Purchase mortgage searches grew by 7.9% in May when compared to the month prior, according to new research from Twenty7Tec.
Based on data gleaned from its Monthly Mortgage Market report for May 2023, remortgage searches were also up 11.1%.
Buy-to-let searches saw a rise of 7.7%, while first-time buyers searches also increased by 7.7% nationwide.
The data also found that May was the second busiest month ever for self-employed mortgage searches.
Fixed product, tracker product and stepped product searches all performed ahead of the long-term average in May 2023, but all other product types (Sonia, variable, capped and discount) performed 10% below their long-term averages.
2-year fixed mortgages accounted for 42.76% of all fixed product searches compared to just 22.37% in May 2022.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “May 2023 was characterised by its strong performance despite its unusual tally of three bank holidays.
“Some of the drop in activity that we experienced in April was recovered, but we’re expecting a bank-holiday-free, pre-summer holiday June 2023 to see activity rise even further.
“Although it will be interesting to see if this front-end activity translates through to applications after last week’s economic update and the impacts this has had on interest rates.
“The rate decision by the Bank of England will almost certainly mean that we’ll see a rise in mortgage searches just before and just after June 22nd.”
He added: “Whilst product numbers are largely down due to last week’s inflation update and lenders taking stock, the market is still in a far better position than post-mini budget as availability remains broadly consistent across all areas.
“The move in fixed mortgages has definitely swung back towards the 2-year products which now account for the same proportion of the market as they did two years ago.
“It will be interesting to see whether this theme continues. It seems customers are favouring some level of certainty rather than trying to predict the market and roll the dice on the long-term future of base rate.”
Reilly concluded: “May 2023 also saw the highest proportion of mortgage searches by the self-employed, and the second highest total searches by that group since we began reporting.”
