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Buying a first home is one of the most important decisions a person will ever make, but in 2008 how to get that first mortgage has become one of the biggest problems. Since the credit crunch took hold of the UK mortgage industry first-time buyers have seen those rungs of the ladder get more out of reach every week as prices rise and loan-to-values come down.

Those who decide to go ahead with a purchase have had to look at alternative ways of getting a first step onto the ladder and dealing with the demand for larger deposits.

Two options that have gained increasing support in the last year are shared ownership and shared equity schemes.

These schemes allow the buyer to take on ownership of a property in a more gradual way, allowing them to purchase part of a property with a view to owning a larger proportion of the abode in the future.

With shared ownership the participant buys a percentage of the property and pays rent on the remainder with a view to buying the home outright at a later date.

Andy Sewell, managing director of Southend-based brokerage OFM, said shared ownership schemes had become particularly useful in the south east where property prices were especially high.

"Shared ownership schemes are clearly a great initiative and a really positive way of helping potential first-time buyers onto the ladder. In some areas many people literally stand no chance on getting onto the property ladder without shared ownership schemes and other initiatives.

"The number of schemes available has grown in recent years and it is encouraging that there are now options for those who are not key workers or social housing tenants.

"But of course the supply of these schemes is still extremely limited and they cannot help the vast majority of struggling first-time buyers."

James Taylor, mortgage product manager for Cheshire Building Society, said such schemes were increasingly necessary as even falling house prices had not made it easier for first-time buyers to make that first purchase.

This was due in part to the rise in interest rates and arrangement fees, which he said had made the housing market more prohibitive for those who did not have a substantial deposit.

Mr Taylor said: "The number of options available for first-time buyers has significantly reduced in the last six months. This is primarily due to lenders reducing their maximum loan-to-value ratios as a result of falling property prices across the UK."

Mr Taylor said one option that had increased in popularity was the government's shared ownership scheme.

The government has also recently launched a pilot project of the rent to home buy scheme, which lets households earning £60,000 a year or less rent a new home at discounted rate for a period of two to three years.

This scheme is aimed at enabling people to save for a deposit to buy a part share in the house.

Mr Taylor said shared ownership schemes provided a viable option to those wanting to buy their own property and go it alone rather than rent with friends or live with family, enabling applicants to borrow up to 100 per cent of their share in the property.

He said: "The concept of shared ownership has developed under the government's HomeBuy scheme.

"Shared ownership is a great alternative to renting, allowing individuals a helping hand to get on the property ladder in a gradual way and still benefiting from any increase in the value of the property, with the option of purchasing a larger proportion of the property in the future."

However Mr Taylor said many lenders had recently withdrawn their shared ownership mortgages at a time when they were most needed to keep the housing market moving.

Shared equity schemes, which differ somewhat to shared ownership schemes, can also offer first-time buyers that vital chance to get onto the housing ladder.

Jason Bisset, mortgage product manager for The Co-operative Bank, said unlike some shared ownership schemes shared equity schemes allowed the customers to own 100 per cent of their home, with no rent or landlord to pay.

The scheme enables customers to effectively borrow up to 100 per cent of the property value through a mortgage and an equity loan.

While these schemes give a viable option to some homebuyers, those who were relying on handouts for loans from friends and family could also find their options drying up.

Paul White, a consultant for London-based advisers Belgravia Insurance Consultants, said falling house prices could have an effect on family member's willingness to plough money into their relatives first home.

Mr White said with house prices in decline it could dampen the view that property was seen as a sound investment.

He said: "Before the credit crunch many parents were quite happy to gift the deposit to their children, as property was seen at the time to be a sound investment.

"Now that house prices are declining I can see more parents would be reluctant to do so as it would be annoying to find out that you should have waited and bought the same property later, more cheaply."

With first-time buyers either unable to raise the required deposit themselves or receive help from family the industry must look at other alternatives, said OFM's Mr Sewell.

He said while the government had claimed to have helped 100,000 people on to the housing ladder through right to buy, social homebuy and open market homebuy schemes they needed wider measures to help the larger swathe of first-time buyers that were having difficulties in the current environment.

Mr Sewell said: "The most obvious is a change to the stamp duty system and lots of propositions have been put forward that would enable government to maintain the vital income from this tax, while taking the burden away from first-time buyers."