Purchase mortgage searches were up 85.07% in January, compared to December 2024, Twenty7tec’s latest mortgage market statistics revealed.
The data revealed that remortgage searches were up 82.64%, while searches by first-time buyers were up 91.44%.
Buy-to-let purchase mortgage searches were up 61.86%, while buy-to-let remortgage searches were up 76.41%.
Residential purchase mortgage searches rose by 90.53% and residential remortgage searches saw a 87.11% increase.
However, despite these steep monthly rises, the research revealed that on an annual basis, purchase mortgage searches were down 7.87%.
Remortgage searches were down 22.23%, while buy-to-let purchase mortgage searches were down 14.14%.
2-year fixed mortgages accounted for 41.13% of all fixed product searches compared to 49.51% in January 2024.
In addition, 3- and 5-year fixed mortgages accounted for 35.73% of all fixed product searches compared to 31.04% a year prior.
Lastly, 5- to 10-year fixed mortgages accounted for 23.14% of all fixed product searches.
Twenty7tec also reported significant growth in certain areas, particularly in mortgage submissions and affordability searches.Â
APPLY submissions were up by 17% year-on-year (YOY) in January 2025, despite a 16% YOY decrease in mortgage illustrations.
This marked the third biggest month since January 2022.
Moreover, affordability usage and searches hit a new high in January 2025, with a 28% increase over the previous record.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “January was definitively busier than December – in some cases, mortgage search volumes nearly doubled compared to the prior month.
“Yet it fell short of the major highs that we saw in January 2024, which really set the tone for the year to come.
“December felt very quiet through a combination of the holidays and the pre-Christmas interest rate decision.
“So we had a sense that there was pent-up demand in the market, which was realised in January as purchase and remortgage searches rose 85.07% and 82.64%, respectively, month on month.”
He added: “The one area of the market where we might have expected a little more activity was in self employeds.
“January marks the end of their tax year and, as their financial position becomes clearer, many of those who own or run their own businesses look to mortgage or remortgage.
“But this January was down 11.6% on volumes compared to January 2024.”
“There was definitely a delay in the market getting going in January compared to 2024 when, first day back, we hit the ground running.
“That most likely means that there’s going to be more pent-up demand finding its way to market over coming days and that February will be off to a flier. We’ll see.”
