Mortgage Brain has seen the proportion of ESIS generated by its sourcing systems for property purchases increase past levels seen before the pandemic.

Residential purchase and home mover ESIS now account for 8.5% more of the overall ESIS generated than before Covid-19 took hold, while on buy-to-let it is 4.8% higher. In addition, ESIS volumes for products with an LTV of up to 80% have recovered to pre-pandemic levels. It’s a different story for higher LTVs however, with residential ESIS volumes for cases of 85% LTV and above now 12.8% lower than in the week ending 6th March.

Last week overall ESIS volumes dropped 4.7% compared to the previous week, though remain just 10.8% down on the levels seen pre-pandemic. ESIS totals have now been within 11% of those seen before the pandemic for four consecutive weeks. With the Scottish market now opening up from 29th June, we can realistically hope to see ESIS totals edging closer still to pre-pandemic levels.

The data also reveals that the number of available products has continued its slow recovery, rising 1.46% over the last week to 9,165. This is the highest level seen since the pandemic reached the UK, with product totals now 23.4% higher than those seen in the low point of the week ending 12th April. Nonetheless compared to the nine-week average to 16th March product numbers are down by 37.5%.

Mark Lofthouse, CEO at Mortgage Brain, said: “It’s striking to see the way that the proportion of ESIS for home moves has increased in recent weeks. Remortgage cases understandably dominated the business mix during lockdown, but with the housing market in England once again operational, it’s clear that buyers are getting on with moving.

“That overall ESIS volumes have remained largely stable for four weeks is also enormously encouraging, demonstrating there is some foundation to the recovery we are seeing.”