Millions of would-be residential property buyers are unable to get a foot on the property ladder due to price restraints, according to Abbey.

The report estimated that 17.3m adults in the UK were unable to get onto the property ladder for a variety of reasons. A total of 6.9m people say they are unable to buy their own home because they cannot raise the required deposit, 3.4m reveal they are waiting for house prices to fall, 2.1m people report they could not find the right mortgage, while 3m people blamed lack of job security.

Nici Audham Gardiner, mortgage product executive at Abbey, said: "There are people who feel that they do not want to get on the property ladder, but those who do face many barriers of which the most notable is the cost of homes."