Twenty7Tec has suggested the mortgage market is returning to its “long-term norm”, after reporting a climb in remortgage searches across the mortgage market in September.

A new report from the mortgage technology expert showed that remortgages as a proportion of the mortgage market in September climbed to 38.4%, with purchases making up 61.6% of the rest of the market. This compares to a split of 37.18% remortgages and 62.82% purchases during August.

First-time buyers as a percentage of all mortgage searches in September made up 18.8% of searches, which had fallen from 19.51% in August.

This meant that September was the lowest ranking month for first-time buyers as a percentage of all mortgage searches in 2021, and the fourteenth lowest out of the last 16 months.

Twenty7Tec CEO, James Tucker, commented: “Life after the stamp duty relief starts here. This is the new normal: a legacy 95% guarantee scheme, but much else has returned to pre-pandemic market set up.

“The story of the month from September was that buy-to-let is back and remortgaging is also heading toward its long-term norm. Perhaps October will see the usual pre-Christmas rush.”

Twenty7Tec’s data also showed that total mortgage searches across the market hit 1.26 million in September, a figure up 6.6% from 1.18 million in August.

September’s tally was made up of 773,339 purchase and 481,693 remortgage searches, figures that rose from 739,736 and 437,817 respectively in August.

Twenty7Tec director of intermediary relationships, Niki Cooke, added: “September is traditionally the beginning of the busiest 10 weeks of the mortgage market's year. This year, however, it only ranks as the third busiest month for searches due to the volumes in March and April seeking to hit stamp duty headlines.

“The end of the month saw the end of the lower stamp duty relief so we are now operating in the ‘new normal’ market.”

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