Purchase mortgage searches were up 6.1% in October 2023 compared with the month prior, research from Twenty7tec has revealed.
The Monthly Mortgage Snapshot for October found that remortgage searches were also up 9.02%, while buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage searches were up 7.01% nationwide.
In addition, searches by first-time buyers were up almost 7.8%
The research also found that 2-year fixed mortgages accounted for 46.2% of all fixed product searches in October 2023.
Meanwhile, 3-year to 5-year fixed mortgages accounted for 33.6% of all fixed product searches, and 5-year to 10-year fixed mortgages accounted for 20.2%, compared with 32.3% a year ago.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “The market was definitely busier in October than September 2023, but it wasn’t about peaks and troughs, but rather being slightly busier each and every day.
“Product availability also peaked in October 2023: the highest total number of products available to the market in at least a year, with 17,788 products available at October month end.
“Product availability is also at a 12-month high across all the major loan-to-value (LTV) ranges.
“Searches for purchase mortgages beat searches for remortgages for 12 of the past 14 months.
“But, the volume of ESIS documents created for remortgages beat purchase documents for 11 of the past 14 months. The demand is clearly there for purchase, but remortgage is taking a lead.”
