'We can't afford to buy, so we are stuck'

Martin Wade Thomas and his partner Maria Mansfeld pay £1,320 a month in rent for a flat in Hackney, where they live with their three-year-old daughter Emy.

Mr Wade Thomas, 34, is a company manger and Ms Mansfeld, 29, works in PR but they are unable to afford a suitable property to buy.

Ms Mansfeld said: "The price of the kind of home we would like to buy - a two-bedroom flat or house - in the catchment area of a good school in Hackney is now at least £350,000. Despite both of us working full-time, we have never been able to buy a decent property, even in Hackney, due to the extortionate property prices.

"We have managed to save some money towards a deposit and could probably borrow some from family, but with lenders demanding huge deposits and charging high interest rates and arrangement fees we still wouldn't have enough to get a decent mortgage.

"Even if we could get one, property prices, childcare costs and the cost of living mean we would not be able to afford the repayments, so we're stuck for the foreseeable future."