span lang="EN-US">Almost one in three UK adults intended to buy a home in 2020, but only a third of people in this group were able to progress their plans, according to a new study from Aviva.

span lang="EN-US">The latest ‘How We Live’ study of 6,000 UK adults, revealed that at the start of 2020, 29% of the population intended to purchase a property. However, only one in 10 residents (9%) actually carried out their proposals successfully, while 20% of UK adults – equivalent to around 11m people – had to halt their plans.

span lang="EN-US">The issue was particularly apparent amongst younger residents, with almost a third of under-25s (29%) and two fifths (39%) of those aged 25-34 seeing their home-buying plans thwarted in 2020.

span lang="EN-US">Correspondingly, abandoned plans were most common among people who intended to buy their first home: seven in 10 (69%) of these first-home hopefuls say they needed to rethink their property-buying plans during 2020.

span lang="EN-US">Around 4% of buyers last year had no intention of buying at the start of 2020. While the stamp duty holiday had some impact, with 13% of ‘sudden movers’ saying they moved to take advantage of the break, it was by no means the only motivator. Aside from stamp duty, more than a quarter (27%) of people who moved home suddenly in 2020 needed to find somewhere bigger or more suitable for home-working arrangements.