Lockdown led to a 20-year high for first-time housebuyers, as more than 400,000 took advantage of tax breaks and cheap mortgages.
The 408,379 people climbing on to the property ladder last year was a 35% increase on the year before that, according to analysis by Yorkshire Building Society.
First-time buyers now represent about 50% of all house purchases financed with a mortgage, up from 36% in 2007. The building society said you would have to go back 15 years to see transactions at a similar level.
The English Housing Survey showed that first-time buyers were typically in the high-income groups, whose finances may have benefited from pandemic restrictions. According to the survey, more than 60% of first-time buyers were in the top 40% of earners.
