Mas, president of European mortgage insurance at Genworth Financial, told Mortgage Solutions that increasing numbers of young people were unable to get a foot on the property ladder without the help of their parents.

“The UK once had a very sophisticated mortgage market but we are now going backwards with reliance on the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’.

“Parents may have already lost value in their assets and yet they’re now being asked to chip in and help their kids out as well.

“Parental guarantees are archaic. They give a false sense of security and create a situation where a lender may foreclose on your property and your parents property too. Nobody wants that, banks don’t want that.”

Mas went on to say that private guarantors needed to be used to help fill the gap and provide finance to first-time buyers.

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“We are concerned about the social problems caused by first-time buyers being unable to access credit. We are seeing a divide between the rich kids and everyone else.

“If somebody says you are capable of paying each mortgage repayment but have no downpayment then we need someone to step in as a private guarantor and fill that gap.

“Then high LTVs become more accessible for the first-time buyer market.

“The quality of lending must remain solid. The insurance industry provides additional capital so that high LTVs become low LTVs and this also provides an extra layer of clarity for both the buyer and lender.

“This needs to be followed in the UK. We already have providers with the capacity who are ready to go on already lending around the world.”