The mortgage market enjoyed a strong start to the year, with demand from buyers continuing to increase according to the latest data from Twenty7Tec.

The platform saw a record 1.4m mortgage searches in January, which included 1m searches for standard residential mortgages. This is the first time this figure has topped the 1m mark in a calendar month.

The company points out that this figure surpasses the number of searches that were being recorded last year, as buyers tried to beat the stamp duty holiday deadline.

This data is based on mortgage searches made by more than 15,000 advisers working across the mortgage industry. 

In total Twenty7Tec said that eight of the busiest 10 days it has recorded were during this month. First time-buyers also appear to have returned to the market, accounting for one in five of all mortgage searches during January. This is an increase from December, where the number of first-time buyers slumped. 

This is also reflected in the fact that the number of Help to Buy searches doubled in January, when compared to December’s figures. 

Give the rate rise in December, which was followed by a second consecutive rise yesterday, it is not surprising that Twenty7Tec found that the market is moving towards fixed-rate products. Figures for January show the highest volume of fixed-rate mortgage searches since March 2021. 

The data also shows that advisers have a far greater choice of product, with the total number of mortgage deals available up 70.1% when compared to the same period last year. This indicates that the market is moving back towards its pre-pandemic position, with the total volume of mortgage products now 85% of the level seen before Covid. 

There has also been a return to higher LTV products, with 18.12% of products available in the 90 to 100% LTV range. Twenty7Tec said this is the highest figure since it began reporting this data. 

Twenty7Tec founder and CEO James Tucker says: “Advisers and lenders certainly walked back into a hot market in January 2022. We set new records for total mortgage searches, and the total for standard residential mortgages surpassed one million searches in a single calendar month for the first time ever.

“Combine this market activity with the broader macroeconomic picture of inflationary pressures and some major periods of remortgaging coming up – as announced by UK Finance – and I predict it’s going to continue to be a busy few weeks for all the advisors in the mortgage market. Efficiency and client care is going to be key.”