Figures for September show that remortgaging accounted for 30 per cent of the market by value the lowest figure since August 2001 and down from 42 per cent in September last year.
The sharp drop in popularity of remortgaging over recent months probably reflects the fact that lenders are managing to retain more customers for just longer by reducing the incentive to remortgage to other lenders.
The number of people taking out fixed-rate mortgage deals has also shown a sharp fall. While fixed rates maintained a 59 per cent share of the market in September unchanged from August in the third quarter of this year they accounted for 60 per cent of all loans.
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Research also revealed that the number of loans to first-time buyers fell to 31,100 in September, from 35,200 in August. This is down from 34,700 in the same month last year.
Loans to home movers followed the same trend, falling from 66,100 oloans in August to 56,700 loans.
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CML Director General, Michael Coogan, said: The downward trends in remortgaging illustrate how lenders are reacting to competitive conditions, and offering attractive retention products and policies to their customers.
These figures show that slowly but surely the market is cooling as we approach the end of the year in an environment of higher interest rates.
