"It’s quite likely that May will see similar downward pressures given the three bank holidays."
Purchase mortgage searches were down 18.3% in April compared to March as Easter impacted the mortgage market, the latest data from Twenty7tec shows.
Remortgage searches were even harder hit, down 25.4% compared to March, while buy-to-let searches fell 23.4% and searches first-time buyer dropped 16.4%.
However, purchase mortgages and first-time buyers both represented a larger proportion of the market than in the prior month.
The figures show that searches for fixed rate mortgage products took a particular hit.
April 2023 saw 130,000 fewer two-year fixed mortgage searches than in March, 128,000 fewer five-year fixed rate searches, and 105,000 fewer 10-year searches.
Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec, said: “Easter 2023 had a major impact on mortgage search volumes. It’s quite likely that May will see similar downward pressures given the three bank holidays.
“Fixed product searches in particular have taken a hit. April 2023 saw total fixed product searches at only 79.06% of their all-time monthly high. In April 2023, fixed product searches represented 44.9% of all mortgage searches, well ahead of the long-term average of 40.5%, but considerably lower than large periods of last year when fixed products often represented over 50% of all mortgage searches.”
