UK mortgage purchase applications fall 18.2% year on year in Q3 as remortgaging edges back into growth, Stonebridge finds

Stonebridge's Mortgage Market Index shows purchase applications down 18.2% year on year in the third quarter, a steeper fall than the 15.5% in Q2, while remortgage applications rose 0.8% after a 20.8% fall the previous quarter. The average mortgage rate was 4.92%, 0.55 percentage points above a year earlier, so higher borrowing costs are still holding back new purchases, while homeowners coming off ultra-low pandemic fixes are driving the remortgage rebound. For buyers, first-time buyer applications fell 18.6% and the average first-time buyer loan-to-value rose to 81.4%, meaning smaller deposits and tighter affordability. For sellers, fewer buyers in the pipeline points to continued price sensitivity, though the average purchase price still rose 1.2% to £324,702, so this is a slower market rather than a falling one.