According to the LMS weekly remortgage update, the number of instructions actually dipped slightly in the final week in June, down 8.2% on the previous week.

However, over the month remortgage instructions were at their third highest level this year – behind February and March.

The conveyancing solutions provider, which is publishing a weekly insight into the remortgage market during the Covid-19 crisis, also revealed cancellation volumes had increased by 28.7% in the week to 26 June.

The four week rolling average for June was 12.3% meaning the month experienced the second highest rate of cancellations LMS had seen since January.

Meanwhile, completion numbers remained steady for the third consecutive week, with volumes 0.5% up for the final week of June, and the four-week rolling average decreasing by just 2%.

Month-on-month there was a small drop off in completion volumes, with totals 10.1% down from the final week in May. LMS said this was to be expected in June.

‘Changing circustmances’

Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS said: “As June comes to a close, we continue to see a landscape defined by stable instruction and completion volumes, paired with fluctuating cancellation numbers.”

He added: “Cancellations remain the metric with the highest variance, likely due to these volumes being easily affected by availability of products on the market and borrowers’ changing circumstances.”

“We expect that the beginning of July will follow similar trends to previous months, with a spike of completions and cancellations as firms clear out older pipeline cases.

“We are optimistic that the further easing of lockdown regulations will begin to be reflected in Q3 data, by revealing a more confident and stable remortgage market. July is historically stronger for activity than June, so we hope to see this trend repeated this year.”

LMS report also showed positive pipeline figures for the end of June, with the month finishing at an increased volume of 10.9% compared to opening volumes.

June’s pipeline ended on the largest number of carried forward cases in 2020, but volumes were down 8.9% from June-end 2019.

Year on year, LMS recorded reduced activity in all areas, with instructions down 12.4%, completions down 25.6% and cancellations rising 32.3% from June 2019.