High price to pay for a foot on property ladder

Desirable? Up to a point. It was all right if you had oxygen for the climb to the top floor. The sitting room looked on to a wall; and the kitchen was so narrow I had to reverse out of it.

She was right, of course. It did go for anything - and add a bit. Ours was the bottom bid. I say "ours" euphemistically. It is our grown-up children who are trying to put a toe on the property ladder. Accompanying them on this so far fruitless voyage has been a revelation.

Like most complacent property owners, I've spent the past decade warmed by the glow of the ever-rising value of our home. And, like millions of others, I've dreamed of swapping our flat for a wonderful house somewhere.

Most weeks I browse the property sections, surf the property websites and channel hop from Location, Location to Grand Designs and A Place in the Sun. It's a pleasing way of window shopping; the property equivalent of retail therapy in Harvey Nichols.

It was only when our children started to work and to talk about buying their first properties that the harsh realities sank in. What was a comfort zone for me spelled a real difficulty for them. For the disparity between their salaries and the cost of anything they might want to call home is shocking. The gap seems to be widening by the month.

We worked out that if, like many parents, we offered them a deposit or at least stood guarantor, and they pooled their resources by sharing the mortgage, they might just be able to square the financial circle. Renting out a bedroom would hopefully do the rest. Then we set out to look and discovered that lots of would-be property buyers are chasing relatively few properties.

It's like a game of musical chairs with the music getting faster and faster and the prices spiralling higher and higher.

There is a danger of a crazy sale fever setting in. You find yourself talking of a property costing 150 when you mean £150,000. Or you suggest adding 10 to top up a bid until you realise just how long it takes to earn the money to repay £10,000.

The average house price is five times more than the average salary.

The average house price in Scotland is now £143,045, which is five times greater than the average salary. It has risen 13.6% in a year. Glasgow's 9.5% rise seems modest compared with 14% in Edinburgh, 16.5% in Dundee and 23.9% in Aberdeen. The Highlands have risen by 12.8%, thanks partly to wealthy London financiers with six-figure bonuses who see a Highland retreat as a "must-have".

So how are ordinary people supposed to leap on the property escalator? It's hardest for first-time buyers. Many are adding mortgage debt to student debt. They multiply their earnings by three on a mortgage calculator only to find it comes nowhere near the asking price. So the multiples get higher and higher and the loan companies oblige. Then they choose an interest-only mortgage because it's all they can afford.

Some are getting together with friends to share mortgages. Others are clubbing together with strangers. All are dependent on interest rates staying low. Financial experts say they are unlikely to rise much more but even a quarter per cent rise will hurt those borrowed to the limit. The monetary policy committee of the Bank of England is likely to raise rates by that amount on Thursday or at its next meeting in May.

I look at these youngsters and compare their experience with my generation's. We had greater job security and our salaries allowed us to buy our first homes without going dangerously into debt. No wonder this generation stays uncommitted for longer and delays family life. Who wants to face the responsibility of borrowing four or five times salary?

Even when they do, finally, manage to buy their first home, more indebtedness awaits them when they have a family. The gap in price between a starter home and a family home can now be so great they have to borrow even more.

There isn't even a huge up-side for those scaling down. A friend wh