Purchases continue to lead the mortgage market

Drew Wotherspoon, director of marketing at Charcol, comments on this and other findings.
"Purchase activity continues to maintain dominance over remortgaging, as it has done for the last 12 months. The only time when remortgaging has accounted for more business during the last year was in February, but I suspect this had more to do with the poor weather keeping purchasers tucked up indoors than remortgaging proving popular.
"For those borrowers who are in a position to remortgage it would seem that they are waiting for some movement in bank rate, or at least some more definitive information as to when it will move. Whilst this strategy is understandable increasing numbers of borrowers could be considerably better off if they moved their home loan now. As ever, getting advice on your own situation is absolutely the right thing to do."
Variable rates maintain 75 per cent market share
"There is little change in the product preference of most borrowers, with the cost of fixed rates and the chance that rates will remain low for some time to come, putting consumers off fixing. Outside of the traditional product choices, our high net worth customers are also showing real interest in our Interest Rate Protector, a standalone cap that allows them to buy protection considerably cheaper than if they took a fixed rate, suggesting the cost of fixed rates is the bigger barrier to larger numbers taking a fixed rate. Full details of this product are available at www.charcol.co.uk."
The lesser-spotted first time buyer
"The number of first time buyers arranging a mortgage continues to be tiny, with the group accounting for just 5.4 per cent of all transactions with John Charcol in June. This is the lowest level it has been since December 2008 and suggests that a combination of strict lender criteria and inherent nervousness in the market continues to severely affect the amount of new entrants. This group desperately needs more competition in the 90 per cent LTV market."
The John Charcol Mortgage Index is published monthly, tracking three important statistics, based on mortgage business written by John Charcol. The index is a leading indicator of trends being based on mortgage applications submitted to lenders, whereas figures reported by the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) and the Bank of England (BofE) are based on completions, which typically take place 2-3 months after the mortgage application is submitted.