Mortgage market statistics for November 2024 show purchase mortgage searches were down 11.1% on the previous month, remortgage searches were down 8.6% and buy to let purchase mortgage searches were down 14.60%.
This is according to the latest Mortgage Market Activity Report from Twenty7tec which also reveals that buy to let remortgage searches were down 6.5%; residential remortgage searches were down 8.6% and searches by first time buyers were down 9.2%.
However, in November 2024, compared to November 2023 purchase mortgage searches were up 10.39%; residential purchase mortgage searches were up 12.36%; searches by first time buyers were up 0.45% and buy to let purchase mortgage searches were up 0.04%.
Remortgages in October and November (1,401,748 searches in total) were down 5.84% on 2023 and down -4.99% compared to 2022
Commenting on the latest figures, Twenty7tec director Nathan Reilly said: “November mortgage market activity was clearly down against October 2024 pretty much across the board. But there was also a shift in the outlook of the market as there was a rather large bump (61.3%) in total fixed mortgage searches with initial terms of less than two years. That speaks to what consumers expect to happen next.
“Although activity was down in November, it should be looked at in the broader context: at around midday on November 28th, the year-to-date totals overtook mortgage searches for 2023, with over a month to spare. There’s nuance in those figures, however, as the market this year has not been as busy handling First Time Buyer mortgage searches with volumes still down over 100,000 on 2023 with a month to go.”
Reilly pointed out that the market has had its busiest ever year for the self-employed with 1,223,140 mortgage searches, it’s already up 1.97% on 2023 with a month to spare.
“Every single month this year has had over 100,000 self-employed mortgage searches, with 2023 seeing five months of over 100,000 self-employed searches and 2022 having four months. Prior to that, we had no months of over 100,000 self-employed mortgage searches.
Looking at the overall 12-month period he added: “This year has already overtaken 2023 for the busiest-ever year for mortgage searches. The relative October and November slack has been picked up in the first quarter – with particularly strong performances in January, February and March 2024.”
