The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association’s Mortgage Market Tracker found that homemover applications resulted in an offer 80% of the time and 80% of those offers led to a completed deal.
Homemovers had a higher application-to-completion ratio than first-time buyers, remortgagors, buy-to-let borrowers and specialist applicants in the first quarter of 2016.
The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association’s Mortgage Market Tracker found that homemover applications resulted in an offer 80% of the time and 80% of those offers led to a completed deal.
At the other end of the spectrum first-time buyers saw the fewest initial enquiries (51%) progress any further.
An IMLA spokesperson explained that homemovers are likely to have substantial equity to meet affordability criteria.
First-time buyers meanwhile are likely to require more borrowing and therefore suffer from affordability constraints, while the demographic are more likely to make speculative enquiries and look into multiple firms and channels.
Peter Williams, executive director of IMLA, said: “Using an intermediary has become ever more established as the most common way to access mortgage finance in the UK.
“After a busy start to the year, this data suggests that homemovers, in particular, have taken advantage of strong competition between lenders and a fast expanding range of competitive products.”
Despite the rush to get deals done before the 3% stamp duty surcharge comes into force Williams added that the standard of borrower assessments "held up" despite the pressure from extra demand.
