5:12 pm You're right near me! I'm in Cranebrook - and you're right, the whole area has lifted, but also there are pockets that are still affordable and gorgeous! Blaxland, in my opinion, is the most undervalued suburb in the mountains. Easily as lovely as Glenbrook but $100,000 cheaper. Rebecca Jarrett-Dalton Property crazy expert mortgage broker, love building new homes! Two Red Shoes mortgage broker http://www.tworedshoes.com.au/building Re: Gift as deposit and genuine savings 5Dec 02, 2014 7:14 pm I did a similar thing when i brought my place with some cash from my old man. The bank was fine with it on the proviso that it was a gift and not to be paid back. I needed to have a signed statement from Dad, stamped by a JP stating it was a a gift. All worked out fine. Best to start talking to a mortgage broker and they can help sort it all for you even if your not ready right now. they point you in the right direction. Re: Gift as deposit and genuine savings 6Dec 02, 2014 10:58 pm Kowhai My husband and I have been saving to buy our first home for a long time but it's been tough on one income + paying rent. My father in law has offered to give us $30,000 to help get us into a house and we have $14K of savings which have been saved over time. We are looking at a house around the 350K range. I know that we need 5% genuine savings - which we don't have at present. Can the gifted money be counted as genuine savings? We are happy to hold it for a while if that means it will be counted as savings rather than a gift. Someone also said to me that we may be able to use our rental history as proof of saving (we have rented for almost 5 years through agents and have a perfect rental history) but no bank I have researched mentions this in any of their home lending info. Does anyone know anything about this? Thank you. Hi Kowhai, welcome to the forum. Generally as a rule, gifted funds are not counted as genuine savings. However as has been mentioned the work around is to leave it in your bank account for over 3 months which most lenders use as their guide for genuine savings period. It is also true that there are a few select lenders out there who will use one year of rental history (with an agent) as proof of genuine savings and then you can make up the deposit funds from any source you want. Also most lenders don't have the need to show any genuine savings if you can provide a 15% deposit, some will even waive the need at 10% deposit. So you do have options. Also remember that you need to set aside funds for closing costs such as stamp duty, conveyancing, etc so while your savings and gift may equal $44K currently, the deposit available for your prospective property will be less. Cheers Tom In NSW the maximum deposit for building work is 5% until the builder provides HBCF insurance 1 4821 I recently went through a similar renovation and move scenario when updating our family home. We also swapped some rooms around and tackled a major… 2 10032 Unless the room is for storage then it's non compliant BCA V2 2019 S3 P3.8 You have 2 options 1. The builder deconstructs the section and rebuilds as per plan /… 7 10683 |