The level of remortgage loans in March fell by 19% in a year on year comparison.  According to the latest report from LMS, there were 19,287 homeowners that remortgaged.  This is a decrease from the level a year earlier of 23,900.  The level of remortgages in March was the lowest since 2005 when LMS started producing their monthly reports.

Not only was the volume of remortgages lower, but the value was lower as well by 3% from March of last year to a level of £3 billion from £3.1 billion.

Andy Knee, LMS chief executive remarked, “The fallout from MMR (Mortgage Market Review) has occurred slightly ahead of the rest of the mortgage market, as house purchase decisions typically take longer. We therefore expect the rest of the market to follow suit in April as lenders turn the tap off.

“The introduction of MMR and continued debate about a Bank of England interest base rate rise will have significant implications for homeowners and will drastically reduce the offers currently available as has already been shown and the fluidity of the market is tested, further stretching already hard-pressed purse strings.”

Overall, remortgaging declined its share of total mortgaging to only 20%.  This is a drop from the previous March of 27% and 24% from February.

Perhaps the decline in March is due to the fact that many homeowners sought to avoid the new Mortgage Market Review procedures or the surge of remortgaging seen in the beginning of the year has leveled out.  There remains many very attractive remortgage deals on the market and despite the new MMR process for completing a remortgage, for those homeowners expecting a complicated remortgage there are remortgage brokers prepared to assist them through the steps efficiently.