Remortgage instructions decreased by 13% in October, according to data from LMS’s latest Monthly Remortgage Snapshot.
The report revealed that there were also 12% less remortgages completed in October, and pipeline cases decreased by 9% month-on-month.
For those who remortgaged during the month, there was a £187.72 average monthly repayment increase.
41% of those who remortgaged took out a 2-year fixed rate product, whilst 39% of borrowers increased their loan size and a further 36% reported that they did not change their loan size.
67% said their main aim when remortgaging was to gain longer term security.
The average remortgage loan amount in London and the South East was £356,195, while the average for the rest of the UK stood at £200.913, making remortgage loan amounts 43.6% higher in London and the South East than in the rest of the UK.
The longest previous mortgage length was found in in the North East at 70.44 months (5.87 years), while the shortest was in Yorkshire at 57.70 months (4.81 years), making the longest previous mortgage term 18.08% longer than the shortest.
Nick Chadbourne (pictured), CEO, LMS, said: “October has seen an ongoing fall in remortgage activity – instructions fell, cancellations increased and while the pipeline only dropped slightly, this is because completions also decreased – that is to say, there has been a fall in the number of cases successfully progressing to the end of the process.
“This was entirely expected. While interest rates have stabilised for now, they remain high and unlikely to drop until late 2024, and, in the current cost of living crisis, borrowers are understandably avoiding the need to undergo affordability tests by opting for product transfers instead.
“This is predicted to remain the case in November and throughout Q4.
“There are almost a million products maturing this side of Christmas, but we expect the vast majority of these to opt for product transfers while those who need to remortgage will go continue to favour 2-year fixes as they have done this month in the hope that rates fall by 2025.”
