Wiktionary
n. (context British English) The hierarchy of owned housing.
Wikipedia
The property ladder is a term widely used in the United Kingdom to describe the relative differences in constant terms from cheaper to more expensive housing.
According to this metaphor, an individual or family's lifetime progress can be traveled equally from cheap houses for younger first-time buyers who are typically at the bottom of the property ladder, and expensive houses are at the top. 'Getting on to the property ladder' is the process of buying one's first house and holding a place on the volatile property market.
Property Ladder is the name of two television shows from the United Kingdom and United States where first-time property or real-estate developers purchase houses (usually in need of repair), renovate them, and attempt to sell them (or flip) for a profit. Their efforts (and frustrations) are the featured bit of the show. An expert property developer steps in to provide advice.
Property Ladder was the original British version of the television series Property Ladder which ran for 7 series between 2001-2009. Hosted by Sarah Beeny, it followed the journey of amateur property developers as they set out to make a life changing profit from renovating challenging houses.
The show underwent a change in format during 2004, featuring two developments per episode rather than one. In early 2009, Channel 4 announced that a new series, re-titled Property Snakes and Ladders, would be broadcast. The first to be filmed in a struggling market, ultimately it was the final series broadcast.
In 2012 Beeny returned to the format to host "Sarah Beeny's Double Your House for Half The Money", which follows two sets of home owners renovating their own homes rather than developing them to sell.
Usage examples of "property ladder".
For the first few weeks of the IONEC I rented a room from an old Cambridge friend, but realising early in the course that MI6 would be a lifetime career, getting on the property ladder became imperative.