I was talking to somebody in the housing business the other day who was bemoaning the fact that their children, now young adults, did not think much of the idea of home ownership. Why tie yourself to a big mortgage when there are better ways to spend your money? Why get lumbered with years of housing maintenance and having nothing more exciting to do than getting the windows done? The old argument that paying rent is dead money left them unconvinced.

It may be an odd question to ask, particularly in the Home section, but is home ownership still an aspiration? And, if it is, will it remain so after the current slump has run its course?

The conventional view is that high house prices have been responsible for the drop in the number of first-time buyers in recent years. If that were the case, they should be celebrating the fact that prices are now falling - even though any benefits have been largely cancelled out by the squeeze on mortgage availability.

Yet a report by a group of housing-market experts, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, suggests that the decline in the number of first-time buyers cannot be blamed on high prices alone. The report, “Housing market recessions and sustainable home ownership”, says that it appears instead “to be a function of the increased levels of student debt, people entering marriage later and starting families later, and lifestyle attractions of ‘spending now’, in addition to the well-documented affordability issues”.

Home ownership, which rose strongly during the 1980s, in part because of Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy legislation, and continued increasing in the 1990s, has reached a plateau at about 70% in recent years, and even slipped slightly below that level. Only 44% of 18-to 25-year-olds favour home ownership, compared with 75% of the over55s. They may grow into it, or it could be that a sea change is occurring.

Certainly, the government target of increasing home-ownership levels to 75% or 80% look unattainable. Research from the Department for Communities and Local Government suggests that any increase from present levels would need to be concentrated among single-person and “financially marginal and more vulnerable” households. As the recent sub-prime experience in America has demonstrated, that is not necessarily a sensible aspiration. For some people, renting is indeed the best option. + home.economics@sunday-times.co.uk

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