Purchase mortgage searches were up 85.07% in January 2025 compared to the month prior, Twenty7tec’s latest mortgage market statistics reveal.

However, on a yearly basis purchase mortgage searches dropped by 7.87%.

Remortgage searches were also up 82.64% in January compared to December last year but compared to the same period last year they decreased by 22.23%.

The figures also show that buy-to-let (BTL) purchase mortgage searches were up 61.86% compared to December 2024. On an annual basis, BTL purchase mortgage searches were down 14.14%.

BTL remortgage searches were up 90.53% on a monthly basis but decreased by 17.29% when compared to the same period last year.

Searches by first time buyers were up 91.44% in January compared to December but went down by 10.44% compared to January 2024.

Meanwhile, two-year fixed mortgages accounted for 41.13% of all fixed product searches last month compared to 49.51% in January last year.

Three- to five-year fixed mortgages accounted for 35.73% of all fixed product searches compared to 31.04% in the same period last year.

And five- to 10-year fixed mortgages now account for 23.14% of all fixed product searches compared to 19.45% in January 2024.

Twenty7tec says it has seen growth in areas such as mortgage submissions and affordability searches.

APPLY submissions were up by 17% year-on-year in January 2025, despite a 16% YOY decrease in mortgage illustrations.

It notes that this is the company’s third biggest month since January 2022.

Moreover, affordability usage and searches hit a new high in January 2025, with a 28% increase over the previous record, reinforcing the growing importance of affordability tools for financial advisers.

Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly says: “January was definitively busier than December – in some cases, mortgage search volumes nearly doubled compared to the prior month. Yet it fell short of the major highs that we saw in January 2024, which really set the tone for the year to come.”

“December felt very quiet through a combination of the holidays and the pre-Christmas interest rate decision.”

“So we had a sense that there was pent-up demand in the market, which was realised in January as purchase and remortgage searches rose 85.07% and 82.64%, respectively, month on month.”

“The one area of the market where we might have expected a little more activity was in self employeds.”

“January marks the end of their tax year and, as their financial position becomes clearer, many of those who own or run their own businesses look to mortgage or remortgage. But this January was down 11.6% on volumes compared to January 2024.”

“There was definitely a delay in the market getting going in January compared to 2024 when, on the first day back, we hit the ground running.”

“That most likely means that there’s going to be more pent-up demand finding its way to market over coming days and that February will be off to a flier. We’ll see.”