Two-thirds of mortgage holders aged under 30 have taken loans lasting between 30 and 40 years, according to analysis by mortgage overpayment app Sprive.

The study of more than 190,000 homeowners found that 66% of borrowers under 30 had mortgage terms of at least 30 years.

This compared with 42% of homeowners aged between 30 and 39 and 6% of those in their 40s. Young homeowners are typically on course to own their properties outright at the age of 59.

Longer repayment periods have not prevented monthly mortgage costs from exceeding £1,000 across every age group, owing to higher loan-to-value ratios and rising interest rates.

Homeowners under 30 have an average mortgage rate of 4.50%, compared with 3.89% among those aged between 40 and 49.

Average monthly payments stand at £1,008 for borrowers under 30, rising to £1,138 among those aged between 40 and 49 before declining later in life.

Jinesh Vohra, chief executive of Sprive, said: “Longer mortgage terms have become the price many younger buyers have to pay to get onto the property ladder.

“Spreading repayments over 30 or even 40 years can make monthly payments affordable, but it also means paying interest for much longer and staying in debt well into later life.

“The good news is that there are ways to cut the debt; making overpayments, even relatively small ones can shave years off the mortgage and save tens of thousands of pounds in interest.

“Many people don’t realise how much difference regular overpayments can make.”

The average Sprive user has a mortgage balance of £202,000, an interest rate of 4.14% and a remaining term of 25.6 years. They pay just under £1,100 a month and are on course to become mortgage-free at the age of 63.

A borrower with the same balance, term and rate could save more than £10,700 in interest and repay the loan almost two years earlier by overpaying £50 a month, according to Sprive.

An overpayment of £100 a month would save more than £19,700 in interest and shorten the mortgage term by more than three and a half years.

Vohra added: “For those who don’t think they can afford to pay a little more Sprive offers homeowners a way to ‘earn’ overpayments from shopping they are doing already.

“We have deals with 100s of retailers enabling users to earn cashback on everyday shopping – from the weekly supermarket shop, to treats and even holidays.

“Chipping away at the balance early has a much bigger impact than most homeowners expect.”