The report also shows that remortgages as a proportion of the mortgage market in December 2021 amounted to 42.3% with purchases accounting for 57.7%.
December 2021 was 12% busier than the same month last year for mortgage searches, according to the Twenty7Tec mortgage market report.
This is despite just one day of the month (7 December) making it into the top 50 busiest days for searches in 2021.
Remortgages made up 42.3% of searches during the month with purchases accounting for 57.7%.
While first-time buyer (FTB) searched continued to drop as a percentage of all mortgage searches, declining to 17.97%, which was second only to November 2021 for the lowest FTB proportion in the past 20 months.
There were fewer 95%+ loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage searches in December (23,316) than there were in the single week ending 19 April 2021, and there were fewer property searches (109,459) under £150,000 in December 2021 than at any time since April 2020.
At year end, there were 16,923 products available on Twenty7Tec's systems, a rise of 74.6% on December 31 2020.
And 12 December saw the highest daily average household income for mortgage searches this year at £63,349.
Looking to annual findings, product availability was up 74.2% on, mortgage searches were up 19.72%, ESIS documents were up 48.16% and FTB searches were up 32.51% comparing 2020 and 2021.
James Tucker, founder of Twenty7Tec, said: “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!”
