The Bank of England’s interest rate decisions have a tangible impact on mortgage market activity, with noticeable shifts in search volumes before, during, and after decision days, analysis from Twenty7tec has revealed.
On a typical Thursday, the mortgage market sees an average of 67,539 searches.
However, Twenty7tec’s data highlighted that the Thursday of a Bank of England interest rate decision experiences a notable increase, averaging 69,757 mortgage searches.
This represented a 3.28% rise compared to a standard Thursday and a 3.84% jump compared to the previous Thursday.
Interestingly, the decision day also typically sees 8.46% more mortgage searches than the Thursday that follows, suggesting that initial excitement or concern about rate changes diminishes in the days after the announcement.
Beyond just decision day itself, the surrounding week also reflects fluctuations in mortgage activity.
A normal week averages at 64,975 mortgage searches per day.
However, in the five working days leading up to a rate decision, searches tend to increase to 66,219 per day.
Surprisingly, the week following the decision sees even more activity, with a daily average of 67,309 mortgage searches.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “We see an average of 5.34% more searches on the decision day than the average day weekday prior to the decision and 3.64% more than the daily average for the week after the decision.
“Where we see a real spike in activity is the following Monday after decision day where activity is, on average, up 18.31% on a normal Monday.
“Some of that is down to the lag in product and rate changes (which begin as soon as the Bank of England makes its decision) and some of it is down to demand growing over the weekend as homebuyers, homeowners and landlords consider their position in relation to their properties.
“We’d expect today (20th March 2025) to be busy, but we have been in a hold, lower, hold, lower alternating decision cycle over recent months, and this would indicate we’re due a hold rather than a reduction in rates.
“Either way, the next few days will be busy as the market absorbs and then acts on the decision.”
