The Index, based on products available in July, shows that for the fourth month in a row the number of direct products have increased - to 1,240, a rise of 10% since May. At the same time, the average number of live products available to mortgage intermediaries fell from 2,610 in June to 2,202 in July – a reduction of 408 individual products and a drop of 6%.
Year on year analysis shows that mortgage product availability was significantly lower than previous years. Previous stats reveal products numbers to be 13,464 in July 2008 and 64,803 in July 2007.
Also, 672,124 mortgage sources were performed in July - a fall in intermediary activity of 14.76% when compared with June and a fall in broker activity in real terms of 116,359 individual mortgage searches. This is a significant 47% drop in broker activity from last July (2008) when 903,512 individual mortgage searches were performed.
Commenting, David Aylmer, marketing and business development director at TrigoldCrystal, said: “Although broker activity has fallen slightly since June, it is still in excess of May’s levels and seems to be holding firm. The results do still show that over six hundred and seventy thousand mortgage sources were performed by brokers during last month however this is some way short of the level seen in July last year which shows that 903,512 sources were performed.
“Product availability continues to be one of the central issues in the mortgage sector with July showing yet another fall in the number of intermediary products from 2,610 in June to 2,202 in July. What should also be of interest to brokers is the increase in the number of ‘direct only’ products which have been increasing month on month since April this year. Brokers can use TrigoldCrystal’s Prospector sourcing system to research and review all of these products and many brokers charging a fee for their advice continue to do so.”
