That said, should I be having doubts and just consider renting?
Many have a dream, a dream that may never come true.
They may dream of a two-bed house, with a small garden, somewhere to put their barbecue, and a place to work on their motorbike.
But should they probably give up on buying their own home? Most likely half of their pay now goes on renting, so how are they going to save for a deposit?
Millions of people share this frustration, and in the long run, it can only make us fall out of love with buying and owning our own home – the Thatcher dream. Most of us want to have our own place, to watch the value slowly increase and avoid paying a greedy landlord, considered by many to be dead money. Up until 2007, we were all being told on the television that your house is an investment and not the home you warmly remember growing up in.
Instead we now live in an age of reluctant renters, people who fantasize about buying their own home but simply do not have the resources, at current prices, to purchase what they want. So, this is why all the attention is now being given to the government's controversial Help to Buy scheme.
But not owning could become the new norm for many; something we will have to get used to and some may even end up preferring.
In a future in which fewer people have the pressures to own their own property, housing associations will be required to have a mass provision of new homes for rental.
Although it first appeared in The Wealth of Nations, Napoleon once described us as a nation of shopkeepers. In 1990, Peter Saunders wrote A Nation of Homeowners noting the decline in the rental market from 90% in 1919. For this century we will become a nation of private renters. We will have children, and the children will grow up in rented accommodation and they will know nothing different – renting will just be the norm.
The figures for home ownership don't prove this, yet. Nearly 18 million homes are owner-occupied and around 10 million rented. But the totals are shifting rapidly with the proportion of renters increasing year on year. Which is why it is so interesting that L&Q, one of the UK's leading housing associations and one of London's largest residential developers, are launching one of the biggest blocks of flats to be offered for rent only and at market rates, part of their plan to build 5,000 new homes a year. In their latest development at Thurston Point in south-east London, there are over 230 rentals, starting from £1,050 a month for a basic studio. These homes are completely different and are not a return to large-scale council house building and it should be understood that they are not going to solve the current housing crisis. The rents for equivalent properties from private landlords will match, so they very likely will be unaffordable to families on moderate incomes.
Social housing could be subsidised by the housing associations using the gains from letting or selling which can be rented at a discount of 20% or more.
Some families have now sold their homes to raise money to rent from companies just like L&Q, having given up trying to own their own home. Many seem sceptical about getting back on the housing ladder, and are maybe more comfortable not having all the responsibility homeownership can bring.
Interestingly, developments from pension funds could deliver 2,000 new homes a year. The largest of these, The Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF), has helped some councils in Manchester build up to 250 homes. Half of these are to be sold and the other half will be available for tenants. Wythenshawe, in the south of Manchester, is the first to enter the market with hundreds more houses are planned in the future.
The desire to buy a home is still firmly entrenched. The British Social Attitudes Survey shows that 86% of the public would rather buy than rent. The reality though, is that many don’t have the choice. Figures show that 85% in the 20-45 age groups wish to be homeowners, which has remained consistent over the last few years.
So the aspiration is still there, but will it change over time? Many have shaken off the home-owning dream concluding that renting is not as terrifying as they first thought.
