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 number of gross new internet-originated mortgages is set to grow from 495,000 this year to 1.6 million in 2008, equivalent to $230 billion. Remortgagers, who outnumber first-time buyers among net mortgage applicants by three to one in markets like the UK and the Netherlands, are key contributors to this growth.
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.
