Residential remortgage searches increased by 44% year-on-year in September as borrowers returned to the market following a subdued summer period, Twenty7tec has revealed.

The firm’s latest Mortgage Market Snapshot found that 1,912,458 mortgage searches were conducted last month, up 23% month-on-month and 19% year-on-year.

However, Twenty7tec said the most significant movement came from remortgaging. The report revealed that 860,951 residential remortgage searches were recorded in September, increasing by 40% and 44% month-on-month and year-on-year respectively.

The surge comes after borrowers faced renewed uncertainty over mortgage pricing. While the Bank of England held the base rate at 3.75% in September, three members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted for an increase.

The central bank also reported that quoted two-year fixed mortgage rates were around 95 bps higher than before the recent energy shock. As a result, major lenders increased their fixes during September, some by as much as 0.3 percentage points.

Twenty7ec’s report found that residential mortgage searches reached 617,709 in September, increasing 8% month-on-month, but just 1% year-on-year. First-time buyer searches also rose by 3% month-on-month to 138,791, but fell 4% year-on-year.

Chief customer officer at Twenty7tec, Nathan Reilly, stated: "Remortgaging is doing a huge amount of the work. Searches increased 40% in a month and are 44% higher than this time last year. When we see growth on that scale, it tells us that existing homeowners reviewing their borrowing are becoming an increasingly important part of adviser workloads."

---