More brokers searched for information on the maximum age of borrowers at the end of a mortgage term than any other lending criteria term, figures from Knowledge Bank reveal. 

This is the second month running this has been the most searched for criteria in the residential market. Knowledge Bank says its October research could be indicative of borrowers trying to stretch the term of a mortgage to keep repayments low in the short term, given the financial difficulties caused by the ongoing Covid pandemic. 

It added that searches for ‘temporary maximum LTV restrictions’ remained in the top five search results for the sixth consecutive month. 

Other common searches that appeared among this top five in October include ‘income multiples used for affordability assessment’ and ‘self-employed – one year’s accounts’.

Knowledge Bans says the frequency of these searches showed borrowers are clearly continuing to struggle with affordability, and as a result are reassessing their income multiples as a way to get onto the housing ladder. 

Knowledge Bank says this is impacting markets across the board. The top criteria search in both the bridging market and second charge market was ‘maximum LTV’.

Lenders continuing to tighten criteria is clearly still a significant issue for people with smaller deposits and it shows that LTV restrictions are impacting borrowers and their ability to buy or remortgage.

However, the struggle in the residential market is juxtaposed with growing confidence in the buy to let (BTL) market.  

Knowledge Bank’s tracker shows that the most searched for criteria in the BTL sector was ‘first time landlord’. 

In the equity release market the top searches was for ‘Property with annex / outbuildings / land / acreage’. It says this trend has undoubtedly been boosted by the coronavirus impacting consumer habits, as fears over affordability are driving people to consider buying property with relatives.

It says in the self-build market there has been a spike in searches for ‘Purchase of adjoining property’ which suggests homebuyers are increasingly looking at purchasing property with relatives or bringing elderly relatives closer to them after being apart in the first lockdown. 

Knowledge Bank lender relationship manager Matthew Corker says: “The bottom line here is that people are desperately looking to get onto the property ladder.

“While there is much news about lenders returning to the market and introducing new products, we are already seeing signs that some products may be pulled in light of the second national lockdown as lender appetite for risk is reduced.

“The unknown impact of a second national lockdown on employment and the wider economy is causing panic in the housing market and this is putting buyers under an increasing amount of stress.”