Two audiences, not one: movers versus remortgagers
Mortgage marketing teams often request a single "mortgage prospects" file and are disappointed when response rates vary wildly across the campaign. The reason is almost always that the file contains two populations with entirely different motivations, timing pressures, and product needs. Treating them identically wastes budget.
Mover prospects are people who intend to change property. That group covers first-time buyers taking their first step onto the ladder, existing owners upsizing because of a growing family, downsizers releasing equity, and movers relocating for work. Their mortgage decision is inseparable from the property decision. They are in active market mode, often already speaking to estate agents, and the typical purchase window is three to six months from first interest to completion.
Remortgagers are homeowners with no intention of moving. Their existing mortgage deal is ending, has already ended, or has become uncompetitive relative to current rates. The motivation is purely financial: reduce the monthly payment, release equity, or switch from a lapse-to-SVR (standard variable rate) situation. The window is longer, often six to eighteen months before deal expiry, and the ideal message focuses on rate comparisons and switching ease rather than property aspiration.
A campaign that conflates both audiences in one mailing piece typically performs below the benchmark for either. The copy cannot speak to both emotional triggers at once. Separate creatives and separate data selections are the minimum viable approach.
What signals identify each audience?
Mover signals
The clearest mover signal is a declared statement on a consumer lifestyle or financial-services survey: the respondent has answered a question along the lines of "Are you planning to buy or move home in the next 12 months?" and ticked yes. That declaration, combined with a survey date within the last six months, is the strongest filter you can apply.
Secondary signals that lift confidence include:
- Length of residency under five years (shorter tenures correlate with life-stage transitions that also drive moves)
- Recent sold prices in the respondent's postcode (Royal Mail postcode-level activity suggests a neighbourhood where transactions are occurring)
- Household composition changes (marriage, new child, separation), which often accompany moves
- Age bands 25 to 34 and 55 to 64, which statistically over-index for first purchase and downsizing respectively
None of these secondary signals alone is reliable. They work as stacking filters: each one narrows the audience toward people who are genuinely in-market.
Remortgage signals
The most reliable primary signal is, again, a declared survey response, this time to a question such as "Are you interested in remortgaging or reviewing your existing mortgage deal?" Declared intent beats inferred intent by a significant margin in financial services, where the product decision is high-stakes and privacy matters to the respondent.
Length of residency over seven years is the single most widely used proxy for remortgage opportunity when no declared intent is available. The logic is straightforward: a homeowner who has lived at the same address for more than seven years has almost certainly cycled through at least one or two fixed-rate deals, and if they are not on a competitive product now, the likelihood of lapse-to-SVR or an overpriced deal is high. In our experience, this proxy lifts positive contact rates by around 20 to 30% versus a generic property-owner file, though it is far weaker than a direct declaration.
Equity-build indicators from lifestyle data (high household income bracket, absence of financial stress indicators, long tenure without credit distress flags) add further confidence. The combination of declared intent, tenure over seven years, and a mid-to-upper income band is the standard selection brief most mortgage brokers bring to us.
Movers vs remortgagers: audience comparison
| Attribute | Mover prospects | Remortgage prospects |
|---|---|---|
| Primary trigger | Life event (family, work, aspiration) | Deal expiry or rate review |
| Strongest data signal | Declared property-search intent on survey | Declared remortgage interest on survey |
| Best residency proxy | Under 5 years at current address | Over 7 years at current address |
| Typical decision window | 3 to 6 months | 6 to 18 months |
| Product message | Affordability, first-time buyer schemes, LTV options | Rate comparison, switching ease, equity release |
| Ideal channel mix | Direct mail + telephone follow-up | Direct mail, with email for telephone-averse |
| Age over-index | 25 to 34 (first purchase), 55 to 64 (downsize) | 35 to 54 (established homeowner) |
| File volume (estimated, no recency filter) | 700,000 to 1.2 million | 900,000 to 1.8 million |
FCA financial promotion rules: what every broker needs to know before mailing
The data file is a marketing tool. The letter or call script is a financial promotion. These are governed by entirely separate frameworks, and the compliance burden sits on the financial promotion, not on the data selection.
