The number of available mortgage products on the market increased for the second week in a row to 8,044 products, reflecting a 5.9% increase of 488 products from the previous week, according to the latest figures from Mortgage Brain.

The mortgage technology expert suggested the majority of growth had been seen in the remortgage sector, where the product numbers increased by 5.4%, while home mover products also increased by 2.0%, although buy-to-let (BTL) product numbers reduced by 1.9%.

When compared to pre-pandemic levels, Mortgage Brain revealed the latest number of available mortgage products was now 6,630 (45.2%) lower than the nine-week average to 16 March – suggesting last week’s increase is a result of lenders coming back to the market, increasing LTVs and relaxing some criteria.

Furthermore, the mortgage technology expert’s latest data also revealed a marginal reduction of just 0.5% in the number of ESIS produced from Mortgage Brain’s mortgage sourcing systems, when compared to the previous week.

Mortgage Brain suggested this rate of reduction had continued to shrink for the fifth week in a row, but added that last week’s small reduction suggested the market had now arrived or was “very close” to the low point. When compared to the average over the nine weeks to 15 March, the reduction stands at 46.9%.

Mortgage Brain CEO, Mark Lofthouse, commented: “The increase in product numbers for the last two weeks and stabilisation of ESIS volumes is cause for cautious optimism. The recent figures are encouraging and after taking into account any Easter effect we could be at the end of the dramatic week on week reductions, which is why we are now seeing stability and slow growth.
 
“Stability and slow growth has enabled intermediaries and lenders to plan from a more solid base which in turn provides some certainty. Looking ahead, there is pent up demand in the home moving sector and we’ll see indications of this being realised in the figures over the coming weeks and months.”

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