It's not just single people and couples in their 20s or 30s who are finding it tough to buy property, writes David Lawrenson. It seems that a new sector of tenants is now coming through - families.

Recent research from the Alliance & Leicester has found that nearly a quarter of families are now renting or still living with their own parents.

Of those families who do not own their own home, four in ten (42 per cent) hope to buy but simply can't afford it at the moment. Only three per cent are actively looking to buy a home but a half (55 per cent) are not even thinking about trying to get on the property ladder at the moment.

The Centre for Future Studies said this phenomenon could grow due to rising divorce rates as one parent households become ever more common, as the traditional family becomes more fragmented with families split up living in two or more households.

As more parents are divorcing, and some moving to live in rented accommodation, this does explain at least part of the forecasted increase in the private rental market.