According to Twenty7tec’s report for June, it was the second busiest ever month for mortgage searches with searches coming to 1,747,323.
Purchase mortgage searches rose 0.6 per cent month-on-month compared to May and buy-to-let mortgages searches increased by 11.1 per cent during the period.
The report added that searches for first-time buyers were up one per cent nationwide over the same period.
Twenty7tec said that first-time buyers as a percentage of the whole market had dropped to their lowest level since September 2022 and their second lowest in three years.
Two-year fixes grow in popularity
The report continued that two-year fixed mortgages accounted for 42.62 per cent of all fixed product searches, which is more than double the figure last year.
Three to five-year fixed rates made up a third of all fixed product searches, which compares to 40.96 per cent a year ago.
Five to 10-year fixed rates made up 23.69 percent, which is down from 36.14 per cent a year ago.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “June 2023 saw the Bank of England raise rates further. The market seemed to have priced it in ahead of time and so the week before the rise was very busy, as was the week after when thousands of product changes were made.
“Product availability is now down to their lowest levels, year-to-date, and we are attempting to handle higher volumes of mortgage queries.”
He added: “In particular, the market saw a huge uplift in remortgage searches – up 21.9 per cent on the prior month – alongside a 25 per cent hike in remortgage ESIS documents prepared.
“It’s worth noting that in the 18 months since we began reporting green mortgage searches, 24 June 2023 was the first day without any searches for green mortgages at all.”
