Homemovers are making the most of strong competition between lenders and a fast expanding range of competitive products. Those moving home had a higher application-to-completion ratio than first-time buyers, remortgagors, buy-to-let borrowers and specialist applicants in the first quarter of 2016.
The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association’s (IMLA) Mortgage Market Tracker found that homemover applications resulted in an offer 80% of the time and 80% of those offers led to a completed deal.
At the other end of the spectrum first-time buyers saw the fewest initial enquiries (51%) progress any further. Homemovers are likely to have substantial equity to meet affordability criteria. First-time buyers meanwhile are likely to require more borrowing and therefore suffer from affordability constraints, while the demographic is more likely to make speculative enquiries and look into multiple firms and channels.
Peter Williams, executive director of
IMLA: “Using an intermediary has become ever more established as the most common way to access mortgage finance in the UK.
Despite the rush to get deals done before the 3% stamp duty surcharge came into force on 17 May, Williams added that the standard of borrower assessments 'held up' despite the pressure from extra demand.
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