Deposits from novice homebuyers rose to £29,127, which is 15% higher than a year ago, according to a report from Your Move and Reeds Rains.

This has also helped drive rising purchase prices for first-time buyer homes, which climbed to a new record. New buyers paid an average of £160,304 in January, up from £143,343 twelve months ago.

The average first-time buyer has saved £900 in tax payouts since the Stamp Duty changes on 4 December 2014 and is now paying £700, down from £1,600. Although house prices continue to rise and buyers are stretching themselves more with loan-to-incomes rising to 75.4% of a first-time buyer’s income, wage rises and deflation are boosting first-timer buying power.

Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “A fusion of economic factors is alleviating some of the financial burden of forming a deposit.

“However, property prices have pushed a new record for first-time buyers, meaning these extra funds are being diverted directly into larger deposits. Putting together a deposit to buy a property remains one of the most arduous tasks for prospective home-buyers, and schemes like Help to Buy are essential to allow the swathes of buyers reliant on higher LTV mortgages to get onto the housing ladder.”

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Despite the affordability boost, the number of first-time buyers completing on their first home fell 19% to 21,200 in January 2015.

However, the latest report from chartered surveyor E.surv showed a substantial pick up in higher LTV lending in January, likely to bring rising numbers of first-time buyer completions in the coming months.

Regionally, the average purchase price for first-time buyers in London rose to a new record high of £308,067 in the three months to January 2015 – more than three times the average purchase price in Northern Ireland (£90,241).