In its monthly Mortgage Market Report, Twenty7tec revealed that September was the second busiest month ever for total mortgage searches.
While the month remained just behind March 2022 in terms of total searches, the last week of September proved to be the busiest week ever – with over 100,000 searches taking place on the 27th of September alone.
The month’s searches for fixed mortgages were also at 95.94% of their all-time high.
James Tucker, CEO at Twenty7tec, said: “It’s hard to explain the magnitude of mortgage market activity in September 2022 as we set so many records on our platform and as an industry.
“The first half of the month was busy, but the second half was far busier as the market reacted to the mini-Budget and withdrew products just as demand sky-rocketed in light of the stamp duty changes and the need for more searches because of the daily changes in product availability.”
The research also found that the month ended with the lowest number of products available since Twenty7tec started reporting– including the pandemic period when lenders scaled back their product volumes.
As well as this, First Time Buyers formed the lowest proportion of the market since the end of the first Covid lockdown in the UK.
However self-employed buyers as well as those of retirement age made up for this, as two of the most active social groups who searched for mortgages in the hectic month.
September saw the five busiest ever days for searches by the self-employed, whilst the two busiest days ever for mortgage searches by retired people were in the last week of the month.
Furthermore, the end of September also set a new record for the average combined salaries for mortgage hunters: £71,487 on Friday 30th September.
Tucker added: “One thing is clear to me: the market coped admirably well at the volume of change and demonstrated the kind of fortitude that got us through prior challenges so well.”
