The mortgage market continued to be buoyant in October fuelled by an increase in remortgage activity.

Monthly data from Twenty7Tec shows that remortgage searches accounted for 40.6 per cent of the mortgage market in October, the first time this year they have reached that level. 

This has helped make October the second busiest month for total mortgage searches over the past year, with the data showing nine out of the 10 busiest days for producing remortgaging documents in the past year were in October. The busiest month remains March 2021.

However, the market for purchase mortgages appears to be weakening, with mortgage search volumes at their lowest proportion since May 2020. 

There has also been a corresponding drop in the number of mortgage searches from first time buyers. These now account for just 18.1 per cent of the total market, the lowest level since June 2020. 

Searches for mortgages products in the 95 per cent per cent LTV range have also fallen, and now stand at half the volume recorded at the time the guarantee scheme was introduced.

But the figures show there was stronger demand at the top of the market, with a 12.4 per cent rise in mortgage searches for properties valued at £1m plus. These searches are up almost a third when compared to August this year. 

Twenty7Tec’s data shows that the buy-to-let market remains strong, enjoying its  second best month of the year (after March 2021). 

With speculation rising about a interest rate rise before the end of the year it is perhaps not surprising that interest in fixed fixed-rate mortgages is rising. Twenty7Tec says they now constitute a greater percentage of the total than at any time since it began compiling these figures.

Twenty7Tec founder James Tucker says: “The market is changing, and fast. We should be in the midst of a house purchase boom right now as we traditionally are in the 11 weeks prior to Christmas. Instead, the purchase market is not as firm as we’d expect, and remortgages appear to be the order of the day.

“With a drop off in first time buyer activity and a lower proportion of searches coming in the 95 per cent to 100 per cent LTV range, we believe that the pre-Christmas mortgage market is slowing a little.”

However he adds that demand in the buy-to-let market is helping to pick up the slack from the FTB market.