Data from the professional advice website showed that from January last year consumer searches for first-time buying advice overtook all other areas of advice straight through to October ending the year at 36% in December.
This reached a peak in August last year at 41% of all mortgage searches on unbiased.co.uk.
On average across the year, 37% of all searches made by consumers on the website were for a mortgage adviser specialising in first-time buying.
Meanwhile the strength of the buy-to-let market saw enquiries jump from 17% in September to 25% in October last year, recording the highest ever number of buy-to-let searches on unbiased.co.uk.
The high level of buy-to-let enquiries continued throughout Q4 generating a quarter (25%) of the total number of searches across October, November and December.
Searches for remortgage advice fluctuated, ranging between 29% and 36%, hitting its highest points in January, July and November last year. These figures are in line with the CML's latest lending figures for remortgaging which also reported an increase in November with 31,200 remortgage loans, a change of 6% from October.
Commenting, Karen Barrett, chief executive of unbiased.co.uk, said: "2011 saw a busy year for first-time buyers looking for help with their mortgages.
“While mortgage rates are continuing to be low as a result of the ongoing low base rate, lending criteria continue to be tight, leading to an increase in first-time buyers looking for guidance and help.
"Mortgage advisers should be encouraged by these figures and look forward to a busy 2012, as we are entering the traditional home buying season.
“We are also seeing signs of the buy-to-let market picking up and we expect 2012 to show a continuation of that trend."
