July 2023 was the second quietest month for mortgage searches in 2023, according to findings from Twenty7tec, the adviser tech provider.
As part of its mortgage market statistics report for July, Twenty7Tec found that there were 1,507,470 mortgage searches in total for July, compared to 1,747,323 the month prior.
Purchase mortgage searches were also down 13.1% in comparison to June, while remortgage searches were down 15.0%.
Buy-to-let mortgage searches also saw a decline and were down 18.3% nationwide, while searches by first-time buyers were down 9.3%.
However, Twenty7Tec’s research revealed that first-time buyers (as a percentage of the market) nudged upwards from their significant lows in June 2023.
2-year fixed mortgages accounted for 44.1% of all fixed product searches, and 3- to 5-year fixed mortgages accounted for 34.55%.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “July 2023 saw constrained activity compared to the prior month and I think that the market is hoping for better news for the remainder of the second half of the year.
“It tends to be a little flatter in June and July as heads turn to holidays, with an uptick often beginning in August.”
H continued: “It’s not all doom and gloom, however: despite dropping 15% compared to the prior month, July 2023 was the fourth busiest month on record for remortgage ESIS documents and seventh for total remortgage searches.
“In keeping with prior years, we saw an almost 10% drop in the number of first-time buyers’ searches nationwide alongside a 3.9% drop in the average property value they are looking to buy in July 2023.
“Brokers and advisers will continue to feel busier as the average number of searches run per ESIS document produced is also significantly higher than the prior month.”
Reilly concluded: “On the supply side, we saw a 13.78% rise in mortgage product availability. There have never been more max loan-to-value (LTV) 70% products in the market, whereas max LTV 95% products are only at 69.82% of their all-time high availability.”
