A sizeable rise in mortgage searches in January has reaffirmed the positive start to 2025 with purchase mortgage searches through advisor portal Twenty7tec up 85% in January 2025 against December 2024. Searches for first time buyers were up 91%.
But the market hasn’t quite had the kick-start January 2024 saw with purchase mortgage searches were down 8% in January 2025 against January 2024 and remortgage searches down 22%. The sector is hoping the headwinds that affected the market last year don’t resurface. Indeed it is hoped the Bank of England could reduce interest rates as early as today.
Commenting on the latest figures 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.
“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.
Across Twenty7tec’s data January searches were up on December
- Remortgage searches up 83%
- Buy To Let purchase mortgage searches up 62%
- Buy To Let remortgage searches up 76%
And down against January 2024
- Buy To Let purchase mortgage searches were down 14.14%
- Buy To Let remortgage searches were down 17.29%
- Searches by First Time Buyers were down 10.44%
And the continued uncertainty over interest rates saw the continued dominance of two year fixed rate deals, accounting for 41% of all searches, with three to five year deals accounting for 36% of all fixed product searches, and five to ten year fixed rates at 23%.
“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.”
Concludes Reilly.
