Mortgage Market Report – September
September 2023
Mortgage Market Activity
03.10.23
We can today announce our mortgage market statistics for September 2023 as follows:
The data:
- September 2023 was the quietest month for mortgage searches in 2023 (1,338,047 searches in total compared to 1,377,393 in August 2023)
- Purchase mortgage searches were down 5.4% in September 2023 compared to August 2023
- Remortgage searches were down 0.2% compared to August 2023
- Buy To Let mortgage searches were down 2.1% nationwide in September 2023 compared to August 2023
- Searches by First Time Buyers were down 6.2% nationwide in September 2023 compared to August 2023
- Searches for fixed mortgage products in September 2023:
– Two-year fixed mortgages accounted for 47.4% of all fixed product searches in August 2023
– Three- to five-year fixed mortgages accounted for 32.4% of all fixed product searches
– Five- to ten-year fixed mortgages now account for 20.2% (compared to 36.0% a year ago)
Nathan Reilly, Director at Twenty7tec says:
“For the first time in five years, we saw lower overall volumes of mortgage searches in September than we did in August. Perhaps that’s because people are hoping that rates have now peaked and that November’s Bank of England decision will bring stable news for the mortgage market?
“Setting aside December performance (the quietest month every year), September 2023 was the quietest month for mortgage searches since October 2021, and the quietest month for remortgages since June 2022. It was also the lowest month for total First Time Buyer searches since November 2020.
“During September 2023, almost half of all fixed mortgage searches were for terms of two years and under as buyers looked to shorten the effects of current rates in the hope of lower rates in the medium term.
“Whilst we saw a contraction in total searches for property valued below £500k, we saw 1.2% growth in mortgage searches for those above £500k, especially those valued at more than £1m (2.8%).”
“The interest rate decision prompted a spike in green mortgage searches but, unusually, it was driven by purchase mortgage searches rather than Buy To Let green mortgage searches.”
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