Purchase mortgage searches were down 0.05% in February compared to the month prior, Twenty7tec’s latest mortgage market statistics reveal.

The data found that on a yearly basis purchase mortgage searches had decreased by 3.61%.

Remortgage searches were also down 5.29% in February compared to January and compared to the same period last year they decreased by 29.90%.

The figures also show that buy-to-let (BTL) purchase mortgage searches were down 1.85% compared to January. On an annual basis, BTL purchase mortgage searches were down 14.23%.

BTL remortgage searches were 6.13% lower on a monthly basis and decreased by 24.12% when compared to the same period last year.

Searches by first time buyers were up 0.44% in February compared to January but went down by 0.62% compared to February 2024.

Meanwhile, two-year fixed mortgages accounted for 41.05% of all fixed product searches last month compared to 41.13% in February last year.

Three- to five-year fixed mortgages accounted for 35.71% of all fixed product searches in February compared to 35.73% in the same period last year.

And five- to 10-year fixed mortgages now account for 23.24% of all fixed product searches in February compared to 23.14% in February last year.

Twenty7tec says it has seen growth in areas such as mortgage submissions and affordability searches.

APPLY submissions were up by 13.39% year-on-year in February 2025.

Twenty7tec says affordability remains “incredibly important”. Last month saw month-on-month growth of 39.9% in the use of affordability criteria and 78.5% growth compared to February 2024.

Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “February 2025 was a slightly slower month than we might have hoped for. There were some strong performances in the volumes of first time buyer mortgage searches but we plateaued in purchase mortgage searches overall.”

“February 2024 was such a strong month and, indeed, the whole start to 2024 was so strong, that any subsequent years are going to struggle to compare. But away from those figures and compared to any other year, 2025 is off to a really good start.”

“In particular, February 2025 was busy for first time buyers with the month recording the highest ever proportion of FTBs in the mortgage searches at 22.51%. New products and improved rates in the upper LTV ranges (90% and 95%) helped attract FTBs, it seems.”

“March will be a telling month as Easter is later this year although eyes will inevitably turn to the Bank of England rate decision on the 20th as the MPC tries to balance the need for a growing, fully functioning market with inflationary pressures. We look forward to reporting on the outcomes in a few weeks’ time.”