Under section 21 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA), a financial promotion relating to a regulated mortgage contract must be communicated by an FCA-authorised firm or approved by one before it is issued. That approval is known as a Section 21 sign-off, or S21 approval. The FCA's FG24/1 guidance clarified in 2024 that S21 approvers take on significant liability for the promotions they sign off, which has made the approval market more cautious and slower.
What this means practically: a mortgage broker cannot simply buy a data file and post a letter without an authorised firm reviewing and approving the creative. If the broker itself holds full FCA authorisation for mortgage arranging (MCOB permissions), it can communicate its own promotions directly. If the firm is an appointed representative (AR), the promotion must go through the AR's principal network for approval. Get this wrong and the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the least of your problems; the FCA's enforcement powers are substantially more severe.
FCA financial promotions: checklist before despatch
Before any direct mail or telephone campaign using mortgage prospect data goes live, confirm all of the following:
- The creative carries an S21 approval from an FCA-authorised firm (or your own firm holds the relevant MCOB permissions).
- The mailing piece includes the firm's registered name, FCA registration number, and registered office address.
- For telephone: all agents are working from a compliant script also approved under FSMA.
- TPS suppression has been run within 28 days of the campaign start date.
- MPS suppression has been run for postal outreach.
- Channel consent flags on each record have been respected (postal-only records are not called).
PECR consent and TPS: the data-side compliance obligations
The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) sit alongside UK GDPR and govern unsolicited marketing to individuals. For telephone calls to consumers, PECR requires that you do not call anyone registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) unless they have specifically consented to calls from your firm. An opt-in consumer file like ours carries PECR-compliant consent for third-party marketing at the point of collection, but TPS suppression is still mandatory: a subsequent TPS registration by that individual overrides the earlier consent.
For direct mail, the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is the equivalent suppression file. Unlike TPS (where calling a registered number is unlawful under PECR), MPS is a self-regulatory scheme, but direct mail sent to MPS-registered addresses in spite of a preference generates complaints to the ICO and DMA that no reputable broker wants.
Run both suppressions immediately before the campaign, not at the point of data purchase. Consent and preference data decays: a record clean in January may have a new TPS registration by March.
How mortgage brokers use prospect data in practice
A Midlands-based independent broker running a remortgage acquisition campaign will typically request a file of 30,000 to 80,000 records covering their county or region, filtered to declared remortgage interest, tenure over seven years, and postal consent. The campaign mechanic is usually a single direct-mail piece followed by a telephone follow-up call 10 to 14 days later for records that also carry telephone consent. Conversion from mailing to booked appointment runs at 0.4 to 1.2% depending on the quality of the creative and the tightness of the selection, which for a product with a gross fee of £500 to £1,500 produces a workable cost per acquisition even at the lower end.
Larger networks running national campaigns may request files in the 200,000 to 500,000 range and suppress against their own existing customer base before calculating net new reach. The data supplier's job in that scenario is to run the deduplicate against the broker's suppression file before delivery, so no wasted spend lands on existing customers.
For property-related consumer data more broadly, see our guides to homeowner data UK and UK consumer property data, which cover the wider landscape of property-owner targeting beyond the mortgage intent segment.
File quality, recency, and what to ask your data supplier
The single biggest variable in mortgage prospect file performance is recency. A declared intention to move expressed 36 months ago is almost worthless: the person has either bought, stayed put, or changed their plans entirely. Survey response date is the critical quality marker. Insist on knowing the proportion of records with a survey response date within 12 months before agreeing a count.
Ask these questions before purchasing any mortgage prospect data:
- What is the source of the declared intent? (Survey methodology matters; prize-draw entries that ask a single demographic question as a condition of entry are lower-quality signals than a dedicated financial-services questionnaire.)
- What percentage of records have a survey response date within 12 months?
- Has the file been suppressed against the Deceased Suppression file (a regulatory necessity, not a nicety)?
- Can you provide channel consent flags so postal-only and telephone-consented records are clearly separated?
- What is the match rate against Royal Mail PAF for postal address accuracy?
A fully opt-in consumer file under UK GDPR and PECR consent, sourced from financial-services surveys, will score well on all five. Generic lifestyle files compiled from prize-draw entries without a specific mortgage intent question will often fail on the first two.