Interest-only mortgages remained a popular mortgage criteria search in August

‘Interest-only loans’ have maintained their place in the top five most searched-for criteria in August after making their very first appearance in July’s index, according to Knowledge Bank.

Although UK Finance reported that these loans fell by 13% in 2018 there are still an estimated 1.7 million active interest-only mortgages.

As the landscape continues to change, brokers are discovering which lenders will consider their interest-only clients with a criteria search.

Knowledge Bank’s criteria activity index reveals the cases brokers are trying to place, offering a viewpoint on both demand and supply. It holds over 91,000 criteria from over 200 lenders and there have been almost 30,000 changes to mortgage lending criteria in the first half of 2019.

The residential category also saw activity for ‘Right to Buy’ loans, which made their first appearance in the top five in July but dropped out of the index in August.

The bridging category, meanwhile, saw ‘regulated bridging’ rise to the top and ‘maximum LTV’ sink below searches for ‘minimum loan amount’. The results suggest that borrowers are looking for bridging loans for smaller projects such as refurbishment.

Interestingly, the same criteria search for ‘minimum loan amount’ also moved up the rankings to second place in the commercial category.

“We are entering an unprecedented period of change in the country both politically and economically,” says Nicola Firth, chief executive officer of Knowledge Bank.

“The mortgage sector has never been more fluid and we can see from these results that product types rise and fall in popularity from month to month.”

She adds: “As a result, keeping up to date with products and their accompanying criteria has never been more challenging.”