Remortgage market shows signs of improvement
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The latest John Charcol Index reveals that the number of remortgage deals being submitted has increased for the third month running.
Purchases took only 47.3% of mortgages sold by John Charcol in February, down from a peak of 58.5% in November.
The February figure is the lowest market share taken by purchases since April of last year.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at John Charcol, says: “After the normal seasonal lull in December John Charcol placed significantly more business in January and February, adding to the other evidence that the downturn in mortgage approvals and lending reported by the Bank of England and the Council of Mortgage Lenders for January will be reversed when the February figures are released.
“Both purchase and remortgage activity has increased this year, but remortgages have increased more.
“However, detailed analysis of the figures shows that all of the increase in remortgage activity over the last two months is due to a particularly sharp increase in buy-to-let remortgages.”
Boulger says mortgage rates have been steadily improving over the last few months, and in the residential market there are now even decent rates available up to 85% LTV - which makes remortgaging worthwhile for many more people - it is too early to be confident of an ongoing increase in remortgage activity.
Buy he says nevertheless there are good reasons to think that the decline in remortgage activity has reached its nadir, with several societies increasing their SVRs and a significant improvement in lenders’ rates.
