"We’ve seen an increased number of total mortgage searches again year-on-year. But the picture is nuanced. The increases overall mask a drop off in remortgage searches and a large rise in residential purchase searches."
- Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec
The latest data from Twenty7tec shows an increase in mortgage searches by advisers of 7.96% in 2024.
However, searches for product types have decreased to an average of 1.7, compared to 2.6 in 2020. Twenty7tec asks: "Does this suggest that customers are becoming more confident and decisive in their product knowledge, or are advisers streamlining their search behaviors for greater efficiency?"
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, commented: “We’ve seen an increased number of total mortgage searches again year-on-year. But the picture is nuanced. The increases overall mask a drop off in remortgage searches and a large rise in residential purchase searches.
“In 2020, mortgage rates were historically low, driven by central banks slashing interest rates to support economies during the Covid-19 pandemic. Fixed rate mortgages were particularly popular as borrowers sought to lock in these favourable rates amidst economic uncertainty. However, we can see that advisers explored multiple options and scenarios, comparing rates for fixed and variable mortgages as they tried to help their customers to navigate a rapidly changing financial landscape. This contributed to a higher average number of searches per person during that time.
“Interestingly, whilst 2020 was the hot year for fixed rate mortgages, last year this figure dropped with one in seven people opting for a different type of product.”
New records set in 2024
Whilst the first-time buyer market remained subdued compared to the broader market, it actually set records in real terms for total searches (17.69m, up 5.02% on the prior year).
The data also shows a new annual high for self-employed mortgage searches which are up 7.47% year-on-year. In fact, 2024 was the first year the platform received over one million self employed mortgage searches.
Combined salary averages were £77,028 across all mortgage searches in 2024, up 9.52% on the prior year. Combined salaries are up 29.64% since 2021’s average of £59,400.
Green mortgage searches were also up 100.73% compared to 2023. Buy-to-let green mortgages were up 67.41% year-on-year whereas purchase green mortgages were up 111.62%.
Purchase vs remortgage
It was the busiest ever year for purchase mortgage searches - up 13.86% on the prior year and up 8.07% on the previous record year for purchase searches (2022).
It was also the busiest ever year for remortgage searches - up 5.5% on the previous record year for purchase searches in 2023.
In 2024, purchase mortgage searches represented 53.95% of all searches on the platform and remortgages represented 46.05%. That’s at the higher end of the purchase v remortgages ratio, with remortgages representing between 36% and 48% of all mortgage searches over the past few years.
Buy-to-let
Bu-to-let purchase mortgage searches were up 6.54% from 2023, while remortgage searches were up 4.23%.
However, in the buy-to-let market, the proportion of searches for purchase came in at 36.31% which is at the lower end of recent years' expectations, with remortgaging dominating the balance of searches at 63.69% - a new high, in a record year for total buy-to-let mortgage searches on the Twenty7tec platform.
Products available
On an average 2024 day, there were 21,964 product variants available - a record high and a huge leap from 2023 with daily availability up 34.54%
During the year new records were set for total products available on a specific day (19th December 2024 with 24,264 products) and at December 2024 for both highest products available on a daily average (24,029) and most at month end (with 24,064 products).
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, commented: “The total number of ESIS documents produced through our platform increased 6.57% year-on-year - broadly in line with the increased number of mortgage searches. But the devil is in the detail with residential purchase ESIS document volumes up 19.87% and buy-to-let up 7.52%, but remortgaging documents were down 5.88% over the course of the year."
