Europeans will use the internet to originate half a million mortgage loans in 2003, equivalent to five per cent of total new mortgages, according to a brief by Forrester Research.
The UK is predicted to have the highest number of new net-originated mortgage loans this year, with 126,000 applications. This is attributed to the success of firms such as Charcolonline, which claims to accept 10% of the UK’s online mortgage sales.
Forrester analyst Charlotte Clark commented: “The number of UK internet-originated mortgages will grow to twice that of the next largest market – Germany – by 2008, spurred by a much higher proportion of owner-occupied homes in the UK than in Germany.”
Online mortgages account for more than 10% of all gross new home loans in Sweden, Norway and Finland, a higher proportion than in any other European market and twice the European average.