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The latest information from  John Charcol Index showed the number of remortgage applications being submitted has increased month on month in the last quarter.
Purchases accounted for 47.3% of mortgages sold by John Charcol in February, down from it’s height of 58.5% in November 2009.
The February figure is the lowest market share taken by purchases since for almost a year.

Ray Boulger at John Charcol, says: “After the normal seasonal lull in December John Charcol placed significantly more business in January and February, adding to the other evidence that the downturn in mortgage approvals and lending reported by the Bank of England and the Council of Mortgage Lenders for January will be reversed when the February figures are released. Both purchase and remortgage activity has increased this year, but remortgages have increased more.However, detailed analysis of the figures shows that all of the increase in remortgage activity over the last two months is due to a particularly sharp increase in buy-to-let remortgages.”
Boulger says mortgage rates have been steadily improving over the last few months, and in the residential market there are now even pretty good rates available up to 85% LTV - which makes remortgaging worthwhile for many more people - it is too early to be confident of an ongoing increase in remortgage activity.