"High quality data plays a vital role in helping advisers to make smarter decisions, anticipate client needs, and plan their activities effectively."
- Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec
Adviser tech provider Twenty7tec has crunched the numbers from the past five years to give insight into when advisers are most busy and what support customers expect at certain times of the year to help advisers plan their approach for 2025 and beyond.
The data found that the busiest hour of the day for mortgage searches for standard residential purchases, buy-to-let purchases and homebuyer purchasers are all between 11am and noon.
Advisers also create the most ESIS docs between 11am and noon, with the second busiest hour being between 2-3 pm and the third busiest hour between 3-4 pm.
On average, the busiest week of the year is week six, around the second week in February. During this week, on average, a staggering 349,678 mortgage searches took place.
Over the past five years, the four busiest weeks of the year for mortgage searches are in the first eight weeks of the year.
When looking at the busiest day of the week, Twentyt7ec found Tuesday is the busiest, with 20.59% of the week’s searches conducted on that one day. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for a purchase, remortgage or first-time buyer mortgage - Tuesday is always the busiest day.
For purchase searches alone, over the past five years, January has proven the busiest month, with 4.54 purchase searches per document produced. For remortgages, the month with the most searches per document is April, with 3.88.
When looking at specific customer types, the busiest times for first-time buyers are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, with Saturday and Sunday combined only adding up to 3.83% of all first-time buyer mortgage searches.
The busiest month for this customer is February, followed by March and then September. Quarter one is the busiest and quarter four the quietest for first-time buyer searches.
In quarter one, it's busiest for landlords, with Q3 hot on its heels. Q4 sees only 21.87% of all annual buy-to-let mortgage searches compared to 27.60% in the first quarter.
The weekend only accounts for 4.5% of all landlord mortgage searches, with Tuesday the busiest with 20.94% of all landlord searches. The last seven days of the month and the first two days of the month are quieter for landlord searches as they focus, presumably, on rents and reporting instead.
Buy-to-let activity peaks on the 8th of the month, compared to residential purchase activity which peaks on the 15th.
January and February are the busiest months for self-employed workers looking for mortgages, just as their personal taxes are due on January 31 each year. Five of the six busiest months of the year for self-employeds are in the first half of the year.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: "Advisers are now under more pressure than ever before. Take, for instance, the availability of products. We’ve never seen so many and yet this is paired with more industry changes and less notice.
“Not to mention the reduced income opportunities they face as a result of the increase in product transfers and the need to retain more customers, just to get the same level of business - all while navigating the added pressures of Consumer Duty.
“In today’s market, the purchase process is taking longer, and customers need extra support as they face property chain problems and rate changes. There’s also been an increase in customer enquiries, as media attention on mortgage rates has led customers to speculate about the quotes they're being offered.
“All these factors are adding significant pressure on advisers, who must juggle meeting customer demands with maintaining high standards of service.
“That’s why it’s critical for advisers to regularly assess their tools and strategies to thrive in this uncertain environment. High quality data plays a vital role in helping advisers to make smarter decisions, anticipate client needs, and plan their activities effectively. Without accessible, reliable data, advisers risk falling into a reactive cycle, missing opportunities to strengthen client relationships and drive cross-selling.
“To thrive in 2025, advisers must embrace effective workflow and task management systems. By leaning on technology to handle administrative tasks, advisers can free up valuable time to focus on their clients, demonstrate their expertise, and create meaningful value in a competitive market."
