Soaring property prices have seen the deposit needed for a first home treble from £9,865 (14 per cent of price) in 2000 to £28,770 (21 per cent) in 2010.

This could consign a generation to spend their entire lives in rented homes, warns a new analysis.

Although 77 per cent of all non-homeowners still aspire to buy, many members of "Generation Rent" might never get a realistic chance to do so, and nearly half of 20 to 45-year-olds say Britain is following Europe to regard renting as the norm.

Commissioned by Halifax and produced by the National Centre for Social Research, the report analysed the results of a survey of 8,000 people between 20 and 45 and identified the emergence of "Generation Rent": 64 per cent of non-homeowners think they have no prospect whatsoever of buying a home.

Longer-term, only five per cent are making sacrifices to save for a deposit. The rest say they have no spare cash, no interest in saving for a deposit or are trying to save but failing to do so.