"Today is going to be a major day of activity for lenders and platforms like ours as we update hundreds and maybe even thousands of mortgage products to be at the latest rates."
Yesterday’s Bank of England interest rate rise once again created a spike in mortgage activity and changes in product availability, according to data from Twenty7tec.
Its platform figures shows that yesterday, there were 40,902 remortgage searches by advisers on the platform, up 38.8% on an average Thursday and 20.7% higher than previous interest rate decision days in the past two years.
In contrast, there were 32,458 purchase mortgage searches by advisers on the platform, down 4.2% on an average Thursday and down 7.6% compared to the average previous interest rate decision days in the past two years.
Purchase mortgage searches are now at their lowest levels since October 2022. Searches for remortgages have now outstripped demand for purchase mortgages for the past nine days - the first time that searches for remortgages have outnumbered purchases since the mini Budget period in late 2022.
Yesterday, there were 14,050 buy-to-let mortgage searches by advisers on the platform, up 4.1% on an average Thursday but down 5.7% compared to the average previous interest rate decision days in the past two years.
Buy-to-let mortgage searches are now at their lowest proportion of all mortgage searches since August 2021.
As market volatility continues, there are now 873 fewer mortgages products available than one week ago.
James Tucker, founder and CEO of Twenty7tec, commented: “Every day this week has been busier than the corresponding day last week. That’s due, in part, to the fact that this interest rate rise appears to have been so broadly baked in that the market wasn’t just expecting it, but had been acting ahead of time to secure mortgages at lower rates.
“Today is going to be a major day of activity for lenders and platforms like ours as we update hundreds and maybe even thousands of mortgage products to be at the latest rates. So we’d expect increased levels of activity to continue into today and through Monday at least.
“Monday and Tuesday this week were two of the 12 busiest ever days for mortgage searches as people sought rates ahead of the announcement.
“As of yesterday, there are 800 fewer mortgage products on our system than there were a week ago, which means more requests attempting to access fewer products and the kind of potential bottleneck we last saw in the stamp duty holiday period of 2021.
"The past 24 hours have undoubtedly been a busy one for customers and mortgage advisers alike, as they race to find the most suitable deal.
"And that’s not forgetting the business of the lenders who over the past 24 hours have been making adjustments in line with the new rate.
"We've already seen hundreds of products change in the market over the past week and are expecting more to be changed today and on Monday in light of the new rate announcement."
