Mortgage searches in February posted a “strong performance”, but fell short of January’s record highs “due to being a shorter month”, says Twenty7tec.  

The property platform says it handled 1,537,024, down 3.9%, across all searches from a month ago, with purchase enquiries dipping by 3.2% and remortgage enquiries falling by 4.7%.   

It adds that February saw 10 of the 30 busiest ever days for mortgage searches, with remortgages posting their fourth busiest ever month, but only the 14th busiest month for purchase searches.  

First-time buyer searches in London staged “a resurgence”, rising by 25.6% to 9,774 searches “on January’s poor performance”.  

Overall, FTBs accounted for 17.5% of the February market, which the firm says, “continued to represent a lower proportion of the market compared to the long-term average despite volumes rising”.  

February ended with over 16,355 products and variants available, up 9.1% compared to the end of the prior month.  

The platform says there are now more products in the market than at any time since June, adding that there had been a rise in product availability across all maximum loan-to-value ranges from 60% to 100%.  

Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “February saw a mid-month slump and a month-end resurgence that matched activity levels in January.   

“Hopefully, advisers and lenders will be able to build on that in March, with the usual springtime boom often mounting as we head towards Easter.  

“The macroeconomic picture remains fluid and the market will be preparing for 23 March when the Bank of England makes its next rate decision.”