"Whilst we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, it’s good to have some figures in the green after a sea of red over recent weeks."
Its figures for the week ending 25 April show that searches for purchases were up 26% compared to the previous week and up 35% on two weeks ago.
Twenty7Tec says purchase mortgages normally represent around 60% of the market and made up 32% of searches last week, up from recent lows of 24.5%.
Despite this, searches for purchase mortgages are still down by around half of the pre-Covid-19 levels.
Buy-to-let has a long-term average of around 20% of searches, but has recently increased its share to 24.5%.
James Tucker, CEO of Twenty7Tec, commented: “Thankfully, there are some good news stories in this week’s figures. Whilst the volumes are considerably lower than the high times of late February, it is possible that we are now starting to see the ‘end of the beginning’.
“Weekly search volumes for all types of mortgages, the total number of ESIS documents prepared, and the values of mortgages requested, are up compared to the same period a week ago; and, again, to the same period two weeks ago.
“The total volume of mortgage searches also seems unaffected by the announcement that lockdown will need to be in place for a further three weeks at least.
“Buy-to-let mortgage searches continue to represent an ever-larger proportion of the market – they currently constitute 24.37% of all searches, well above their long-term average of 19.78%.
“We saw a slight uptick in weekly remortgage searches also. These are up 1.03% on the prior week. However, the volume of remortgage searches is still down a quarter compared to four weeks ago.
“The pipeline of housing available for purchase will likely have been helped by the news from some major housebuilders that many of their sites will re-open this week.
“When I speak to brokers, it’s clear how hard they are working for their clients and trying to keep the market flowing as much as possible. We can but hope these green shoots of good news which have, seemingly, begun to sprout over the past two weeks will give brokers something to build on.”
