Mortgage Brain has reported that the number of ESIS generated through its sourcing systems have recovered to reach the same levels as those seen before the Covid-19 pandemic.

ESIS volumes last week increased by 3% on the previous week, and now stand at just 0.26% below pre-pandemic levels. Volumes have continued their steady increase and are stable, having been within 11% of pre-pandemic levels for seven weeks in a row.

Mortgage Brain said that the strength of demand for purchasing new homes is clear from the ESIS data, with the volume of residential purchase ESIS higher than pre‒pandemic levels for eight straight weeks since the reopening of the English housing market. This increase has been even more pronounced of late, at around 10% above the levels seen before Covid-19 hit the UK for the last four weeks.

However, the sourcing provider said it is also clear that demand is strong among landlords, with buy-to-let purchase ESIS now 7% higher than before Covid-19.

Residential purchase ESIS volumes for cases of 80-85% LTV are around 9% higher than pre-pandemic levels, and now represent 22% of all ESIS produced. Meanwhile, with buy-to-let, the volume of higher LTV ESIS has been higher than pre-pandemic levels for seven straight weeks.

While product numbers fell marginally for the second consecutive week, they remain on a long-term upward trend. Over the week product numbers declined by 1.6%, following a 0.9% drop the week before. As a result there are now 9,031 mortgage products available. This is up by 21.6% from the low-point of the Covid-19 crisis in the week ending 12th April, but remains down by 38.5% on the nine-week average to 16th March.

Mark Lofthouse, CEO at Mortgage Brain, said: “That ESIS volumes are stable and now at virtually the same levels seen before Covid-19 is astonishing. The way that the housing market has bounced back, and maintained that recovery, speaks volumes about the overall strength of demand among borrowers to get on with purchasing their next home and moving up the housing ladder.

“It’s also notable that we are seeing a significant increase in purchase activity across the board. With residential, buy-to-let and second homes all benefiting from the stamp duty holiday, there is clearly both residential interest and some investors believe now is the perfect opportunity to increase their portfolios.”