February posted the highest month on record for total mortgage searches on the CloudTwenty7 platform, beating the pre-stamp duty rushes of last year.

More than 1.43 million mortgage searches were conducted by brokers last month, says fintech Twenty7Tec’s monthly Mortgage Market Report.

It says that three of the four busiest days the platform has ever seen took place in February, adding that last month was also the busiest month for buy-to-let mortgage searches since the report began in 2020.

In February, mortgage searches for £1m-plus properties jumped by 17.63% compared to the previous month, reflecting demand for larger houses as homeowners adjust to regularly working from home.

The report adds that searches for homes valued at more than £1m have more than doubled since December 2021.

Mortgage product volumes took their first dip late last month, as the market adjusted to new market conditions, but recovered to end February higher than January, the survey adds.

It says there are now 87.6% of the total volume of mortgage products available compared to before the pandemic began.

It adds that 18.1% of all mortgage products available are in the 90% to 100% loan-to-value range, the highest figure since the report began two years ago.

Twenty7Tec director of lender relationships Nathan Reilly says: “Despite being a shorter month, February outperformed January’s strong performance, particularly in the areas of total mortgage searches, the volumes of BTL mortgage searches and the volume of searches in the £1m-plus valuation range.

“Activity was stronger in the first half of the month so it will be interesting to see how momentum sustains into March and the pre-Easter push.”