The number of remortgages rose nearly 30% in the year to October as customers release more cash in the run-up to Christmas.
October remortgage lending hit £4.73 billion, a 0.6% rise from September and 27.7% in the last 12 months, according to new research from LMS.
Those remortgaging are each taking out an average of £21,579 in extra equity, £8,578 more than in January, when they released £13,001.
More than 70% of that will finance extra spending, most probably ahead of Christmas, LMS said. Around 18% will go into home improvements and 11% on the repayment of debt.
Andy Knee, chief executive of LMS, said: “While the growth in the value of remortgaging has slowed over the past month, it remains at a very high level compared with a year ago.
“Remortgage lending is up by nearly 30% compared to this time last year, and remortgage customers are releasing more than £8,000 more cash than they were in January."
Knee added: “There are some fantastic deals to be had at the moment. In fact, our latest customer survey showed that 39% were able to reduce their monthly repayments, some by as much as £500.
“We are likely to see this buoyancy in the market continue over the coming months as lenders try to feed transactions through the pipeline ahead of the implementation of the MMR in April.
"While harsh weather may temper the growth in the house purchase market, remortgage activity in the coming winter months is likely to prove much more resilient.”
The average remortgage loan amount has dropped by 1.4% over the past month to £149,282. That is still 8% higher than this time last year.
Remortgaging now accounts for more than a quarter of the total gross mortgage lending market, which was worth £17.6 billion in October.
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