This July saw more people looking for short term loans online than they were looking for mortgages, according to to the research findings of one social marketing agency.
Social marketing firm Greenlight discovered that there was a 14 per cent drop for mortgage-related product searches this July, in comparison to six months previous. January of 2011 saw 951,923 queries, yet there were only 818,088 online searches this past July.
July’s retail banking-related searches were only related to mortgages 31 per cent of the time, down from January’s 35 per cent. However, searches for online loans had increased by 55,543 in July over January figures, leading to a 37 per cent total – and 21 per cent relating directly to payday advance loans.
The most visible websites for mortgages included banking giants such as Santander and Halifax, as well as several internet banking sites such as Moneysupermarket.com. The only broker within the top 20, John Charcol, was found to be at number 16 on the list.
Mortgage Brain chief executive officer, Mark Lofthouse, said that the research conducted by Greenlight is inconsistent with its systems’ transaction levels throughout the past three months. Mr Lofthouse said that Mortgage Brain experienced an increase of 4.6 per cent from June to July in regards to transaction levels. The chief executive also pointed out how Council of Mortgage Lenders data also found that gross lending stood at £12.6 billion in July, which was up from January’s £9.2 billion.
However, Frank Eve Consulting’s managing director, Frank Eve, remarked that consumers do seem to be showing a tendency to first seek out mortgages online before they visit a lender or a broker. The average consumer usually takes a few months between the initial search and making a mortgage transaction, Mr Eve added, stating that this could be why the transaction levels and searches were inconsistent.