Knowledge Bank has revealed the details of the leading criteria searches made on its platform during September.

The residential market showed the most consistency out of all seven categories of broker’s criteria searches, with ‘Covid-19: Temporary Maximum LTV Restrictions’ staying in the top five results for the sixth consecutive month.

Maximum Age at End of Term’ was in the top spot for the second month in the residential market. Additionally, in the top five results there were ‘Income Multiple used for Affordability Assessment’ and ‘Self-employed – 1 years accounts’.

The top spot in the bridging market was ‘Maximum LTV’, and in the second charge market, ‘Maximum LTV / Loan to Value’ was similarly in first place. Knowledge Bank says that lenders continuing to tighten criteria “is clearly still a significant issue for people with smaller deposits” and “it shows that LTV restrictions are impacting borrowers and their ability to buy or remortgage”.

In the buy-to-let market, ‘First time landlord’ came in first place, while searches for ‘Property with Annex / Outbuildings / Land / Acreage’ took the top spot in the equity release market once again.

In addition, the self-build market, Knowledge Bank saw a spike in searches for ‘Purchase of Adjoining Property’.

Matthew Corker (pictured), lender relationship manager at Knowledge Bank, said: “The bottom line here is that people are desperately looking to get onto the property ladder.

“While there is much news about lenders returning to the market and introducing new products, we are already seeing signs that some products may be pulled in light of the second national lockdown as lender appetite for risk is reduced.

“The unknown impact of a second national lockdown on employment and the wider economy is causing panic in the housing market and this is putting buyers under an increasing amount of stress.”