Although house sales have plummeted in the past five years, most people still hope to own their own home in the future.
Eight out of 10 people surveyed by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) said they hoped to own their own home by 2022, while three quarters said they hoped to achieve this ambition within two years.
Home ownership has moved out of the reach of many people as result of mortgage lenders tightening their lending criteria after the credit crunch.
More recently, continuing weakness in the UK economy and the eurozone crisis has made lenders more cautious and contributed to a scarcity in affordable mortgages.
The CML’s study found high levels of aspiration to own a home among people aged under 35, but many in this group had no clear plan about how to achieve this goal.
Most private renters and people sharing a house are aged under 35 years, and while more than half hope to own a property within two years, only a third think that this is achievable.
Bob Pannell, chief economist at the CML said: “The results clearly show that the British love affair with home ownership is far from over.
“But achieving the home ownership dream has become more difficult for people, and is likely to remain so, especially for the young.”
The study found that less than a fifth of people aged between 18 and 24 years own their own home.
A recent report by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) shows that house sales have fallen by 40 per cent in the past five years.
Peter Bolton King, of RICS said: “Ongoing economic instability in the UK and overseas has continued to undermine consumer confidence, and the reluctance of many banks to offer affordable mortgage products has created something of a stagnant market.”