"The month had two definite parts: the first half characterised by record-setting for product availability, and the second for fewer ESIS documents being prepared as the market held its breath for the Budget"
- Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec
October's purchase mortgage searches were up by 2.9% compared to September and 23.69% compared to October 2023, according to the latest figures from Twenty7tec.
Figures across all product areas were positive compared to the previous month, with remortgage searches up 1.4%, buy-to-let purchase searches up 3%, and first-time buyers increasing by 5.38%.
Compared to 12 months ago, remortgage searches are 3.16% higher and first-time buyer searches rose by 9.99%. Buy-to-let purchase searches are up 18.37% and buy-to-let remortgage searches by 9.52%.
Broken down by term, two-year fixed rate mortgage accounted for 40.51% of all fixed product searches compared to 46.22% in October 2023.
Three to five-year fixes rose slightly from 33.62% to 35.18% and five to ten-year fixed rate product searches increased in popularity from 20.16% to 24.31%.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “We saw month-on-month gains across the board last month, with purchase and remortgage searches both up and buy-to-let and first-time buyer searches also up.
“But the month had two definite parts: the first half characterised by record-setting for product availability, and the second for fewer ESIS documents being prepared as the market held its breath for the Budget and the subsequent Bank of England rate decision on November 7th. None of the days in the second half of October ranked in the top 130 busiest days this year. Equally, by month end, the total number of products available had fallen away by 1.93% to leave it 462 products down on the prior month end. This was the first month-on-month fall in total products since June 2023.
“For advisers, it has been a purchase market since March this year, in other words, the volumes of purchase ESIS documents prepared outstrip the volume of remortgage ESIS documents. But it is narrowing again a little now at 55:45, having previously peaked at 57.5:52.5 in July 2024.
“By the end of November, we predict that 2024 will surpass the annual total number of mortgage searches for 2023 with a month to spare. It’s been a busy year for advisers, and we’re highly likely to see new records set when we do the year in review.”
