According to the broker’s figures, second charge lending in April totalled £77.6 million, an increase of 242% on April 2020 when the pandemic first gripped the country.

The number of completions dipped below the previous month’s 2,000 headline, with 1,908 second charge loans being completed in April 2021. However, this was still a 278% increase on April 2020.

Month-on-month lending showed there had been a dip in figures from £91.4 million to £77.6 million.

However, Loans Warehouse said this figure didn’t give a true reflection of the growth month-on-month. March had 23 working days compared to April at just 20. Therefore working day completions were up significantly with the daily completion volume for April at £4.57 million compared to £3.97 million in March – an increase of 5.2% per day.

Higher LTV products continued to be a popular use from second charges with an increase of 2.69% month-on-month, the data revealed.

Matt Tristram, co-founder and director of Loans Warehouse, said: “Year to date the businesses has recorded £300 million in second charges and, whilst May is even shorter month than April, growth is widely predicted month-on-month in Q2.”