New research from Engen Group reveals that of the people who don’t own a home but want to in the future, just 55% believe it will happen. One in five (19%) don’t think they will ever achieve this goal and 26% are unsure.

Many of those who anticipate climbing on to the property ladder may have to wait a long-time for this to happen. Some 18% expect to be aged between 36 and 40 before they achieve this, another 18% say they will be between 41 and 50 years old, and 10% think they will be older than this.

For those people who expect to eventually own their own home, many are waiting for life changing events to happen. For example, 22% say they need to be in a serious relationship, 14% want to have a child first and the same number (14%) is waiting for an inheritance.

Graeme Boiardini, CEO at Engen Group said: “It is sad to see so many people having to wait until middle age or older before they think they can get on to the property ladder. More needs to be done to increase the supply of affordable housing so that people don’t have to wait for an inheritance or get married and have two incomes to do this.”