According to figures from Twenty7Tec, which tracks the behaviour of 15,000 platform-using advisers, this January was the highest month on record for mortgage searches, beating pre-stamp duty rushes in 2021.
It continued that there were over a million residential mortgage searches alone, the highest ever in a single calendar month.
There were 850,362 purchase searches accounting for around 61 per cent of January’s activity, and 552,342 remortgage searches, accounting for 39 per cent.
First-time buyer searches also increased, accounting for 19 per cent of searches, which is up by around one per cent on December.
There was also a move toward fixed rate products in the month, with the highest volumes of fixed mortgage searches since 2021.
It also recorded over 73,000 daily mortgage searches for the first time ever and set new 12-month highs for ESIS document volumes.
The report added that Help to Buy searches almost doubled compared to the previous month, coming to 23,688.
It added that it was back to 85 per cent of pre-pandemic levels of product availability, and product volumes were up 70 per cent on the same period last year.
James Tucker (pictured), founder and chief executive of Twenty7Tec, said January was a “hot market” pointing to the record total mortgage searches and record standard residential mortgage searches.
“Combine this market activity with the broader macroeconomic picture of inflationary pressures and some major periods of remortgaging coming up – as announced by UK Finance – and I predict it’s going to continue to be a busy few weeks for all the advisors in the mortgage market. Efficiency and client care is going to be key.”
