The property ladder is a term widely used in the United Kingdom to describe an individual or family's lifetime progress from cheaper to more expensive housing. According to this metaphor, cheap houses for first-time buyers are at the bottom of the property ladder, and expensive houses are at the top. 'Getting on to the property ladder' is the process of buying one's first house, in the hope of leaving it for progressively better houses as one's salary rises.
However, confidence in this process has been dropping as a result of the ongoing recession, the European debt crisis and job insecurities. The Guardian reported on 28th October 2011: 'Inquiries have fallen off a cliff. Nearly a third of sales agreed are falling through due to problems securing mortgage finance at the business end of the transaction' [1]
As Tracy Kellett, discussing the affordability of housing in the United Kingdom (including London and the South-East), observed in The Guardian in October 2011: 'Transaction levels are through the floor. Estate agent's have not been able to sell their overpriced stock (and each one of these costs them money) and vendors have often ended up taking a much lower offer six months down the line after their property sat around becoming stale and thus unattractive to the market'.[2]