First-time buyers are facing the toughest conditions to buy a home in 70 years, the Building Societies Association (BSA) has said.

In the association’s Age-old problems, modern solutions: A roadmap for change report, it stated that those buying a first home were increasingly reliant on having two high incomes or receiving support from the bank of mum and dad.

With rising costs and high interest rates, others, including single parents and those with lower than average or unstable incomes, have been priced out and are therefore "stuck" in renting properties owned by private landlords.

Although the association pointed out that mortgaged home ownership has been in decline since the mid-2000's, it added that the affordability challenges that first-time buyers have faced since the financial crisis have "contributed" to fewer people managing to buy their first home.

The report revealed that becoming a first-time buyer is "possibly" the most expensive it has been over the last seven decades, with the cost of buying, along with the affordability of mortgage repayments becoming the biggest barrier to purchasing.

The BSA also stated that first-time buyers now find themselves in a "very difficult situation", with many of the proposed solutions designed to help them dependent on low mortgage rates, which are no longer as effective or viable.

Following the report, the BSA has called on the Government to commission an independent review of the first-time buyer market, regulation and intervention, which would deliver a clear starting point for action.

It has also stated that the Government should commit to putting in place all the tools available to them to ensure that, while house prices still rise in nominal terms, they do not rise faster than earnings over the long-term, leading to a fall in the house price to earnings ratio.

Director of mortgages and financial wellbeing at Nationwide, Rachael Sinclair, said: "Getting onto the property ladder remains as tough as ever, with our latest research showing that one in five prospective homeowners don’t think they’ll be able to buy until their forties.

"Collaboration is key if we are to resolve the first-time buyer conundrum and is why we are pleased to have worked with the BSA on this report, which calls for an independent review of the first-time buyer market. Without a collaborative approach, we risk the wheels spinning on the homeownership crisis indefinitely."

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