The number of young homeowners in 2018 is 26% lower than the total who owned their house in 1991.
A study by MoneySuperMarket blamed rapidly increasing house prices and a much slower increase in salaries as the reasons for the decline.
A surge in renting has gone hand in hand with the decrease in home ownership among young people aged 16-34.
The study also found that there has been a 30% increase in renters in the same age group, suggesting that fewer people are able to pay for homes on their own anymore.
The price of all properties has gone up over time, but none quite so much proportionally as flats.
The average price of a flat in England is £290,557, just under five times higher than the average price of buying a flat in 1996 when you could get your hands on the keys for £59,016.
By comparison, the cost of a semi-detached house now is 3.7 times higher than 1996, at £245,272 on average.
If flats continue to increase by 8% in price as they have done on average in the past 20 years, by 2038 the typical cost of a flat would rise to as much as £778,000.
To combat the rising costs and lowering possibilities of home ownership, many people are relying on relationships to get their first step on the ladder.
Between 1994 and 2006 individual homeowners represented 31% of the market, but by 2016 it had dropped to 20%, with much of the difference being made up by couples, who went from representing 64% of the market to 77% in the same period.
Many are also reliant on getting interest-free loans from parents or going into shared ownership schemes.
Government regulation has been touted as fundamental to encouraging change, and there was some recent good news for prospective purchasers, with the latest Budget outlining the abolishment of stamp duty for first-time buyers.
