Concerns surrounding the future of the UK jobs market are expected to hold back full recovery of the region's property sector.
The March 2011 Building Societies Association Property Tracker survey has suggested that demand for property will remain weak, with job security acting as one of the main barriers for potential owners.
Indeed, the number of respondents citing it as a concern rose from 53 per cent in December to 57 per cent during March.
It follows the release of new statistics from the Office for National Statistics which show that UK unemployment is at a 17-year high. According to the data, there are 2.53 million people out of work, with many predicting that the situation is unlikely to improve in the near future.
"People believe that substantial barriers to buying property persist. These include raising a deposit, a lack of job security and difficulty obtaining a large enough mortgage. Against the uncertain economic outlook, job insecurity increased slightly as a barrier in the latest results," Paul Broadhead, head of Mortgage Policy at the BSA.