Remortgage searches rose by 9.9% in November when compared with a month prior, according Twenty7tec’s November mortgage market activity report.
The report also revealed that purchase mortgage searches were static throughout the month, compared with October 2023.
Buy-to-let (BTL) mortgage searches were up 1.61% nationwide, and 11.1% in London alone.
Searches by first-time buyers were down 1.3% nationwide, while searches for 2-year fixed mortgages accounted for 47.54% of all fixed product searches.
3-year to 5-year fixed mortgages accounted for 32.9% of all fixed product searches, and 5-year to 10-year fixed mortgages accounted for 19.1%, the lowest proportion for at least two years.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “Purchase mortgage searches remained flat in November 2023, but the uplift in volume of remortgage and buy-to-let searches meant that we’ve already surpassed 2022’s total mortgage search tally.
“November 2023 was the fourth month in a row that we saw an increase in [buy-to-let] mortgage search volumes.”
He added: “The end of November also saw the year’s high for mortgage product availability (18,625) as the Bank of England (BoE) maintained the status quo around interest rates.
“Since the BoE’s decision on 2nd November, we have seen the market add 3.8% more mortgage products.
“In terms of mortgage products, we are now at 92.31% of the all-time highest number on the market.
“This is a marked improvement (39.63%) on the lows back on 4 July when we had considerably fewer products on the market (13,338).
“Finally, for those looking for mortgages, the average combined salaries have shot up during the course of this year and currently stand at an average of £75,330.43, 15.98% higher than a year ago (£64,947.10).”
