Website Gocompare quizzed 1,000 parents with children aged 17 to 25 and found four in ten worry their children will never be able to buy their own home in the UK.

The findings suggest a fifth of parents think their children have a better chance of inheriting a home than buying one.

While many first-time buyers rely on the Bank of Mum and Dad to help towards the cost of their home, almost a quarter (24%) of parents said they were unable to offer any financial help at all, and just over half (51%) said they would like to help, but doing so would leave them short of savings. Just 19% said they could comfortably afford to help their children buy a home.

To help increase their prospects of home ownership, over a third (34%) of parents would suggest that their children move to a cheaper area, while 9% would go as far as to encourage their kids to leave the country and buy abroad.

Nearly half (48%) thought their children should go and see the world before worrying about buying a home, while 21% would tell their children to rent instead of buying.

However, 23% of parents admitted that knowing their children may never be able to afford their own home left them feeling angry.

Matt Sanders from Gocompare.com Money said: “There are a variety of explanations why many twenty-somethings are not financially independent from their parents and continue to live under the same roof – sometimes well into adulthood.

“Young people are more likely to stay in full-time education than previous generations, and while they benefit from a university education, tuition fees mean they are saddled with more debt.  Over the last decade or so, house prices have risen as have the size of mortgage deposits lenders require – however wages have remained relatively static. As a result, millennials’ experience with home ownership has been very different to previous generations.”