The impact of the early summer back-to-back interest rate rises and fears about the amount of debt people face are being reflected in the amounts potential home-buyers and those seeking to remortgage are looking to borrow, says Moneyextra.com.
The biggest falls in search values are shown by those looking to take equity out of their property. The average amount searched for on a remortgage dropped in July by 3.74 per cent to £97,920 from £101,722 in June.
The average property value being looked for, by those moving from an existing home, eased down by 0.37% to £246,979 in July. That’s still up 7.42 per cent since the start of the year, but shows a slowdown in the market from a rise of 8.43 per cent in June.
The overall average mortgage amount searched for on Moneyextra’s mortgage comparison tool in July was £109,770, down 2.35 per cent on June’s £112,414.
The only mortgage sector to show a rise in July was first time buyers, where the average property value rose by 1.8 per cent and the size of the average mortgage search rose by 1.5% month-on-month. However, thanks to higher salaries, the average loan-to-value being sought by first time buyers in June eased fractionally to 80.27 per cent.
Moneyextra Mortgages says the average loan completed by borrowers using its services in July was £111,636.01, up from £106,658.81 in June. These completions tend to reflect mortgage searches on the website between two and three months ago. For example, in May, the average amount searched for on Moneyextra’s mortgage comparison tool was £112,410.1
The most popular mortgage lender in the month of July was also the most popular for the first seven months of the year — Nationwide Building Society. The first four places in the top ten over the period January- July were held by mutual lenders, which continue to dominate Moneyextra Mortgages’ "top of the pops".2
