It’s a stark figure; almost half of all UK renters surveyed for a Royal Mail research piece last year said they were not sure they would ever be able to afford their own property. They save, they sacrifice, they scrounge, and yet still the dream of taking their own keys remains a distant dream. But is it a bad thing?

A look back across the last century shows that, far from this generation being a lone voice in the wilderness, actually in some regards it’s quite lucky. In 1918 only 23 per cent of the UK population actually owned their own home, although this might have been affected somewhat by an economy tired by fighting a World War. The figure steadily rose throughout the middle part of the 20th Century; after World War II a huge spell of rebuilding led to further investment in social housing as employment and post-war stability pushed Britain’s homeowner statistics upwards. Ownership hit 50 per cent by 1971 and rose to a peak of 70.9 per cent in 2003. Since then a steady decline has taken the market downwards, to 65 per cent – the lowest rate in almost 25 years.

History tells us that external unpredictable events can leave their mark on the housing sector. Lending and borrowing worldwide took a big hit in 2008/09 following the American sub-prime mortgage collapse, and these effects are still being felt. The Mortgage Market Review introduced by the coalition in 2014 required lenders to be more stringent in lending, exposing those seeking a chance to test analysis of their grocery and luxury spends every month, among other expenditures.

These outside factors cannot be controlled at the global and national level, but life itself at the micro-level can also affect our chances of getting the keys. Our salary and work location are probably the most important factors that may not directly be under our control, and the two are linked. London, for example, boasts many of the juicier jobs and glamorous pay, but at a price. People are desperate to live there, and will make sacrifices. The average price of a house in the capital is now around £514,000, more than double the UK average. A typical mortgage there will only be available to people earning more than £100,000 a year, according to recent research.

But even the average rental price recently topped £1,500 a month in the capital, and there lies the irony. Most aspiring homeowners could easily afford the monthly cost of a mortgage because they’ve been paying the same amount or more as renters – it’s usually the deposit that’s the crippling, impassable obstacle. A month’s rent upfront as a deposit is tough enough for many; saving up £25,000 just seems impossible, especially if one has children or outstanding debts elsewhere.

The positives are slight, but they exist. The government recognises the issue and the uptake of the Help To Buy scheme has been strong, helping as many as 1 in 20 buyers. Interest rates are still low, and will probably remain so for another year or two. And the digital age has finally reached home ownership, with companies such as House Simple slashing the fees associated with buying and selling homes.

• The benefits of renting

What are the benefits of renting? You might not have the security of owning your own home, or anything to show for it at the end of the term, but there are pitfalls of ownership. An interest rate rise that would not touch a renter could devastate the finances of a homeowner. A boiler flood or a weather disaster could render a home unliveable. A renter generally only needs give a few weeks’ notice to move out, useful if a job or opportunity comes up elsewhere, and so on.

In Switzerland only around 38 per cent of the population are homeowners, while in Germany the figure is around 43 per cent. The reasons for the latter are also long-standing legacies of World War II, but also the fact that renting is regulated to be cheap, with rent increases capped by law.

It won’t change the mind of the average UK citizen desperate to own his own home. After a barren few years the first-time buyer market is picking up, but it’s still well below the level of 15 years ago. The questions millions are asking is whether it will ever get back, and if so, will the market conditions and their own personal circumstances align to get them onto that ladder – or will it forever remain just a rung too high?

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