Broker searches in January lifted 13% compared to a year ago, data from Twenty7tec shows, while February got off to a strong start with enquiries on Monday (5 February) posting their highest one-day total in the firm’s history.
The search engine business says mortgage searches at the start of this week hit 100,363, the busiest single day recorded since it launched in 2014.
Over the course of January, remortgage searches jumped 26.8% compared to the same month last year, while first-time buyer enquiries lifted 16.9% over the same period.
Buy-to-let searches were 5.2% higher from a year ago.
The firm adds that two-year fixes accounted for 49.51% of all fixed-rate searches, compared to 40.7% 12 months ago.
Three- to five-year fixes accounted for 31.04% of all fixed-rate searches, compared to 33.9% in January 2023.
And five- to 10-year fixes account for 19.45% of all fixed-rate searches, compared to 25.4% over the same period.
Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “January 2024 saw us move into new territory — our first-ever month with over two million mortgage searches on our platform.
“It was consistent growth across the board with purchase, remortgages and BTL all doubling compared to the prior month.
“It was officially our busiest month ever and we saw 12 of our 20 busiest ever days for mortgage searches in January 2024.
“The total searches for purchase mortgages were the second busiest ever, behind a stamp-duty-holiday-driven set of figures in March 2021.
“In real terms, it was also the busiest-ever month for FTBs, but they lagged as a group as a proportion of all searches.
“We also saw the lowest level of 90%-plus mortgage searches for a year. But, as I say, in real terms, searches by FTBs were considerably up including doubling in London compared to December 2023.
“Total product availability remains stable, but we had our busiest-ever month for adjustments to products last year.
“We’re now at 95.04% of the product availability peaks we last saw in March 2020.”
