Searches for buy-to-let purchase mortgages saw a 22% year-on-year decrease in August. Landlord remortgage searches also fell, dropping by 8% over the same period.
According to Twenty7tec, there were 70,452 buy-to-let purchase searches and 161,157 remortgage searches for landlords in August. Combined, these totalled 231,609, which is a 12% reduction from August last year. Both categories experienced 14% fewer searches than in July.
Despite the decline in landlord-specific searches, overall mortgage searches were slightly up year-on-year, with residential activity increasing by 3%. Residential remortgage searches were 11% higher year-on-year, with 616,150 recorded in August, though this was 12% fewer than in July.
Remortgages accounted for 31.2% of gross advances to owner-occupiers in the second quarter, marking the highest share since the first quarter of 2024. Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor was the most common search criteria on Twenty7tec.