Young people must wait until middle-age to buy first home

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More than half of first-time buyers in London expect to wait at least 10 years before investing.

A further six per cent — one in 12 — say they will not be able to afford to buy before 2030, according to the YouGov survey of Londoners aged 18 to 30.

As the political parties pledge to support home ownership, 37 per cent of young Londoners said they would delay starting a family if they could not buy a home, and 22 per cent said they would put off getting married.

Lindsay Dabbs, 26, who works for a housing association, rents a one-bedroom flat in Shepherd's Bush but needs a deposit of £20,000 to get a mortgage on a similar flat.

She is resigned to waiting two more years before she can buy. "I know we've been through a recession, but the house prices don't reflect that," she said.

Belinda Porich of the National Housing Federation, which commissioned the poll, said: "Young Londoners are giving up hope of ever being able to afford their own home before middle age."

Affordability is particularly acute in the capital with house price to earnings ratio ranging from 8.5 in the cheapest borough, Barking & Dagenham, to 29.5 in Kensington and Chelsea.

Central London is now affordable only to foreigners, cash buyers and the very highest earners. Of the young people surveyed, 58 per cent said they would need help from relatives to buy. More than half thought they would need at least £10,000 as a deposit and 11 per cent said it would be more than £40,000.