Almost half (47.3%) of September’s mortgage searches on Twenty7tec’s platform were for two-year fixes, analysis by the firm has found.

The data from the platform, which is used by over half of mortgage advisers in the UK, has found that this figure is over double the search figures seen this time last year for the same products.

Purchase mortgage searches were down 5.4% in September compared to August and searches for buy-to-let (BTL) mortgages also fell 2.1% nationwide month-on-month.

Furthermore, the number of searches conducted on behalf of first-time buyers dropped by 6.2% compared to August.

This data comes as house buyers wait for interest rates to drop, as well as a potential change in Government, the platform said.

Twenty7tec’s data also found that September was the quietest month in 2023 for mortgage searches, with 1,338,047 searches made in total, compared to 1,377,393 in August.

Director at Twenty7tec, Nathan Reilly, said: "For the first time in five years, we saw lower overall volumes of mortgage searches in September than we did in August. Perhaps that’s because people are hoping that rates have now peaked and that November’s Bank of England decision will bring stable news for the mortgage market.

"Setting aside December performance, the quietest month every year, September 2023 was the quietest month for mortgage searches since October 2021, and the quietest month for remortgages since June 2022. It was also the lowest month for total first-time buyer searches since November 2020.

"Whilst we saw a contraction in total searches for property valued below £500,000, we saw 1.2% growth in mortgage searches for those above £500,000, especially those valued at more than £1m (2.8%).

"The interest rate decision prompted a spike in green mortgage searches but, unusually, it was driven by purchase mortgage searches rather than BTL green mortgage searches."

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