Almost 300,000 homeowners switched product with their existing provider in Q2 2019.
Almost 300,000 homeowners switched product with their existing provider in Q2 2019 according to the latest figures from UK Finance.
The figures have seen a 7.3% year-on-year increase, with 164,100 homeowners on an advised basis and 128,400 on an execution-only basis.
Internal product switching represented £41.4bn of mortgage borrowing, a yearly increase of 16.3%.
Of this total, £24.4bn was on an advised basis and £17bn on execution-only.
Ray Boulger, senior mortgage technical manager, said: "It is encouraging to see a continuing trend for an increasing proportion of product transfers to be on an advised basis.
"It is also notable that the percentage of advised product transfers by value is consistently higher than the percentage by number of transactions, a very clear, but not surprising, indication that borrowers with larger mortgages are more likely to seek advice.
"The trend for more borrowers to seek advice is obviously linked to the increased number of lenders engaging with brokers and there is every reason to expect the proportion of advised product transfers to increase further, not least as borrowers become increasingly aware of the importance of considering the pros and cons between a product transfer and a remortgage.
"Despite UK Finance helpfully providing product transfer figures for the last six quarters it still does not provide a breakdown on the type of products selected.
"We know from UK Finance figures that with remortgages the number of fixed rates for five years or more overtook 2-year fixes for the first time in May 2018 and have remained more popular ever since.
"It would be very helpful if it also published similar figures for product transfers so that we can compare trends on product choice in the product transfer market with remortgages!"
Martijn Van Der Heijden, chief strategy officer at Habito, added:“It’s encouraging to see increasing numbers of consumers supported to switch.
"We know by switching product even with their existing lender, homeowners can stand to save thousands a year and that’s obviously a good thing.
“Although we accept there are a number of consumers for whom an execution-only mortgage offers a viable route, we maintain that tailored advice results in better outcomes.
"Most importantly, we believe that technology can offer regulated, whole-of-market, free product advice or everyone to ensure homeowners are on the absolute best product for them”.
