Half of the private rental market's growth in stock has come from former owner-occupied homes.
The trend has also occured the other way round, as 15% of first-time buyers purchased their home from a landlord in the last 12 months, while 65% of former landlord-owned homes were purchased by first-timers since 2005.
In all two million homes have changed tenure in the last decade.
Johnny Morris, director of research at Countrywide said: “The rapid growth of the private rented sector has to come from somewhere, while the tenure may change, the physical home remains.
“The sector has been growing since 2005 but the number of homeowners has fallen in each of the last 10 years. This scale of shift in tenure shows that the current push from the government to increase the number of homeowners is unlikely to be enough to reverse the decline.
“Although landlords and first-time buyers might not appear natural bedfellows, because they tend to look for similar types of homes they do end up selling to each other.
“Many landlords face a choice 10 to 15 years after buying a home, between refurbishing the property or selling it. Those landlords who choose to sell up offer an opportunity to first-time buyers willing to put some work into their first home, often adding to its value.”
