Dear Mum and Dad,

If you've been reading the papers this week you might have noticed a thought-provoking finding. Apparently, nearly half of all young Brits are now relying on their families for help with scraping together the money for a deposit on a house, up from 10 per cent in 1995. That sounds about right. To my generation, the property listings are a bit like a celebrity gossip magazine; exciting but utterly unattainable.