Here’s to what we – generation forever rent-a-shed-in-someone’s-living-room – already know: without rich parents, we’re pretty screwed when it comes to buying a house. New research has shown that almost two-thirds of homeowners under the age of 35 have had help from their parents when buying a house, making “the Bank of Mum and Dad” a “major player” in the UK housing market.

A report by the Insurer Legal & General and the Centre for Economics & Business Research found that parents in the UK lend an average of £17,500 (almost three-quarters of most Londoner’s salaries) to their kids, making up 25 per cent of all mortgages. This astronomical number means mummy and daddy are pouring £5 billion into the property market, helping over 300,000 struggling kids fund homes. Unsurprisingly, the research shows London to be at the “tipping point” when it comes to this kind of funding.

“The Bank of Mum and Dad plays an increasingly vital role in helping young people take their early steps on the housing ladder,” explains Nigel Wilson, the CEO of Legal & General, in the report. Despite the serious cash being slipped into the hands of their young, Wilson says it doesn’t make up for “intergenerational unfairness”. “Younger people today don’t have the advantages the baby-boomers had, including cheap housing that delivered windfall gains.”

“Relying so heavily on the Bank of Mum and Dad, however, risks increasing inequality as many young people today are not lucky enough to be able to access parental support when buying a home, or can’t afford to buy even with parental help. We have a supply-side problem in housing – we are simply not building enough houses. We need to build more, especially as the Bank of Mum and Dad could soon start to experience a funding crisis of its own.”

Basically, as home ownership reaches its lowest levels ever and housing prices surpass wages, many young people will continue be priced out, and the cash flow from wealthier families will drive the housing crisis further into the ground. Pen to paper for that chicken coop in Stratford for the rest of us then.