Budget led to rise in mortgage searches

April 12, 2021 by Brendan O'Neill

Property Market

The latest data released by credit report firm Experian shows that there has been a steady increase in the number of mortgage enquiries and searches since the Budget.

These figures show a 14.6% rise week-on-week in the volume of searches for mortgage products in the period since the Chancellor delivered his spring Budget. Furthermore, when it comes to enquiries about available products, the Experian mortgage comparison site indicates that these have also gone up by 13.5% during the three-week post-Budget period. This suggests that a lot of the searches are proceeding to actual applications.

Among other factors that may have led to this surge in searches and enquiries, Rishi Sunak revealed an extension to the holiday on paying stamp duty on property sales during the Budget. This will now be available until the end of June for sales of properties of £500,000 or under.

Sunak also announced plans for the government to guarantee first-time homebuyer loans. These will be available to anyone committing to a 95% mortgage for a home valued at £600,000 or less.

Experian is stating that it was the week in March right after the Budget that saw the largest rise in applications, by 8%, and that people under the age of 30 are driving the surge. The data shows that they were responsible for a 4.2% rise in mortgage applications during the opening weeks of March.

These figures show a sector that is booming and will encourage more people to get a CeMAP mortgage advisor qualification.