Twenty7tec has issued its findings based on its mortgage platform data for December 2022.
In the final month of last year, purchase mortgage searches were down 40.8% on the prior month and down 12.8% on the same period last year.
In addition, remortgage searches were down 35.3% on the prior month but 10.9% up on the same period last year.
Meanwhile, total mortgage searches in December 2022 were down 38.3% on the prior month and 2.8% on the same period last year.
Total first-time buyer mortgage searches were down 38.1% on the prior month.
Twenty7tec also revealed that the average property valuation for purchases (£334,511) was up 0.2% on the prior month. The average loan required (£231,415) was up 0.6% on the prior month
Total searches for fixed products were half the volume of October 2022.
Green mortgage search volumes have continued to falter.
For the third month in a row, remortgage ESIS documents produced outnumbered purchase ESIS documents, but the gap is narrowing.
The volumes of buy-to-let business continued with weekly averages well down compared to annual averages.
December ended with over 13,457 products and variants available, up 4.6% compared to the end of the prior month.
James Tucker, founder and CEO of Twenty7tec, said: “December’s performance was down on the prior month, but broadly in line with what we’d expect from most Decembers over the past few years.
“The next 12 months are going to be full of challenges for advisers and lenders as the move to satisfy customers in challenging economic conditions. We’ll be here to support them in making great decisions and offering the best advice possible, every time.”