Question Author
AOG: Haven't you got enough money? Think about those poor couples trying to get on the housing ladder.
Enough is seldom enough , AOG :) But it may interest to you that I haven't got the ready cash to buy my own daughter a flat in London. Who has? A small flat way out in somewhere like Barnes fetches more than £385,000. And the more the prices rise; £25k on about £250k average in two years; the more the girl will resemble Sisyphus. Even a two up two down in Cambridge is nigh on £400,000. If I gave her £100k she still wouldn 't be able to get a mortgage. That's the problem for those, and there are many, of her age, 26, trying to get on the housing ladder, and it is the same for many who are much older.
Inheritance tax? The threshold is currently £325,000, I think. With houses already at an average of c £250,000, and prices in the South being what they are, it must be payable on a lot of houses and will soon apply to many more. Mind, if you buy a farm and farm it, there's no IHT on the land and none on the farmhouse. Not an option open to many