The survey found 80 per cent of 16 to 21 year-olds and 68 per cent of 22 to 40 year-olds ranked buying a home their number one goal. Getting a job was the only thing considered more important to 22 to 40 year olds than buying a home.
Some admitted that they would go to extreme lengths to get on the property ladder, including lying about their income, buying a property with a friend or partner they did not want to live with or buying in an area they disliked.
Tanya Jackson, communications manager at the Yorkshire, said: “It is well known that high house prices make it extremely difficult for today’s aspiring FTBs. But our research shows how desperate many are to become homeowners and as a result, how much help and guidance they need.”
Rob Proctor, deputy chief executive for Kent Reliance Building Society, was unsurprised by the findings. He commented: “Many young couples’ first priority is to get on the property ladder before having a family or getting married. They rely on having both incomes to do so and, with marriages on the decline and divorces on the up, lots of couples are quite happy just living together.
"But with friends buying together, we would urge caution, because if that relationship falls apart, the mortgage is at risk. First and foremost, people should buy a property as a home rather than an investment.”
The news accompanied the results of Mortgage Direct’s April survey revealing that FTB loans make up less than a quarter of all mortgages being taken out by comparison to nearly 50 per cent in March. During the same period, buy-to-let mortgages rose from 9 to 19 per cent.
