House purchase mortgage searches in December fell 40.8% compared to the previous month, data from Twenty7Tec shows, but was roughly in line with previous years. 

Remortgage and first-time buyer searches were down for the month by 35.3% and 38.1%, respectively. 

Purchase mortgage and remortgage searches were down for the year by 12.8% and 10.9%, respectively. 

However, total mortgage searches in December were 2.8% lower compared to the same period last year. 

Twenty7Tec head of lender relationships Nathan Reilly says: “December figures are always affected by the final two weeks of the year. The performance this year is similar to that of December 2021 and December 2020.” 

The average property valuation for purchases last month was £334,511, up 0.2% on the prior month. The average loan required was £231,415, up 0.6% on November. 

For the third month in a row, remortgage European Standardised Information Sheet  documents produced outnumbered purchase ESIS documents, but the firm says “the gap is narrowing”. 

It adds that the volumes of buy-to-let business continued with weekly averages well down compared to annual averages. 

Twenty7Tec national account manager Megha Srivastava says: “The BTL market has been relatively in the doldrums for the past few weeks now, with volumes more akin to the Easter and June Bank Holiday weekends.” 

The month ended with over 13,457 products and variants available, up 4.6% compared to the end of the prior month. This represents 66.7% of available products compared to pre-pandemic highs. 

Twenty7Tec chief executive James Tucker says: “The next 12 months are going to be full of challenges for advisers and lenders as the move to satisfy customers in challenging economic conditions.”