The volume of searches on Legal & General Mortgage Club’s SmartrCriteria tool jumped by 17% in March compared to the previous month.

This data follows HMRC’s latest property transaction data which revealed that residential transactions doubled year-on-year in March, as activity across the housing market continued to increase during the month.

However, while activity volumes reached new heights, data from SmartrCriteria searches showed an increase in searches for borrowers with financial complications, such as credit impairments, furloughed income, or multi-stream income. L&G Mortgage Club suggested this reflected the continued impact of the pandemic in complicating borrowers’ personal finances.
 
SmartrCriteria’s most searched criteria point last month related to mortgages suited to borrowers with a satisfied default, which the mortgage club said could indicate that many borrowers have retrospectively settled missed payments recently.

These searches increased by over 40% between February and March, as searches for borrowers with outstanding missed payments also jumped by 28%.

L&G Mortgage Club head of mortgage transformation and operations, Clare Beardmore, commented: “While it is clear that various government incentives are driving many to push ahead with their homeownership plans, the rising number of searches for lenders who will accept applicants with credit impairments and multiple income streams shows that the economic impact of the crisis continues to be felt by many.

“While activity in the housing market may be high, advisers are increasingly needing powerful tools to help them progress complex cases.”

SmartrCriteria was launched by Legal & General in 2019 and has over 8,000 registered advisers, which is equivalent to around a third of the intermediary market.
 
“Our sourcing technology continues to be an ally to intermediaries, helping them match clients with lenders no matter their borrowing needs,” Beardmore added.

“We remain committed to introducing further improvements to the proposition and look forward to delivering additional product enhancements to help intermediaries through this current busy period and beyond.”

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