Just one in four people who remortgaged in April did so to increase their loan size, according to research from LMS, a four percentage point drop from the previous month.

This marks a shift in behaviour from recent months and is also a year-on-year drop of six percentage points.

Those increasing the size of their loan by over £10,000 has also decreased: a substantial fall of six percentage points to 16% in April, from 22% in March.

However there was a boost in the number of remortgagors who switched their homeloan in order to chop their monthly repayments. Almost two-fifths of remortgagors cut their monthly payment by up to £500, 7% more than the number who did so in March.

This is the highest percentage since June 2015, when 40% of remortgagors reduced their payments by up to £500. Around 3% who remortgaged slashed their monthly payments by more than £500.

Andy Knee, chief executive of LMS, said: “Remortgagors in April were more interested in getting the most cost-effective deal to reduce their monthly payments and boost their spending power elsewhere, rather than using it as a tool for debt reduction or increasing the size of their loan: an indication household finances are more robust and a ray of hope in the face of predicted economic slowdown as the country nears the EU referendum.”

Remortgagors are also capitalising on the competitive mortgage rates currently available. The percentage remortgaging in order to take advantage of a lower mortgage rate rose to 63% in April after staying steady at 57% throughout the months of February and March.