Requests from first-time buyers seeking advice made up 42% of enquiries for whole of market mortgage advice in February.
This figure was down from 43% in January but up from 41% of all mortgage requests in June 2009.
Other significant advice drivers in February included remortgaging, with 32% searching for advice in this area.
Just over one in five (21%) of all searches on the ‘find a mortgage adviser’ search were by consumers looking for residential property advice.
Karen Barrett, chief executive of Unbiased.co.uk, commented: “It is encouraging to see first-time buyers are back out in force looking to get their foot on the property ladder. Especially as they have been given a helping hand by those lenders who have now re-introduced competitive mortgage rates on high loan-to-value products.
“This is a positive move, which suggests lenders now have a renewed appetite to compete at the bottom end of the market, after first-time buyers were all but shut out by banks almost two years ago. Hopefully we may see more lenders follow these footsteps, in which case 2010 could turn out to be the year of the first-time buyer,” she added.
Other advice drivers included buy-to-let (14%) and equity release (7%).
The report is compiled monthly from data collected from consumer selections made through Unbiased.co.uk.
