The firm’s latest criteria index found that the most popular searches continue to focus on those struggling to reduce the size of their mortgage payments, with ‘maximum age at the end of term’ and ‘missed or late payments’ the most common terms on residential searches.
The security offered by regular employment has also grown in importance in recent months. The third most common term was ‘time in current employment’, followed by ‘maximum age at end of term using employed income only’. Knowledge Bank noted that searches for self-employed borrowers have not made it into the top five since June, and combined with these employment-based criteria, suggest that those who work for themselves may be holding off remortgaging or simply accepting product transfers when offered.
Among second charge searches, Knowledge Bank argued there was a theme of borrowers “maxing out”, given the high numbers for maximum LTV, maximum loan amount and maximum age at end of term. The firm said this served as a snapshot of people being stretched and looking for some way to minimise mortgage repayments.
While ‘limited companies’ was once again the top search for buy to let, there is also clearly some interest from those new to the sector as it was followed by ‘first time landlord’ and ‘no requirement to be a homeowner’.
Knowledge Bank noted the emergence of searches for ‘ex-local authority houses’ and ‘sheltered accommodation’ within the equity release market, which it argued pointed towards those who are not terribly wealthy but looking to access some of the money tied up in their home in order to maintain their standard of living.
Base rate hold will only help so much
Nicola Firth, CEO of Knowledge Bank, said that there are still thousands of borrowers set to reach the end of their fixed rate before the end of this year, and while there may be some confidence from the fact that base rate was held this month, the reality is that many are still struggling with the cost of day-to-day living.
“This is clearly reflected in the searches being carried out by their mortgage brokers and the fact that the second-most popular search is for people with missed or late payments just illustrates the challenges that many people are still facing,” she added.
