The report shows that TrigoldCrystal Prospector users performed over 100,000 more sources in March, up 18% from February’s number of 543,215. But while the news is good for intermediaries on this front, the 21% fall of intermediary-only products from 3,510 in February to 3,298 in March is less of a good sign.
David Aylmer, business development and marketing director at TrigoldCrystal commented: “While the chill seems to be thawing in both the housing and mortgage markets, a true reversal of fortunes might still be a little way off. While we don’t expect to see product levels reaching the 70,000 we saw at the peak of the market for a long time, if ever, we would like to see a continued rise in choice at the present time.
“While a fall of 6% in the intermediary-only products is not large, it is something we will be keeping an eye on. What is perhaps more concerning is that at the same time intermediary-only products fell, direct-only products rose 4%. The divergence between these sectors is something continues to cause our clients an issue and we hope this will not be exacerbated by increased product choice as well as, at times, preferential pricing. Happily, we have seen a significant increase in sourcing activity over the past month which is great news and a trend we hope will steadily continue.”
