Intermediated mortgage product count has fallen for the fourth month in a row, but broker searches for deals rose in July, according to a mortgage sourcing company.
Product availability is at 76 per cent of pre-pandemic heights and at its lowest since September 2021.
James Tucker, CEO, Twenty7Tec said: “From end June to end July 2022 we saw the largest monthly drop in real terms (and in percentage terms) of mortgage products available since the pandemic-induced handbrake stop in March 2020 which saw the removal of around 3,000 products almost overnight.”
Tucker said the greater concentration of fixed rate mortgages continued to rise with average combined salaries for homebuyers also on the increase to £69,801. Searches for properties worth over £1m also fell 2.7 per cent.
Twenty7Tec’s July mortgage index suggested mortgage broker searches rose by almost nine per cent, ahead of the holiday season.
Searches for green mortgages also continued to climb, but Rob Derry, MD, Brunel Mortgages and Loans, said: “This is something we’re looking at in quite a lot of detail, but the issue is that only a tiny proportion of the housing stock qualifies for an A-C rating. As such, the mortgages aren’t that popular or available to a wide audience anyway.”
He added: “Lenders might do better to offer further advances or refinancing then reward customers with a green mortgage after works have been completed to a B or C standard.”
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
