Nina Goswami/Telegraph.co.uk

Young Britons are looking abroad to take their first step on the property ladder because house prices are too high for them to be able to buy in the UK, according to a new report.

A poll of more than 4,600 adults, conducted by YouGov, found that nearly half of the 18- to 29-year-olds questioned planned to buy abroad, with two-thirds of those stating that their foreign investment would be their first property purchase.

More than 80 per cent of these first-time buyers will rent out their property, according to the poll, commissioned by Oceanico Developments, a property development company.

The report says the new breed of first-time buyers, dubbed the "jet-to-let generation", will spend an average of £101,000 to buy abroad – nearly £80,000 less than the average house price in Britain of £180,225.

Simon Burgess, a director at Oceanico Developments, said: "As property prices in the UK remain prohibitively high and the rental market approaches saturation, it's only natural that first-time buyers look abroad, where their pound travels further, to get themselves on to the property ladder.

"While half want to buy abroad to escape the English weather, financial considerations are high on the motivators list.

"More than two in five want to live in foreign climes because it's more affordable than the UK, and a third recognise that overseas properties are a better investment than the UK."

Spain was the most popular choice for 18- to 29-year-olds who have already bought overseas - or are looking to do so - closely followed by France, Italy, the United States and Portugal.

Others, however, have looked farther afield. Sharon McGonigle, 28, a manufacturing technician from Limavady, Northern Ireland, paid £33,000, including taxes and legal fees, for her first property, a three-bedroom chalet with sauna, at a ski resort in Borovets, Bulgaria, a year and a half ago.

"You couldn't buy anything in the UK for £33,000. Even for council houses in Northern Ireland you'd have to fork out £70,000 and, unlike a ski resort, the rental potential isn't great," said Ms McGonigle.

"This is only my first year and I've been fully booked since December and will be until April.

"The money I get from this investment will help me to lead a much better life back here in the UK."

Laura Lancaster, 23, a concert assistant, from Gravesend, Kent, would like to buy in Madeira, and has commissioned a home-searching service to help her find her first property. She is hoping to spend less than £100,000 for a two-bedroom waterfront apartment, which she intends to rent out.

Eventually, she hopes to put the profits from her investment towards a deposit for a home in Britain. "Buying a house over here is not possible for someone of my age. There's no other option than to buy abroad to get on to the property ladder at such a young age. Though I will still be living at home with my mum, at least I know that I'll have some property to my name," said Ms Lancaster.

For first-time buyers who want to invest abroad, many leading mortgage providers, such as the Halifax and Nationwide, do not offer loans on property outside the UK, although Abbey National, another of the biggest high street lenders, does cater for people who buy abroad.

Another option for prospective buyers would be to apply to an overseas lender.

Mark Chilton, the chief executive of Purely Mortagages, one of the biggest no-fee mortgage brokers, said that despite the new trend, there were significant risks for those who bought abroad, particularly if they were paid in sterling but had a mortgage in a foreign currency.

"You are taking a big currency risk, with sterling against the euro being very volatile over the past year. If the euro weakens, then your investment, if you're trying to get on to the ladder, is being devalued.

So you could be wiping out all the good that you do. This is extremely bad practice as a way of getting on to the UK property ladder. The best way is still to buy through shared ownership."

At the end of December, the "jet-to-let" market reached a total worth of more than £58 billion, with nearly a fifth who own property abroad renting it out regularly.

Since 1995 the number of Britons who have bought property abroad has risen three-fold, with 550,000 people now owning a home overseas.

Figures released by the Halifax last week illustrated the difficulties faced by young Britons in their own country. According to the bank, property prices in nine out of 10 British towns are out of reach of first-time buyers, whose average age has now reached 34 because of the difficulty of saving for a deposit and funding mortgage repayments.

The Halifax also reported that the number of people entering the property market in Britain for the first time fell to 361,000 last year, compared with a figure of 532,000 in 2002.

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