Confidence in the mortgage market among intermediaries remained at its long-term level in the third quarter, new analysis by the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) has shown.

This comes as intermediary confidence returned in the previous quarter to a level last recorded in Q2 2022.

IMLA’s latest Mortgage Market Tracker report showed that adviser confidence in the prospects for the intermediary sector fell slightly after the election but then recovered. In July, the proportion of advisers who said they felt “very positive” about their sector fell from 42%, to 33% in August, before recovering to 44% in September.

However, brokers’ confidence in their own business reduced slightly, following a sharp upturn in Q2. The proportion of advisers saying they felt “very confident” about their own business fell from 54% in Q2 to 44% in Q3, while those saying they felt “fairly confident” climbed from 43% to 51%. The proportion who said they were “not very confident” grew slightly from 2% to 3%.

Despite these small changes, IMLA noted that overall levels of broker confidence are high in a historic context, having shown that Q2’s return to the confidence level prior to the Liz Truss premiership has broadly been maintained since the most recent election.

“July’s General Election caused a very slight wobble in advisers’ confidence in their own business, but overall the results for Q3 2024 continue to reflect sustained positive sentiment about a mortgage market recovering well from the fiscal shock of Q3 2022,” said IMLA executive director, Kate Davies.

“Business volumes remain healthy, and the fact that there has only been a slight drop off in the proportion of buy-to-let business, despite fears about a Labour Government potentially adopting an anti-landlord stance, is testament to the continued resilience of this key sector.”

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