Almost one in five tenants said they are finding it harder to find financing to buy a home as a result of the pandemic.

Nineteen per cent of renters have been hit by “a combination of the economic impact of the virus and a tightening of lending criteria”, according to a survey by specialist lender Vida Homeloans.

The poll adds that key workers – such as nurses, bus drivers and utility workers – make up 20 per cent of renters who have seen their homebuying plans knocked by the health crisis.

More than a quarter, 28 per cent, of renters who have pushed back their plans to buy, say the virus caused a fall in their income which has made buying a home “less likely”.

The survey added that 29 per cent of tenants say that a tightening of lending criteria has made it “much harder to find a mortgage”.

And 27 per cent of Generation Rent have had to dip into funds that could have been used to help them finance a home.

Vida said the stamp duty holiday, which ends in March, also “driven unprecedented demand in the housing market, pushing up house prices to record levels”.

House prices have risen by £11,000 since 2019 with the average property price now £245,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Vida Homeloans chief executive Anth Mooney says: “While some younger buyers are lucky enough to get help from the Bank of Mum and Dad, millions of individuals underserved by the mortgage market are stuck in a cycle of renting. Finances have been hit by furlough and/or sudden loss of income or job security.”

Generation Rent was a feature of the UK mortgage and housing markets even before the pandemic, the poll points out.

Eighteen per cent of renters say that even before the crisis they struggled to find a lender willing to give them a mortgage.

While 40 per cent added that the biggest barrier to owning a home is being able to save a large enough deposit.

Coreco Mortgage Brokers managing director Andrew Montlake adds: “It is challenging at the best of times to purchase a home with house prices having risen, fuelled by pent-up demand and the stamp duty holiday, while higher rents and increases in the cost of living make saving for a deposit trickier.

“The concern is that the gap between the haves, those that are lucky enough to have larger savings pots or assistance from parents and family, and the have-nots is getting wider and wider. We need a concerted effort from government, the housing industry and the mortgage market to ensure that we do not have a lost generation of prospective homeowners.”

The poll is a nationally representative survey by Opinium of 2,003 UK adults in, August 2020, with economic analysis provided by Cebr.