The latest Knowledge Bank Tracker has found a common theme in monthly changes in criteria searches – people are looking to borrow more.

The equity release market showed the most change across all seven categories recorded by Knowledge Bank, with ‘Maximum Loan Amount’ being the only consistent search in the top five results.

A spike in searches for ‘Property with Annex / Outbuildings / Land / Acreage’ was the third highest search result. Knowledge Bank’s statistics show that people are considering building onto existing property in order to accommodate intergenerational living.

In the residential market, ‘Temporary Maximum LTV Restrictions’ is once again in the top five search results. Lenders continuing to tighten criteria is clearly still a significant issue for people with smaller deposits.

‘Maximum Age at End of Term’ has the top spot in the residential market. Knowledge Bank says this could be indicative of the increase in the number of divorces due to lockdown; this could then mean people are older getting back on to the housing ladder.

The residential market hosts ‘Income Multiple used for Affordability Assessment’ for the first time. Meanwhile, in the second charge market, there has been a spike in searches for ‘Married Couple Application in One/Single Name’.

People are also using second charges to raise finance. The top three searches being ‘Maximum LTV / Loan to Value,’ ‘Covid-19: Temporary Maximum LTV Restrictions,’ and ‘Defaults – Registered in the last 3 years.’

Buy-to-let saw the most consistency, with the top five searches remaining unchanged in September. ‘First Time Landlord’ takes the top spot this month. Meanwhile, brokers kept ‘Lending to Limited Companies’ in the top five searches for September.

Matthew Corker, lender relationship manager at Knowledge Bank, said: “The overarching theme here is that people are needing to borrow more money at the very point that lenders are tightening criteria. The equity release market saw the highest levels of disruption in September, which is due to changing consumer habits as a direct result of Covid-19. The shortage of high LTV mortgages offered by lenders could well be leading to parents or relatives releasing equity to help younger family members get onto the ladder.

“As we look forward, with furlough coming to an end, we may see more searches for people that have defaults, like we are seeing in the second charge market now.

“We may also see more people buying property with elderly relatives to avoid putting them in care homes, and generations joining forces in order to get younger relatives onto the property ladder. Perhaps intergenerational living could soon become the new normal.”