Alliance & Leicester surveyed 4000 people last month and found that the number of people planning to buy their own home within the next two years has dropped from 15% in the summer of 2001 to 11% in the same period of 2002.
The change has been influenced by warnings about property prices stabilising or even falling in the near future. However, the market is being sustained by younger people, with one in four looking to buy their own property within the next couple of years. Younger people appear to be driven by the fear of not being able to get onto the property ladder if house prices keep escalating.