The CML has asked the same questions about home-ownership aspirations periodically since 1975. Last time the survey was undertaken, in 2007, the proportion who expected to be home-owners in ten years' time was 84%.
Over the short term, the desire for home-ownership has dipped with 76% of those surveyed seeing home-ownership as their ideal tenure in two years' time - down from 78% last time the survey was undertaken in 2007.
Adults aged 18-to-24 skewed the two-year numbers with just 42% hoping to invest in bricks and mortar by 2012, though the same age group had the highest ten-year home-ownership aspirations at 88%.
The CML said it is highly likely that this reflects younger people's lifestyle choices, favouring more flexibility and mobility in the short term, as well as a realistic assessment of the difficulty of entering the housing market under current affordability conditions.
Michael Coogan, CML director general, said: "It is crystal clear that most people see home-ownership as their tenure of choice over the long term.
"But the unintended consequence of regulatory change is that it is going to be permanently tougher for people - especially young people - to fulfil that aspiration in the future, even if they are responsible with their finances.
"Home-ownership levels are already falling, and they will continue to fall. Is that the outcome that policymakers want?
"It is certainly not what consumers want, but it's what they're likely to end up with. We urge politicians and regulators to pause and think again about the cumulative effects of their well-intentioned but poorly targeted package of regulatory changes."
