Four in 10 downsizers still require a mortgage to buy a home, the impact of which is consumer exposure to “market turmoil”, the home moving comparison site reallymoving warns.
Drawing on its own data from thousands of quotes on its site, reallymoving said 40.5% of downsizers used a mortgage to purchase their home in the last six months. The same data reveals 90.5% of first time buyers used a mortgage to fund their purchase over the last six months, rising to 92.6% in March 2026 – the highest level since October 2013.
The analysis suggests buyers rushed to lock in deals ahead of rising rates and product withdrawals, reallymoving said. Approximately 1,500 mortgage products have been pulled from the market since the start of the conflict in the Middle East, according to Moneyfacts. At the same time, borrowing costs have risen to their highest level in over a year after average mortgage rates rose to 5.5%.
The result is more home owners are “exposed to the current turmoil in the mortgage market,” warned reallymoving founder and CEO, Rob Houghton. “Expectations that borrowing would become cheaper this year have been turned on their head,” he said.
“Inflation, which was unchanged in February at 3%, is now on course to shoot back up and as a result we’re likely to see the base rate rise this year rather than fall. Lenders are spooked and amid the uncertainty we’re seeing hundreds of products being pulled, with rates rising across the board.
“Anyone hoping to buy this year will be concerned, particularly first time buyers who are most heavily dependent on mortgages, and existing homeowners with deals due to expire in the next few months. The focus will be on securing a deal as quickly as possible before costs rise further, and for those buyers with a mortgage offer in place, the rush is on to find a property and exchange before it expires.”
In an effort to provide reassurance to borrowers, Chancellor Rachel Reeves brought together the UK’s largest lenders last week to reaffirm their adherence to the Mortgage Charter which enables customers to secure a new rate up to six months ahead and switch to a new deal with their existing lender without a fresh affordability check. Borrowers also have the option to move to interest-only payments for six months, with support discussions not affecting credit scores.
The data from reallymoving suggests mortgage reliance among first time buyers is consistently high across the UK, exceeding 90% in every region except the North East (87.7%), Wales (88.5%) and Yorkshire & Humber (89.8%). The heavy reliance on borrowing leaves customers particularly vulnerable to sudden changes in mortgage availability and pricing, Houghton said.
London is the area hardest hit, with 87.4% of transactions in the capital relying on a loan, making it particularly sensitive to rate increases and product withdrawals. As the largest first time buyer market, with 63% of all buyers according to reallymoving data, London’s housing market is especially sensitive to sudden changes in lending conditions. By contrast, the North East has the lowest level of mortgage dependency at 77.3%, highlighting the extent of regional variations in exposure to market volatility.
