Consumer demand for mortgage advice rises

Consumer requests for mortgages have risen by 50% since January 2009, pointing towards increased activity in the mortgage market, according to Unbiased.

There were almost 7,000 consumer requests for details of mortgage advisers in January, its Advice Drivers report says.

The majority (43%) of enquiries were from people looking for first-time buyer advice and 30% were for those searching for remortgage advice.

This was followed by 20% for residential advice and 13% for buy-to-let advice.

Karen Barrett, chief executive of Unbiased, said it was encouraging to see first- time buyers approaching the property market with renewed vigour this year and investigating their options despite the market remaining volatile.

She commented: "It appears many now feel they are in a position to investigate what's on the market and take the first steps by seeing a whole of market mortgage adviser to advise them on their mortgage options. Even though the base rate still remains low, some lenders have started to increase their mortgage rates.

"It appears that a combination of this and an increasing number of mortgage products on the market has resulted in a large proportion of homeowners to review their mortgage to see if they could remortgage to a better deal."

The Advice Drivers report is compiled on a monthly basis from data collected from consumer selections made when requesting details of a local mortgage adviser through Unbiased.