Mortgage searches up 7.96% annually, combined salaries up and more - Twenty7tec data
16 January 2025
Data from leading mortgage advice tech, Twenty7tec, shows an increase in mortgage searches by 7.96% yearly when looking at the data for the mortgage market in 2024.
Searches for product types have decreased to an average of 1.7, compared to 2.6 in 2020. Does this suggest that customers are becoming more confident and decisive in their product knowledge, or are advisers streamlining their search behaviors for greater efficiency?
Nathan Reilly, Director at Twenty7tec, says:
“We’ve seen an increased number of total mortgage searches again year on year. But the picture is nuanced. The increases overall mask a drop off in remortgage searches and a large rise in residential purchase searches.
“In 2020, mortgage rates were historically low, driven by central banks slashing interest rates to support economies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fixed-rate mortgages were particularly popular as borrowers sought to lock in these favorable rates amidst economic uncertainty. However, we can see that advisers explored multiple options and scenarios, comparing rates for fixed and variable mortgages as they tried to help their customers to navigate a rapidly changing financial landscape. This contributed to a higher average number of searches per person during that time.”
“Interestingly, whilst 2020 was the hot year for fixed rate mortgages, last year this figure dropped with one in seven people opting for a different type of product.”
2024 new records set
Whilst the first time buyer market remained in the doldrums compared to the broader market, it actually set records in real terms for total searches (17.687m up 5.02% on the prior year).
The data also shows a new annual high for self employed mortgage searches which are up 7.47% year on year, in fact 2024 was the first year on the trot where the platform received over one million self employed mortgage searches.
Combined salary averages were £77,028 across all mortgage searches in 2024, up 9.52% on the prior year. Combined salaries are up 29.64% since 2021’s average of £59.4k
Green mortgage searches were also up 100.73% compared to 2023. BTL green mortgages were up 67.41% year on year whereas purchase green mortgages were up 111.62%.
Purchase v Remortgage
It was the busiest ever year for purchase mortgage searches - up 13.86% on the prior year and up 8.07% on the previous record year for purchase searches (2022).
It was also the busiest ever year for remortgage searches - up 5.82% on the prior year and up 5.5% on the previous record year for purchase searches (2023).
In 2024, purchase mortgage searches represented 53.95% of all searches on the platform and remortgages represented 46.05%. That’s at the higher end of the purchase v remortgages ratio, with remortgages representing between 36% and 48% of all mortgage searches over the past few years.
Buy to Let
Buy To Let purchase mortgage searches were up 6.54% from 2023, while Buy To Let remortgage searches were up 4.23%.
However, in the BTL market, the proportion of searches for purchase came in at 36.31% which is at the lower end of recent year’s expectations, with remortgaging dominating the balance of searches (63.69%) - it has been a new high, in a record year for total BTL mortgage searches on our platform.
Nathan Reilly says: “Whilst these Buy to Let remortgage figures set a new record at 2.25m mortgage searches, the purchase Buy to Let was only the third best year on record, 11.7% down on 2022.”
Residential property
Residential purchase searches set a remarkable new high - up 16.05% year on year. Residential remortgage searches also set a new benchmark - up 8.10% year on year.
ESIS docs Pivot by year
- 2024 saw a record number of total ESIS documents prepared and saw records set for purchase however not for Remortgage (2022) or BTL (2023)
- All docs were up 6.57% on 2023
- BTL was up 7.52% on 2023
- Purchase was up 19.87% on 2023
- But Remortgage was down 5.88% on 2023
Nathan Reilly, Director at Twenty7tec, says: “The total number of ESIS documents produced through our platform increased 6.57% year on year - broadly in line with the increased number of mortgage searches. But the devil is in the detail with residential purchase ESIS document volumes up 19.87% and Buy To Let up 7.52% but remortgaging documents were down 5.88% over the course of the year.”
Products available
On an average 2024 day, there were 21,964 product variants available.
This was a huge leap from 2023 - up 34.54% on daily availability
This is a record and during the year (unsurprisingly) new records were set for total products available on a specific day (19 December 2024 with 24,264 products) and at December 2024 for both highest products available on a daily average (24,029) and most at month end (with 24,064 products).
Nathan Reilly, Director at Twenty7tec, says:“With more products on the market than ever before, and new records being set it’s vital that advisers have the latest information at their fingertips, otherwise customers will get wise and move elsewhere. That’s where good technology comes in to support advisers and streamline the customer experience.”
Further data insights are available in Twenty7tec’s annual report, which can be downloaded here.
