11% Rise in Remortgage Activity In October As UK Homeowners Look To Save On Repayments
According to data from LMS published in their “Monthly Remortgage Snapshot” remortgage instruction volumes were up by 11% in October 2020.
27% of the remortgagers primary reason when remortgaging was to release equity from their property whilst 26% looked to lower their monthly payments.
49% of those who remortgaged took out a 5 year fixed rate mortgage (the most popular product in October).
Taking advantage of lower interest rates teh average decrease for those who remortgaged in October was over £200 pm.
Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS. said:
“October marks the sixth successive month of house price growth, according to Halifax, fuelled both by borrowers looking to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday and the increased demand for larger homes with outdoor space. Improved house prices might also be driving the rise in remortgage instructions through October, but is just a short-term bump, as the home mover market will remain front of mind for most in the industry and the economic challenges fuelled by the coronavirus continue to create uncertainty.
“More pressure is being placed on the government to extend the stamp duty holiday and if this is successful, the timing of the announcement will be key. Too early and there will be an increased strain on the pipeline with more people looking to move and take advantage, but too late and we won’t feel the benefits.
“Instructions grew for the first time since June, triggered by an increased number of ERC expiries together with a greater ability for brokers to deal with both home-moving and remortgaging cases. That said, we should be seeing far higher volumes at this point in the year, but many borrowers are being forced to turn to product transfers either due to wanting certainty over service delivery, being unable to find a free broker, or because their circumstances have changed and securing a deal with their current lender is easier.
“We know that ERCs in 2021 will follow a similar pattern to 2020 so the remortgage market will come back as we move into next year. The chancellor has doubled down on his furlough scheme, and if this works and protects jobs as intended, the 2021 remortgage market may well be business as usual after Q1. 2020 has been a one off, but is has really spurred on innovation. We’ve now got the time to work even harder on digitisation and automation of remortgage processes, so as cases do come back they are fed into a more streamlined and customer friendly process.”
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