Oceanico Developments' research found four in 10 Britons are planning to buy abroad, and that three quarters of these plan to rent out the property while they are not there.

Spain is the most popular destination for the would-be property owner, followed by France, the US, Italy and Portugal.

Financial industry sources express some caution, though, about first-time buyers ploughing their money overseas.

Ray Boulger, senior manager at brokers Charcol, advised against a such a decision for first-time buyers, on the grounds that if they were trying to buy in the UK at a later date the debt on their foreign property might deter mortgage lenders.

Even if young people - dispirited at the cost of homes where they want to live - are aspiring to own foreign properties, Mr Boulger said the reality might deter them once they had done the research.

"It requires a bigger deposit - say 15 to 20% ... and legal costs. Most first-time buyers are not in the game," Mr Boulger said.

Another industry source also expressed caution. "A first-time buyer wants a home they can live in. A property abroad is an investment," the source said.

The plans being laid out by Mr Prescott today are aimed at people looking to live in the home they buy. As well as promising more affordable starter homes, the deputy prime minister is to extend choice-based letting - based on a scheme in Sheffield - that allows council tenants to rent new properties based on a form of market shopping rather than an obscure, points-based analysis of need determined by council housing officials.

In a scheme first unveiled at the Labour party conference, Mr Prescott wants to make more homes affordable to the poor by allowing tenants to own the bricks and mortar while the freehold remains held by the government.

In a compromise with Alan Milburn, the party's election coordinator, Mr Prescott has also agreed a scheme that will allow tenants to buy stakes in the value of their housing association homes.

They may be allowed to buy their homes outright on certain conditions, but they will also be required to offer to sell the home back to the housing association if they wanted to move on. Mr Prescott was worried that the loss of houses to private ownership would worsen the shortage of social housing

He curbed council tenants' right to buy in 2003 by reducing maximum discounts in certain areas from £38,000 to £16,000. In a speech to a Labour conference at the weekend, Tony Blair referred to extending the right, saying Labour had ushered in 1.5 million more homeowners, but more dreamed of owning their own homes.