Remortgage searches see jump in June

According to its data, June 2023 was the second busiest ever month for mortgage searches (1,747,323 v 1,852,718 in March 2023). Purchase mortgage searches were up 0.6% in June 2023 compared to May 2023, while remortgage searches were up 21.9% compared to May 2023 to their highest-ever monthly levels.

For buy-to-let, searches were up 11.1% in June 2023 compared to May 2023.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, searches by first-time buyers were only up 1.0% nationwide in June 2023 compared to May 2023, and first-time buyers as a percentage of the market dropped to their lowest level since September 2022 and their second lowest in over three years.

Two-year fixed rates were most popular in fixed product searches, with 42.62%, while 3- and 5-year fixes saw 33.69%. Longer fixes - of five to ten years - now account for 23.69% compared to 36.14% a year ago.

Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec says:

“June 2023 saw the Bank of England raise rates further. The market seemed to have priced it in ahead of time and so the week before the rise was very busy, as was the week after when thousands of product changes were made.

“Product availability is now down to its lowest levels, year-to-date and are attempting to handle higher volumes of mortgage queries.

“In particular, the market saw a huge uplift in remortgage searches - up 21.9% on the prior month - alongside a 25% hike in remortgage ESIS documents prepared.

“It’s worth noting that in the 18 months since we began reporting green mortgage searches, 24 June 2023 was the first day without any searches for green mortgages at all.”