Mark Robinson, of Albion Forest Mortgages, a broker, said: “Demand from first-timers is off the scale. December and January have been our busiest months on record.”

There was an 84pc increase in first-time buyers searching for mortgages in January, up to 270,000 from 149,207 in December, according to analysis by Twenty7Tec, a mortgage data firm.

Niki Cooke of the company said: “Mortgage searches by first-time buyers are up considerably over the past month, easily beating the prior six months.

“The challenge is that if they can’t buy houses, then the rest of the market struggles to perform as well.”

The average price for a home grew by nearly 1pc to £255,556 in January – the best start to the year since 2005, Nationwide reported.