Remortgage volumes are still around a third lower than at the start of the year, despite a 5% gain on March, but the steady growth seen over the last few months on the purchase side is an encouraging sign of first time buyers coming to the market.
The April data reveals a 14% jump on March’s numbers, which was a 5% jump on February. However, February was a 15% drop on January’s numbers. Nonetheless, with incentives such as the stamp duty holiday coming into play, and a steady, if slow, stream of new products coming to market, it appears that consumers are slowly regaining some level of confidence.
Commenting on these findings, Dean Jones, head of paaleads.com said: “To see such a movement in one month is very encouraging from a market perspective, and having seen consumers flock to moneysupermarket.com to compare mortgages when the stamp duty announcement was made, we are now seeing this uplift shift to the advice side.
“That remortgage levels are still low is testament to that fact that there is still some way to go before the market could be said to be ‘on the up’ as a whole, but brokers can take some comfort from those who appear to be taking their first steps on the property ladder.”
