Number of mortgage illustrations continue to rise

June 14, 2020 by Brendan O'Neill

Property Market

There is positive news for the UK property sector, with Mortgage Brain announcing that the number of mortgage illustrations provided has risen for the sixth week in a row.

Mortgage Brain is stating that, during the last week, the number of European Standard Information Sheets (ESIS) that it provided to potential homebuyers seeking a loan rose to a level not far below that of the period before the coronavirus pandemic. It experienced an increase of 18.4% in the amount of ESIS required compared with the week before, which offers encouragement that the housing market could experience a rapid recovery.

This is further supported by a less spectacular, but consistent, rise in the amount of mortgage loans being made available by lenders. The past week saw this go up by another 4.4% compared with the week before, meaning that there were 9,017 mortgage products available in total.

The low-point for the number of products on the market came in the middle of April, when the pandemic and lockdown restrictions were both at their height, and it has risen by 21.4% since then. It is still well below the average for the nine-week period up to mid-March however, just before the UK went into lockdown.

Mortgage Brain CEO https://www.beaconfinancialtraining.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/cemap-online-and-classroom-training-uk.jpg Lofthouse said that the improvements in both product and ESIS numbers were remarkable and very encouraging, but that it was important to remember that any recovery was still in its infancy.

As with the industry as a whole, mortgage advisors with CeMAP training should welcome this evidence of recovery.