Confused.com assessed figures from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and saw that the value of remortgages in Q1 totalled £17.5bn, compared to £29.5bn last year.
This was despite remortgages accounting for 36 per cent of new mortgage commitments in both years.
In the preceding quarter, Q4 2022, remortgages made up 41 per cent of commitments with a total value of £24bn.
According to data from the Building Societies Association, by August this year, 253,782 remortgages were sold at a value of £51.2bn.
Confused.com said compared to the 539,591 remortgages completed at a value of £113bn over the entirety of 2022, the number looked set to be lower in 2023.
Notable jump in rates
Confused.com said borrowers were up against significantly higher costs when refinancing. Itnoted, that based on information from the Office for National Statistics, there was a total of 818,489 mortgages on rates below two per cent ending this year.
Borrowers could see their fixed rate double when remortgaging, as the lowest five-year fixed rate for a mortgage at 75 per cent loan to value (LTV) was recorded in April this year and priced at 4.17 per cent.
The firm’s analysis showed that, by comparison, no mortgages refinanced in 2022 had an initial rate of more than 2.5 per cent.
Confused.com said borrowers moving from a rate of two per cent to four per cent would see payments rise by £104 a month if they borrowed £100,000 or more than £500 a month on loans of £500,000.
Remortgagors moving from a rate of two per cent to six per cent with loans of £100,000 will see payments rise from £424 to £644 a month.
On loans of £500,000, this rate jump would lead to monthly payments rising from £2,119 to £3,222.
