The criteria people are searching for when it comes to equity release changed rapidly in September, shows Knowledge Bank’s latest activity tracker.

In August, criteria searched for read as ‘maximum loan amount’, ‘early repayment charges’, ‘minimum loan amount’, ‘flat roofs’, and ‘debt management plan – ongoing/current’.

In September, only one criteria search term remained constant, with the top five reading: ‘non borrowing occupiers’, ‘maximum LTV’, ‘property with an annex/outbuildings/land/acreage’, ‘maximum loan amount’, and ‘interest payment roll-up option’.

“The overarching theme here is that people are needing to borrow more money at the very point that lenders are tightening criteria,” says Knowledge Bank lender relationship manager Matthew Corker.

For residential mortgages, the most searched-for criteria was ‘maximum age at end of term,’ which Knowledge Bank says could be because of the increase in divorces due to lockdown.

This was followed by ‘Covid-19: temporary maximum LTV restrictions’ and ‘self-employed – one year’s accounts’.

There was a lot of change in second charge criteria searches, too, with the fourth entry pointing towards an increase in post-divorce behaviour.

Here, the top five results read as: ‘maximum LTV, Covid-19: temporary maximum LTV restrictions’, ‘defaults – registered in the last three years’, ‘married couple application in one/single name’, and ‘maximum number of applicants’.

In the buy-to-let market, ‘first-time landlord’, lending to limited companies’, and ‘requirement to be a homeowner,’ showed up as the top three.

Corker adds: “The equity release market saw the highest levels of disruption in September, which is due to changing consumer habits as a direct result of Covid-19.

“The shortage of high LTV mortgages offered by lenders could well be leading to parents or relatives releasing equity to help younger family members get onto the ladder.

“As we look forward, with furlough coming to an end, we may see more searches for people that have defaults, as we are seeing in the second charge market now.

“We may also see more people buying property with elderly relatives to avoid putting them in care homes, and generations joining forces in order to get younger relatives onto the property ladder. Perhaps intergenerational living could soon become the new normal.”