Visits to Nationwide mortgage tools spike following stamp duty announcement

Nationwide Building Society saw a significant increase in traffic to its online mortgage affordability tools, coinciding with the announcement of stamp duty changes.

Nationwide’s Quick Quote Mortgage Calculator, saw a 49% increase yesterday in usage as people looked to get a snapshot of their potential budget.

The society’s Mortgage Affordability Calculator saw an increase of 61%, compared to the week before.

Prime pockets could still see £1.6m stamp duty bills

The society in fact saw a major spike in traffic as Chancellor Rishi Sunak was making his announcement in the House of Commons.

At 1pm on 8 July, traffic was 70% higher on Nationwide’s mortgage pages than the previous week.

Nationwide saw a further 70% spike in traffic at around 7pm, perhaps as people finished work.

As people reacted to the Chancellor’s statement, more than 41,000 visited the mortgage section of the society’s website, looking at the current mortgage rates and offers. This is an increase of 37% when compared to previous weeks.

Matt Smith, chief product owner – mortgages at Nationwide Building Society, said: “It’s really interesting to see that our Mortgage Tools had a significant spike in usage yesterday as the Chancellor announced stamp duty changes.

“We would encourage everyone who is thinking about moving home to visit our website and make use of our tools which give a really helpful guide on mortgages – from setting aside costs to understanding the different types of product available.”