The fifth annual “Generation Rent” report from the Halifax bank makes pretty glum reading for young people.

Its headline statement is that young people are giving up on owning their own homes, with the number of people aged 20-45 currently saving for a deposit on a house having dropped 6% in the last year to just 43%.

It shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone - home owners or renters - given that UK house prices have managed to withstand the last seven years of economic difficulties, while earnings have fallen, particularly for the young.

A report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies published in January this year, showed that wages in the third quarter of 2014 were 1% lower than they had been in the third quarter of 2001. Put that against figures from the Land Registry which show that house prices increased by an average of 6.5% in the 12 months to February and you can see why home ownership has become such a daunting prospect for so many.

The most concerning aspect of all this is the change in attitude and perceptions of young people, which the Generation Rent report reflects. Even though the number of first time buyers in 2014 rose to over 311,000 (up from a low of just over 192,000 in 2008 at the start of the global financial crisis but still some way short of the 2006 peak of over 402,000), the perception among 79% of the 20-45 year olds surveyed was that banks don’t lend to first-time buyers.

Given the current shortage of housing in the UK, particularly in the South East, it is entirely possible that long term renting will become the norm for young people. Other European countries, such as Germany, have long had far higher numbers of renters but they also have much stronger regulation to protect renters and to provide them with security and stability in their rented homes.

Any similar UK legislation is certain to drag behind a shift towards long term renting, which is why we need to ensure our young people are prepared for dealing with the pressures of our current housing market.

Whether they make a conscious decision to give up aspirations of owning their own home or stick with trying to save for an ever-increasing deposit on low wages, it is clear that young people need to be much better informed in order to manage the difficulties they now face.

You can find the Halifax report, here.

If we want Generation Rent to aspire to a better future, we need to equip them with the tools to help them get there.