"Buyers are becoming increasingly savvy – they’re planning ahead, tracking rate decisions, and researching mortgage options earlier than ever"
- Nathan Reilly - Twenty7tec
Many homebuyers appeared to anticipate the Bank of England's latest rate decision on 19 June, with new figures from Twenty7tec revealing a sharp rise in mortgage searches in the days leading up to the announcement, followed by a notable dip once the decision was confirmed.
During the week preceding the Monetary Policy Committee’s announcement, Twenty7tec recorded 400,610 mortgage searches. This made it the second busiest week prior to a rate decision in the past 12 months. However, once the Bank revealed that the base rate would be held at 4.25%, search activity dropped by 13.7% in the following 24-hour period.
The surge in demand earlier in the week did not continue once the outcome was made public.
“There was a lot of talk that the market wasn’t expecting a rate cut,” explained Nathan Reilly, director at Twenty7tec. “But what’s interesting is how that anticipation shaped borrower behaviour, activity spiked early in the week, then dropped by 13.7% on the day of the decision itself, compared to the prior three-day average. It’s clear that many consumers were doing their homework ahead of the announcement – a pattern we’ve seen more regularly as buyers look to stay one step ahead of potential market shifts.”
The trend was not limited to overall search activity. Data also showed a dip in several key categories of mortgage interest. Standard residential searches declined from 66,491 on 16 June to 55,694 on 19 June, representing a 16.2% drop following the announcement.
Specialist products experienced similar movements. Buy to let searches fell from 13,899 on 17 June to 12,341 on 19 June. The homebuyer scheme category also recorded a decline in activity over the same period.
“Buyers are becoming increasingly savvy – they’re planning ahead, tracking rate decisions, and researching mortgage options earlier than ever,” said Reilly. “For brokers, having access to real-time insights and tools that streamline the entire mortgage journey – from search to submission – is absolutely vital. That’s exactly what our platform is designed for. Whether it’s through our sourcing solution, which now includes later life lending, and provides the ability for advisers to instantly submit application submissions to top lenders or our own CRM solution, we help advisers respond quickly and confidently in a fast-moving market.”
