For another month in succession, remortgages increased in June compared to the previous month to 56% of total mortgage leads submitted.
First-time buyer enquiries remained almost constant at just under 20% of all enquiries. Homemovers dropped to under 14% of enquires, with buy-to-let leads again bringing up the rear but with another increase in share of overall enquiries to almost 11%.
Focusing on first-time buyer enquires, a section of the market that has received a lot of attention over the past couple of weeks, there were some interesting trends.
Over the course of June, more than 67% of first-time buyers said that they had already found a property when making their mortgage enquiry online. Looking at regional variations, this was as high as more than 71% of enquiries in the Midlands and as low as 59% in London.
Looking into more regional variations for first-time buyers, there were a few more noticeable statistics.
To put the findings into context, across the UK, the average LTV for first-time buyers in June was 72.7% with an average loan value of £123,000. Across all first-time buyer enquiries, just under 79% were from prime consumers, with 9% sub prime and a further 12% looking to self-certify their incomes.
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 first-time buyer enquiries were the Home Counties, with 19.2% of enquiries, the North West with 16.5%, followed by the Midlands with 14.3%, and then London with 11.5% of enquires.
Looking at average loan values across the UK, the area with the highest average loan values by a long way was London, at almost £175,600.
The next highest was the Home Counties with an average loan size of £151,500 followed by the South with £139,100. The region with the lowest loan value was the Scotland at £94,500.
However, in analysing consumer credit grades across the UK, Scotland proved to have the highest number of leads from prime consumers, with just under 85% of all first-time buyer enquiries from prime borrowers, followed by the East Anglia and then the Home Counties with 80%.
The area with the most sub prime customers was the North East, followed by the North West and then the Midlands.
Justin Rees is director of marketing and partnerships at LeadPoint UK
