Intermediary confidence has increased to near historic levels in the first quarter of this year as business levels rebound, the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) reveals.

The latest mortgage market tracker report posted by IMLA found that 46% of intermediaries felt ‘very confident’ and 52% felt ‘fairly confident’ about the prospects for their own business in Q1 2025.

Meanwhile, 44% felt ‘very confident’ and 49% felt ‘fairly confident’ about the outlook for the intermediary sector.

In addition, 92% were confident about the mortgage market in general, although only 29% of brokers were ‘very confident’ and 63% were ‘fairly confident’.

The first quarter also saw a recovery in average business levels from 80 cases per year in Q4 2024 to 95 cases.

IMLA suggests the reported fall in case volumes in Q4 of last year was a blip, rather than a real shift.

Bank of England data shows the overall secured lending market growing further, almost reaching the levels seen in 2022.

Elsewhere, there was little change in business mix, with residential lending making up two-thirds of intermediaries’ business, buy-to-let (BTL) just under a quarter and specialist lending around one in nine cases.

Remortgaging and product transfer accounted for 27% of residential business handled, with first-time buyers making up 21%.

The report also found that the average number of decision in principles (DIPs) dealt out increased by five points in Q1 2025 to 33.

The proportion of DIPs resulting in a DIP accept grew from 80 in Q2 2024 to 84 in Q1 2025, while that of DIP accepts resulting in a full application also increased slightly to 74%.

In addition, the proportion of full applications resulting in an offer saw a rise of 4% to 89%, the highest in three years.

Conversion from offer to completion remained stable at 76%.

IMLA executive director Kate Davies says: “These results suggest that, despite global economic and political uncertainty, the continued resilience of the UK housing market and the falling interest rate environment have combined to boost morale among mortgage intermediaries.”

“The end of the Stamp Duty concessions on 1st April will have contributed somewhat to the uplift in average case numbers. However, the fact that first-time buyer businesses accounted for a smaller proportion of residential activity than remortgages and PTs demonstrates a more general recovery of business levels.”

“With affordability continuing to improve as rates come down and the regulator encouraging more lender flexibility, brokers seem confident that these higher levels of activity may continue later into the year.”

“The buy-to-let sector continues to thrive, still accounting for almost a quarter of mortgage business, despite the extra Stamp Duty imposed on purchases in October’s Budget and continuing concerns over the impact of the Renters’ Rights Bill.”

“The fact that the proportion of cases successfully progressing from every stage from Decision in Principle to completion increased in Q1 is also good news.”

“Inflation in the UK remains sticky, and the future path of interest rates is not guaranteed, but this month’s Base Rate cut and the recent competition and innovation among mortgage lenders are contributing to a more benign market than we have experienced for some time.”

“It will be interesting to see whether the Mortgage Market Tracker results for Q2 remain as positive as the first three months of 2025 – let’s hope so.”