Broker searches for equity release criteria provided a completely new sector top five in Knowledge Bank’s monthly criteria index for the first time since the tracker began almost five years ago.  

The top search in this sector was for lenders who would allow a ‘married couple application in a one/single name’ followed closely by brokers searching for ‘buy to let equity release’.   

Making up the remaining top five criteria that brokers searched for were ‘leasehold remaining term/beginning of term’, ‘maximum age at application’ and ‘early repayment charges’, completing a new top five set in this sector for the first time since July 2018.   

There was also movement in search popularity in the second charge sector with only the search for the ‘maximum LTV’ holding onto the top spot.   

The report says, “in what could give the market a sense of foreboding, the two searches entering the top five were focused on debt”, with ‘defaults over £500’ and ‘capital raising for debt consolidation’ the third and fourth most common searches, respectively.  

The other search areas were more stable with residential searches remaining consistent aside from the popularity of searches for lenders accepting ‘joint borrower/sole proprietor’.   

In bridging and BTL searches, all the top five criteria held their place in the rankings for the second month in a row. ‘lending to limited companies’ and ‘first-time landlords’ were once again the top two criteria searches performed for BTL and ‘regulated bridging’ and ‘minimum loan amount’ were the top two for bridging.  

Knowledge Bank chief executive Nicola Firth says: “The clean sweep of changes in equity release searches but total consistency in BTL demonstrates once again that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to criteria changes.   

“As we continue to endure a period of economic instability coupled with the pressures of the increased costs of living, criteria not price continues to be the main factor in securing mortgage deals.”