Broker searches slumped almost a fifth over the last week as lenders lifted rates, data from Twenty7tec shows.

Total mortgage enquiries over the past seven days are down 18.7% compared to the same period a month ago, as lenders prepare for Bank of England rate cuts in June, rather than in the spring, as they had earlier hoped.

In the last few days, Halifax, Santander, the Co-operative Bank and NatWest have all lifted the price of their home loans.

Rising mortgage fixes followed moves among swap rates. 

Two-year sonia swaps lifted to 4.463% on 8 March, from 4.429% on 12 February, data from Chatham Financial shows. Although, five-year sonia swaps fell to 3.850% from 3.896% over the same period.

Buy to let searches are down 13.2% over the same period, says the broker search engine.

Purchase enquiries are down 12.9%, while remortgage searches tumbled by 24.2%.

Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “The market has fundamentally shifted over the past week or two. Lenders have adjusted their products based on underlying swaps prices, building in slower reductions in interest rates than were priced in at the back end of last year.

“The heat in the market was always going to be hard to sustain – the levels of mortgage searches in January and February set new records for our busiest ever times. 

“But it seems that that early-year exuberance has now been swapped for sobriety in March.

“The market is keen to hear some good news in the next inflation update and BoE meeting. That mood music – which we saw directly influence a surge in activity earlier this year – will be so important when it comes to injecting confidence into the market.”