Remortgage completions rise 35% in October: LMS

Remortgage completions rose by 35% in October, while instructions increased marginally by 0.27%, according to the latest data from LMS.

44% of borrowers increased their loan size in October and 65% took out a five-year fixed rate product.

33% said their main aim when remortgaging was to gain longer term security, the most popular response.

Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, commented: “October saw a big increase in completions as people looked to lock in the products they secured before any potential rate change causes them to be withdrawn. For those who had yet to start the remortgage process, the marginal increase in instructions makes it clear that they are waiting to see what November brings before instructing, especially as it will be a big month with both the interest rate decision and the Autumn Budget.

“Although product rates are slowly coming down, they are still out of kilter with SVRs.

“As such, some borrowers might wait and see if rates will fall in January before remortgaging because there seems to be little danger of dropping onto a less favourable rate. However, this approach comes with an element of risk in that there is no guarantee that swap rates and therefore product rates won’t increase again. The most proactive of borrowers will look to instruct sooner rather than later to mitigate this, and so we expect instructions to rise ahead of the next big ERC expiry date at the end of the year.”