It is reported in a latest survey by an online flat and house share rent firm has said nearly one in five tenants that rent privately feel that they will never be able to afford their own home.

The survey was carried out by a census to 10,000 site users and just under three years ago, the same questionnaire revealed that 12% had serious concerns that they would ever be able to afford their own property.

In three years tenants believing that they will never own their home has drastically risen from 12% (2011) to 18%(2014).

Age is big factor, those who are 40 plus at least half of them do not view getting onto the property ladder as an achievable goal, as prices are too high. For this age group their wages have probably hit their "peak" and although they earn an extra 17% higher than the average wage, it does reflect how home ownership will be changing over the forthcoming years.

Just under half of renters (49%) believe that it will take them at least five and up to ten years to be in a position to buy their own home, 23% feel that ten years is a minimum.

Irrespective of age, a quarter of tenants in the capital feel that it will take them at least ten years to realistically approach the property ladder.

 

One of the main reasons being cited, is the rise of increases in rents and that half of respondents stated that they paid between 30 - 50% of their wages to landlords.

Surprisingly 29% of those who took part in the census claimed that their rent was "unaffordable". 

 

Director of the site, Matt Hutchinson, said: "For nearly one in five of Britain’s ever-growing population of renters, aspirations of home ownership are slipping away. Price rises seem to be unstoppable, with a typical London home now clearing the £500,000 mark, and prices for first-time buyers rising faster than prices for owner-occupiers. Coupled with rising rents eroding savings, it’s hardly surprising that such a significant proportion of renters have resigned themselves to never owning their homes.

 

"The reality is that many young professionals will never own their homes. Attitudes to renting for life will have to change as, like it or not, we are heading towards a European approach towards property, where so called ‘lifestyle tenants’ are the norm. Given the British love-affair with property ownership, this is going to be a major cultural change."