"2021 was a year that we will talk about for many years to come in our industry."
Annually, mortgage searches were up 19.72% year-on-year, ESIS documents were up 48.16%, and first-time buyer searches were up 32.51% in 2021 v 2020.
Overall, December was 12% busier than December 2020 for total mortgage searches.
Despite this, December 7th was the only December day to rank in the top 50 in 2021 for mortgage search volumes due to the seasonal market slowdown.
December continued to see fewer first-time buyers as a percentage of all mortgage searches and was second only to November 2021 for the lowest first-time buyer proportion in the past 20 months.
As a result there were fewer 95%+ mortgage searches in December than there were in the single week ending 19th April 2021.
There were also fewer <£150k property searches in December 2021 than at any time since April 2020 during lockdown 1.0.
James Tucker, founder of Twenty7Tec commented: “We made it! 2021 was a year that we will talk about for many years to come in our industry. It had everything from the highest volumes we've ever seen to a sense that everything has changed, fundamentally and for good, in how we support customers in searching, applying for and ultimately obtaining a mortgage.
"Congratulations on making it through such a tumultuous year - look out for our Future Demands report due early in January 2022!”
