Knowledge Bank’s monthly criteria index has revealed a complete change of the most common searches performed by brokers in the equity release sector during March.
This is the first month that a sector has had a completely new top five since the index began in July 2018.
As the UK’s largest database of mortgage lending criteria, Knowledge Bank tracks all the most common searches performed by brokers as they look to place a client’s case.
The top search in the equity release sector was for lenders who would allow a ‘married couple application in a one/single name’ followed closely by brokers searching for ‘buy to let equity release’.
Making up the remaining top five criteria that brokers were searching on behalf of their clients ‘leasehold remaining term/beginning of term’, ‘maximum age at application’ and ‘early repayment charges’.
There was also a shake-up in search popularity in the second charge sector with only the search for the ‘maximum LTV’ holding onto the top spot.
In what could give the market a sense of foreboding, the two searches entering the top five were focused on debt, with ‘defaults over £500’ and ‘capital raising for debt consolidation’ the third and fourth most common searches respectively.
There was far more consistency in across the other lending types with Residential searches remaining consistent aside from the popularity of searches for lenders accepting ‘joint borrower/sole proprietor’.
Bridging and buy-to-let searches offered a beacon of consistency with all the top five holding their place in the rankings for a second month.
‘Lending to limited companies’ and ‘first-time landlords’ were once again the top two criteria searches performed for buy-to-let and ‘regulated bridging’ and ‘minimum loan amount’ the top two for bridging.
Nicola Firth (pictured), Knowledge Bank CEO, said: “the clean sweep of changes in Equity Release searches but total consistency in buy-to-let demonstrates once again that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to criteria changes.
“This is why it’s so imperative brokers stay up-to-date with any and all changes. We recently completed the five millionth search on Knowledge Bank, equating to almost 2,500 a day which clearly shows the conscious effort made by brokers to source the best options for their clients.
She concluded: “As we continue to endure a period of economic instability coupled with the pressures of the increased costs-of-living, criteria not price continues to be the main factor in securing a mortgage deals.”
