Unlike our continental European neighbours, ownership rather than renting takes first place in the UK.

‘Getting on the property ladder’ is something of an obsession, right up there with discussing house prices at dinner parties or trying to guess which will be the next up and coming neighbourhood.

According to some new research from Scottish Provident, the British love affair with property ownership could be waning.

Of those surveyed, only 51% believe that property ownership is critical or very important for a reasonable standard of living. This figure appears to contrast sharply with property price boom of the past 15-20 years.

In fact, it is a decrease of 9 percentage points since the last time Scottish Provident commissioned their “High Wire” report in 2003. Back then, 60% of us thought that owning our homes was essential for a reasonable standard of living.

So, what has changed?

Property ownership has always been very demanding from a financial perspective. It is a serious financial commitment.

The vast majority of us buy property financed by a mortgage; usually the biggest bank loan we will ever have. Over the past year or so, getting access to mortgages has been like, well, getting money off a banker. It’s been something between extremely challenging and impossible.

When the banks realised they were technically insolvent and went cap in hand to world governments for a taxpayer funded bailout, one of the first things they cut back on was new mortgage lending.

The latest figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders suggest that things are now improving, with the number of mortgages taken out to buy a home rising to the highest level for almost two years in October. We took out 55,000 mortgages for new purchases in October. This is the highest monthly total since December 2007.

To put these numbers into context, the lending figures in October are a 9% increase on the previous month and more than double the January 2009 low of 23,000 mortgages.

It is interesting to note from the Scottish Provident research that it is those in the 55-64 age group who have experienced the greatest change in attitude towards home ownership. 44% of those in this age group see owning their own home as very important for a reasonable standard of living. This is a 17% fall compared to 2003, when the figure for this age group stood at 61%.

The ‘credit crunch’ and general turmoil in global economies which acted as a catalyst for recent property price falls might be one of a number of factors which have started to fundamentally change our views on property ownership in the UK. The concept of a ‘job for life’ also appears to be rapidly disappearing, reducing confidence that mortgage repayments will always be met from steady employed earnings.

Naturally renting property, the main alternative to home ownership, comes at a cost as well.

In the current low interest rate environment, it is easy to identify rental costs in excess of ten times the equivalent mortgage costs for the equivalent property. This depends to some extent on the mortgage deal people are able to access (or are fortunate enough to be have left with when the music stopped) but in general terms renting can look like a very expensive alternative right now.

It will be fascinating to see how attitudes might change on this subject in the future. When it comes to any form of investment, people have notoriously short memories, so give it a few more years and there is every chance that the British public will fall in love with property ownership all over again.