The wealthiest segment of society is driving the housing boom, with searches for mortgages over £500,000 having increased by 43% since the announcement of the stamp duty holiday.

According to data from the MBT Affordability platform, searches for loans for people wanting to borrow between £125k and £500k have increased by just 16% during this period and interest from people looking to borrow up to £125k has been largely unaffected.

Overall the number of searches on the platform has increased by 18%, with the bulk of activity for borrowers looking for larger loan sizes.

Tanya Toumadj, CEO at Mortgage Broker Tools, said: “An overall increase in searches of 18% indicates that this is very much a housing boom. However, it seems that most activity is coming from wealthier home movers rather than first-time buyers. The stamp duty holiday has certainly succeeded in stimulating transactions, but it may have actually made it more difficult for first time buyers as lenders have looked to manage service levels by pulling out of higher LTV lending.

“Whatever the customer type, affordability remains a key consideration, and with lenders amending their calculators frequently in the current environment, it’s never been more important for brokers to harness technology that can help them carry our comprehensive research of the market.”