A think tank fears that the time it takes a first-time buyer to save up for a house deposit could increase significantly in the next few years.

The Resolution Foundation, in a report it has penned on the topic of house prices in recessions, uses recent analysis produced by the Office for Budget Responsibility, in which three possible economic scenarios were examined, which concluded that house prices would fall in 2021.

In the think tank’s report, it says that while on the surface this may read as good news for budding house buyers, in the event of the OBR’s ‘central’ scenario occurring, it could take 28 years for the average FTB to save for a deposit by 2024.

The main factor in this calculation is the average LTV ratio for FTBs dropping to 80 per cent due to tighter credit conditions – a mainstay of in the recovery of financial crises – rather than the ongoing costs of home ownership, which the think tanks says are “relatively light” compared to those experienced by previous generations.

The Resolution Foundation says that in the early 1990s it took four years to save for a 5 per cent deposit and by 2019 this had risen to 21 years.

It adds that the house pries falls in the late 2000s, “did not correspond to reductions in the deposit burden.

“Indeed,” the think tank states, “it is in the aftermath of the financial crisis that barriers to home ownership peaked. This dramatic increase was driven largely by the reining in of housing finance during the credit crunch, behaviour that was codified in 2014 by the Mortgage Market Review.”

The report also comments on the Stamp Duty cut, deciding that it has little direct benefit for FTBs because, outside of London, this cohort is already buying houses priced below the threshold.

It “also takes away the slim edge this group had in the market vis-à-vis other types of buyers,” the report says.

An increase in the savings ratio is one way to mitigate this problem, the report says, and that, “as ever, the average obscures a wide range of experience and those with more buoyant incomes will be better-placed to take advantage of house price falls.

“However, the next few years may be even more challenging for the average FTB,” it concludes.