There was again a slight shift in the pattern of enquires.
Remortgages were up again in May compared to the previous month as a proportion of total mortgage enquiries to 55% of leads submitted.
First-time buyer enquiries dropped to just over 20% of all enquiries, while home movers also fell to around 15% of enquires and buy-to-let leads again brought up the rear, but with an increased share to more than 9%.
Focusing on regional variations in homemover enquiries there were some interesting trends around the UK.
To put the findings into context, across the UK, the average LTV for homemovers in May was 65.2% with an average loan value of £153,500.
Across all homemover enquiries, just under 76% were from prime consumers, with 10% sub prime and a further 14% looking to self-certify their incomes. The average age of applicants was 41, which was fairly constant across the UK.
Like many lead providers, we group the 124 postal areas into 13 separate regions – Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, North East, North West, Midlands, East Anglia, Home Counties, London, South, South West, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
In terms of lead volumes, the most popular areas for homemover enquiries were the Home Counties with 19.5% of enquiries.
Next was the North West with 17.5% of enquiries followed by the Midlands with just under 15% and then the South West with 11% of enquires.
Only 5.8% of enquiries were in the London region.
Looking at average loan values across the UK, the area with the highest average loan value by a long way was London at almost £231,000.
The next highest was the Home Counties with an average loan size of £185,600, followed by the South with £155,200. The region with the lowest loan values was the Midlands with average loan values of £131,500.
Analysing consumer credit grades across the UK, the highest number of prime consumers as a proportion of leads was Scotland where just under 79% of all homemover enquiries were from prime consumers.
This was followed by the South and then the North East with 77%.
The area with the most sub prime customers was Northern Ireland, followed by East Anglia and then the North West.
Justin Rees is director of marketing and partnerships at LeadPoint
