Remortgage searches tumbled last month, while house purchase enquiries were also down — due to a combination of bank holidays, another Bank of England rate hold and the call for a general election, according to Twenty7tec.
Remortgage enquiries slumped 25.2% in May compared to the previous month, but was flat on a year ago.
House purchase searches were down 8% compared to the prior month, but up 7.2% on 12 months ago.
Buy-to-let remortgage enquiries were down 18.6% compared to the previous month, but down 6.1% on May last year.
BTL purchase mortgage searches were down 7.15% compared to last month, but were up 6.1% on a year ago.
The search engine firm adds that two-year fixed mortgages accounted for 45.6% of all fixed product searches, compared to 48.1% a year ago.
Three- to five-year fixes accounted for 34.1% of all fixed product searches, little changed from 12 months before.
While five- to ten-year fixes accounted for 20.3% of all fixed product searches, compared to 17.4% a year ago.
Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “May 2024 saw lower activity levels due to a combination of two bank holidays, a Bank of England decision that deterred remortgages, a general election announcement and maybe poorer weather that normally encourages a stronger May performance.
“But looking at the broader picture, 2024 has been an incredibly hot market for mortgage searches year to date — up one million searches on our systems compared to the same period last year.
“Lenders also have confidence in the market with more products available than ever before. We also have more products with max loan-to-value of 95%, 85%, 80% and 75% than ever before.
“Finally, fixed mortgage search volumes are now running at 111.46% of their long-term monthly average, as the market drifts away from two-year deals to five and even longer-term deals. Buyers increasingly want price certainty, it would seem.”
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