Since 1990 the average housing deposit has risen from £6,793 to a staggering £65,924, despite household incomes less than tripling in the last 20 years.
First Direct said this was a combination of an increase in house prices and a reduction in the amount of mortgage lending by banks and building societies.
The research also showed that 2010 was the most difficult year to buy a house in the past twenty years with the average house price 6.3 times the average household income, and the average deposit running at 1.7 times the average income.
The most affordable years were 1995 and 1996, with the house price ratio at a low 3.4 and the deposit ratio also the lowest it has been at 0.3 times the average household income.
Overall house prices are now 6.1 more than the average income, compared to 3.5 in 1990.
As a result, buyers are saving for longer to purchase a property. The task has been made harder still as rents rise amid heightened demand, while low interest rates have reduced returns on savings.
Bruno Genovese, senior savings product manager at First Direct, said: “Much has been made of rising house prices, but the average deposit needed in the first place has actually risen more than twice as fast as house prices and almost four times as fast as income. This is why we are seeing first-time buyers getting older, with more and more people struggling to get on the property ladder.”
According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the average age of a first-time buyer is 37.
