Purchase mortgage searches were down 22.1% in the first 15 days of April 2023 compared to the same period last month – mainly due to the major impact that Easter has on search volumes, Twenty7tec data has revealed.
This news comes as the tech provider has revealed its mortgage market statistics for the first half of April 2023.
The data found that remortgage searches were even harder hit – and were down 26.4% compared to the same period in the prior month.
Easter also had a major impact on buy-to-let mortgage searches with average daily searches down 29.2% compared to the first half of March.
Additionally, first-time buyers as a percentage of all searches rose dramatically from 17.06% in the first half of March compared to 18.51% of all mortgage searches in the first half of April 2023.
Fixed mortgages continue to account for around 45% of all searches, followed by stepped (13.5%) and tracker (10.5%) mortgages.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “The Easter dip lasts a lot longer than you might think. As holidays for customers and advisers kick in, we often see the four-day weekend result in an 11-day impact on mortgage search volumes.
“Until Easter, this year had been consistently busy for buy-to-let mortgage searches. Since mid-January, on a 7-day rolling basis, every day of the year until Easter was among our 100 busiest ever for buy-to-let mortgage searches.
“We’ve now seen a post-Easter rebound and we expect the Spring boom to continue over the coming weeks.”
