January was ‘record month’ for mortgage searches

January was a record month for mortgage searches but mainly for remortgaging rather than home purchase, data from an industry software provider claims.

Many in the housing market look to mortgage approval data as a sign of future activity and the the latest figures suggest more of the action so far is in remortgaging rather than borrowing for a home purchase.

Figures from mortgage search software platform Twenty7tec said it saw more searches for home loans than ever before in a single month during January, up 6.4% on the previous best in September 2022.

Twenty7tec said January 2023 was the busiest ever month for remortgages but only the 13th busiest ever for purchase mortgage searches.

This was the fifth consecutive month where the platform created more documents for remortgages than for purchases - despite purchase searches outstripping remortgage searches.

However, three of the top 10 busiest ever days for first-time buyer related products were in the last two weeks of January 2023, the platform said.

There was a split in market activity when it came to volumes of mortgage searches based on valuations, according to Twenty7tec.

In January 2023, it saw fewer sub £250,000 searches than in December 2022 but 5.5% more searches for properties valued at above £1m,

Product choice is also improving,

The month ended with over 14,988 products and variants available, up 11.4% compared with December, Twenty7tec said.

Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “January 2023 was the start that every adviser would have wanted for 2023: busy and interesting.

“The Bank of England rate change will, we believe, keep advisers busy over the coming days. February tends to surpass January for performance, but given that this January was our busiest ever for total mortgage searches, it’s hard to predict.

“It will remain important that advisers continue to monitor rate and policy changes given the broader economic circumstances and the sustained regulatory push for best advice is more essential than ever."