"constructing" a trivially-copyable object with memcpy

In C++, is this code correct?

#include <cstdlib>
#include <cstring>

struct T   // trivially copyable type
{
    int x, y;
};

int main()
{
    void *buf = std::malloc( sizeof(T) );
    if ( !buf ) return 0;

    T a{};
    std::memcpy(buf, &a, sizeof a);
    T *b = static_cast<T *>(buf);

    b->x = b->y;

    free(buf);
}

In other words, is *b an object whose lifetime has begun? (If so, when did it begin exactly?)