The Council of Mortgage Lenders has just published data indicating remortgages continue to be a second or even third option as lending volumes decreased year on year during the 4^th quarter of last year. House owners remain hesitant regarding remortgages as a function of saving money off the cost of a monthly mortgage payment. A secondary benefit to remortgages is freeing up valuable cash during the approval process which can be used to renovate a home or even pay off burdensome debt which has been sitting for some time.

Scotland experienced the biggest drop in remortgages, followed closely by Wales. Scottish remortgages fell off by 17% in volume and £2.6bn in value. A similar decline occurred in the Welsh market. A 16% drop in volume took place, down to slightly under 13,000.

The Capital City remortgage market felt a slide of more than 12% in the fourth quarter compared with the same time last year. Mark Harris, with SPF Private Clients, believes a recovery in London for remortgages is quite likely this year.

Harris commented on the estimated increase during 2015, saying: "While we expect house purchases in the capital to be subdued in the first half of this year until election uncertainty is out of the way, lenders are aggressively going after the remortgage market.

"Cutting fixed rates to record lows, banks and building societies are keen to lend and the mortgage rate war, which began in the autumn, shows no signs of letting up. With several new lenders coming into the market we can look forward to more choice and even better pricing."