UK home movers are opting to refinance instead of climbing the property ladder, according to new figures from Twenty7tec.

The mortgage tech firm’s latest data has suggested that remortgaging figures are now almost level with those buying a new home.

Analysis by Twenty7tec revealed that in July, advisers handled 885,774 remortgage searches, compared with 938,060 purchase searches. This means the ratio of remortgage searches to purchase was 94% of purchase volumes, up from 75.4% in the same month in 2024.

The latest figure was also up significantly from the corresponding figure in 2021, when remortgaging accounted for just 56% of purchase volumes, likely due in part to the COVID pandemic.

Twenty7tec director, Nathan Reilly, said that rising costs, rate uncertainty and stretched affordability are all “reshaping homeowner behaviour”.

“Homeowners are increasingly choosing to stay put and refinance rather than take on the financial and logistical challenges of moving,” he commented

“Many are opting to reinvest in their current property instead. Higher mortgage rates have also made upsizing harder, particularly for those who locked in ultra-low deals just a few years ago.

“On top of that, with many buyers getting onto the property ladder later in life, their focus is often on securing rate certainty, reducing monthly payments, or releasing equity – not moving up the ladder at speed.”

Twenty7tec also revealed that this July saw the smallest ever gap it had recorded between purchase and remortgage searches, at just 52,000 cases apart.

Remortgage cases had also already reached 5.96 million halfway through the year – putting advisers on track for one of the busiest years for refinancing in recent history.

“The remortgage market is on the up, and advisers need to take note,” Reilly added. “They need to be maximising opportunities by speaking to their clients much earlier in the mortgage cycle, utilising their CRM systems to their full potential, not just building on client relationships but supercharging them.

“For lenders, making product switching quick and frictionless is vital – and that means working closely with advisers to ensure the right data flows seamlessly. In a market where more people are staying put, the winners will be those who use data intelligently to keep the customers they’ve already won.”

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