The London housing market shuts its doors on the Bridget Jones generation

Nigel Stockton, director at Countrywide, said he has seen the number of first-time buyers co-owning shoot up.

“There are many advantages to buying with a friend. It helps dramatically with affordability and, assuming that both friends are working, often the combined purchasing power can afford a significantly better quality of property than might have been the case if either friend bought on their own," he said.

The average first-time buyer salary in London was £44,513 in July, according to property company LSL, and yet the average first-time buyer home reached a record £251,061 in the same month.

This would mean the wannabe buyer has to borrow 5.7 times their annual wage to purchase in the capital and such lending ratios are now outlawed by the Bank of England

Just to scrape together the deposit a lone first-time buyer in London needs to find 25pc of the value of the property, taking some considerable financial clout, and higher the 20pc required in the south-west and 15pc in the south-east.

"First-time buyers will consider any option of a leg up onto the housing ladder," said high end property agent, Henry Pryor.

"Buying with friends or a partner makes sense for some just as borrowing from the bank of mum and dad works for others. Be careful though, sharing mortgage costs is one thing but if the market falters then negative equity can test the greatest of friendships. Get a lawyer to draw up an agreement to deal with any future disagreements."

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