The housing slump across the UK could last for years, with first time buyers finding it harder to buy a house than at any point for a generation.

With around a third of British men and a fifth of British women aged 20-34 live with their parents, there are fewer first time buyers now than at any time in the last 35 years, with the average age for the unassisted first time buyer now 37. 

James Moss, director at Curzon Investment Property, a London-based investment specialist, said:

“While Spain has swathes of unwanted new homes, the paradox in Britain is that despite the pent up demand, we don’t have the mortgage market to support a recovery. And things are not about to improve. The inertia of the wholesale lending markets will take years to shift and the £300billion timebomb of mortgage lending supported by Bank of England and Treasury schemes that needs to be refinanced by 2015 will also be a major headache for the UK government.

“All we have seen from the UK’s new coalition government is measures that tinker around the edges. Nothing we’ve seen address the core economic problems of supporting a recovery and moves to give local councils the right to veto new developments simply undermine the fundamentals of the housing market which rely on certainty and economies of scale.”