Broker Conveyancing has reported a summer upturn in instruction levels during August and over the last three months.
Sale and purchase conveyancing instruction levels received via its platform during August were 11% up on the previous month, while remortgage instructions increased by 7%. Total instructions were up 9.5% on July, and 3.2% up on June.
Compared to August 2015, instruction levels were significantly improved, up 29.4% for sale and purchase, up 41.2% for remortgage with total instructions up 42%.
Broker Conveyancing has also tracked its instruction levels for the June/July/August three-month period in order to provide a pre- and post-EU referendum view. Sale and purchase instructions for those three months was 11% up on March/April/May figures, with remortgages up 17% and total instructions up 13.4% compared to the same period.
When compared to the same three-month period in 2015, sale and purchase were 7.2% up, remortgage instructions up 42.4%, and total instructions up 18%.
The distributor has also been tracking the sale and purchase/remortgage instruction split and it has already began to see a move towards more remortgage activity in recent months.
In August 2015 the total split was 70% sale and purchase/30% remortgage, however during August this year this had changed to 64% sale and purchase/36% remortgage; in both June and July this year remortgage levels had hit 37% of total instructions.
Broker Conveyancing anticipates that its instruction levels will continue to move in the direction of greater remortgage activity with the MPC cut to Bank Base Rate during August fuelling greater interest and demand in the remortgage sector.
Harpal Singh (pictured), managing director of Broker Conveyancing, said: “Looking at our figures for June, July and August it’s clear that we have not experienced any post-EU referendum slowdown; in fact, if it wasn’t tempting fate somewhat, I may be inclined to say, ‘Brexit; Schmexit’, at the moment.
“August was a record month for instructions for us with both sale and purchase, and remortgage, numbers hitting their highest since we launched Broker Conveyancing. Overall, the last three months have also been excellent – a very slight dip during July from June’s figures but we made up for this during August; a month which is traditionally supposed to be a quieter one for activity.
“The reasons for this are conjecture but it appears we saw some backed-up activity in the market releasing itself during August after many people clearly took stock immediately post-referendum in July. The cut to BBR in August has also acted as a considerable catalyst for activity, particularly in the remortgage market and we would anticipate this continuing for the rest of the year, perhaps even moving closer to parity with sale and purchase if we see further cuts to rates over the next couple of months. We have clearly seen a shift upwards in terms of remortgage activity with a sizeable uptick since this time last year.
“In general terms, the rise in instruction levels is also down to our increase in registered users, which has averaged three per day for the entire year. August was no different and, as a result, we have picked up a certain amount of market share. With September now underway, and the lead up to Christmas being a traditionally strong period for the housing and mortgage markets, unless we see a considerable negative Brexit-related effect, we anticipate a continuation of greater activity to come.”
