Britain risks a ‘lost generation of homeowners’ despite near-universal aspiration, new report warns

Yorkshire Building Society is warning that the UK is at risk of sleepwalking towards a ‘lost generation of homeowners’, as new research reveals a growing gap between people’s aspirations and their belief that they can ever achieve them.

The Society’s latest housing market report, No way home? Restoring Britain’s Housing Ladder, shows that while homeownership remains one of the strongest shared ambitions in the UK, confidence in achieving it falls sharply as people get older — particularly for those who have not bought by their mid-40s.

While 76% of 25 to 34-year-olds and 59% of 35 to 44-year-olds aspire to buy a home, this falls sharply to just 38% of 45 to 54-year-olds. Just 20% of 55 to 64-year-olds continue to hang on to hope, and the window of opportunity closes still further after that, at only 8% of over-65s. 

Given 45 is the age of the oldest Millennial, this suggests that if people haven’t achieved their dream of owning their own home by then, they assume they might never do so.

This is sharply at odds with the fact that 88% of UK adults believe homeownership is important, making it one of the most widely shared goals in today’s society.

Tom Simpson, managing director of homes at Yorkshire Building Society, said: “Britain hasn’t fallen out of love with homeownership — far from it. People still see owning a home as central to their stability, their security and their future.

“But what’s changing is belief. For too many people, particularly those who haven’t bought by their late 30s, the dream starts to feel out of reach. 

“With older Millennials now reaching their mid-40s, at Yorkshire Building Society we are concerned that the UK may already be seeing the early effects of a lost generation — and without action, this risk could extend to younger cohorts.

“If we want that opportunity to exist for the next generation, the time to act is now.”

The reasons people gave for wanting to own their own place included stability (64%), long-term financial security (54%) and the ability to build an asset (52%) — hopes which were strongly reflected across both renters and homeowners, and younger and older generations.

This reflects what the mutual calls a worrying risk that it may already be too late for today’s millennials unless action is taken immediately. 

Making this even more urgent is the fact that the Society’s findings highlight a powerful contradiction at the heart of the UK housing system — where the perceived value of homeownership increases over time but confidence in being able to achieve it declines sharply. In fact, 59% of renters and future buyers associate ownership with stability, rising to 70% of second-steppers and 77% of established homeowners.

A range of real and perceived barriers are contributing to their declining hopes, including difficulty saving for deposits, affordability pressures, lack of confidence in navigating the mortgage process, limited supply of suitable homes and high costs and friction when moving.

The report outlines both the views of over 4,000 UK adults and economic modelling, to demonstrate just how the system is currently failing to support people at different stages of the housing journey.

It calls for a smarter housing system and offers up a blueprint for a more coordinated approach to restoring the housing ladder — focused on helping more people get ready to buy, through earlier guidance and clearer pathways; expanding access to homeownership, including better use of existing lending flexibility; unlocking more housing supply, including enabling more repurposing of existing buildings — and improving mobility, so that people can move as their needs change. Among its proposed solutions are a review of Stamp Duty Land Tax and the introduction of a more fit-for-purpose version of the discontinued Help to Buy scheme.

Tom added: “Fixing the housing ladder isn’t just about helping people take their first step — it’s about making sure they can move through it as their lives change.

“We need government, industry and lenders to come together as they never have done before, to create a system that works from start to finish: helping people become ready to buy, helping more people access ownership, and making it easier for them to move on when the time comes.

“That’s what a functioning housing market should do — and right now, it isn’t doing it well enough.

“At Yorkshire Building Society, our Purpose is clear — we exist to provide Real Help with Real Life, bringing members together to make good homes possible for more people, and calling for change in the housing system.

“That means looking beyond individual products and thinking about how the whole system works — because helping people find a home isn’t just about today, it’s about their future too.”

This report is the latest example of how Yorkshire Building Society is championing access to homeownership, and was launched at a Parliamentary reception involving senior industry influencers, ranging from its Building Societies Association trade body to HM Treasury, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association and the National Housing Federation, on 30 June. Guest speakers Chris Curtis MP and Jack Rankin MP outlined the housing market imperative alongside Yorkshire Building Society chief executive Susan Allen.

The Society’s last publication, the Home Improvements policy paper, published in late 2024, also outlined a number of action points, some of which have come to fruition, including greater regulatory freedom for lenders to offer bigger mortgages to eligible borrowers, by setting their own affordability stress-testing rates, and higher-LTV lending limits. The Society was one of the first adopters of these changes when they were introduced last year. It has also innovated with products like its £5k Deposit Mortgage, which allows people to secure a home worth up to £500,000 with a deposit of £5,000.