Mortgage News
August leads buck the summer slowdown
While August followed July with a distinct lack of sunshine and summer weather, the summer slowdown again failed to materialize, with lead volumes across all mortgage products from first-time buyers to remortgages up from July.
Overall mortgage volumes increased by almost 14% with the most noticeable change an increase of more than 17% for remortgage enquiries.
Remortgages remained the largest proportion of total mortgage enquiries in August, accounting for 56.5% of the market.
The proportion of first-time buyer enquiries fell slightly to just over 20% of enquiries in August.
Homemover enquiries remained steady month-on-month at just under 15% of enquiries, with buy-to-let leads dropping to just over 8% of total enquiries.
Looking into the remortgage market in more detail there are some interesting statistics. Across the UK, the average LTV for remortgage applicants in August was just over 54.5% with an average loan value of £124,300.
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Across all remortgage enquiries, over 81% were from prime consumers, with just under 9% sub prime and a further 10% looking to self-certify their incomes.
Looking at regional variations for remortgage enquiries, there were a few more noticeable statistics.
In terms of lead volumes, the most popular areas for remortgage enquiries were the Home Counties with 20.1% of enquiries. Next was the North West with 17.9% of enquiries, followed by the Midlands with 13.7% and then the South West with 11% of enquires.
Looking at average loan values across the UK, unsurprisingly the area with the highest average loan values by a long way was London with an average loan size of over £175,250.
The next highest was the Home Counties with an average loan size of £151,000 followed by the South with £140,000. The region with the lowest loan value was the North West, with an average loan value of £101,800.
Analysing consumer credit grades across the UK, the highest number of prime consumers as a proportion of leads was Northern Ireland, with 85.3% of all remortgage enquiries from prime consumers.
This was followed by the North East with 83% and then the North West with 82.5%.
The area with the most sub prime enquires was the North East, followed by the Midlands and then Scotland.
Justin Rees is director of marketing and partnerships at LeadPoint