July saw the highest number of product illustrations generated by brokers for any month this year, figures from Mortgage Brain reveal.

Downloads of European standardised information sheets increased by 0.2 per cent over the past week to Sunday, marking the second week that numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

It follows an increase of 1.7 per cent the week before last.

However, product numbers have declined for the fourth consecutive week, dropping 1.3 per cent to stand at 8,857. 

They are now down by 39.6 per cent on the nine-week average to March 16 March, but are up by 19.3 per cent on the lowest point seen during the crisis.

Purchase demand has been driving the increase in ESIS downloads in both the residential and buy-to-let markets.

Last week Mortgage Brain reported that lending at 90 per cent loan-to-value was extremely challenging with the number of ESIS for borrowers with a 10 per cent deposit just under 1 per cent of the total number of illustrations generated, compared to 6.6 per cent before the pandemic.

But the sourcing system says that in the 80-85 per cent LTV tier ESIS numbers have been around 9 per cent higher than pre-Covid levels for seven consecutive weeks and now account for 22.5 per cent of all illustrations generated.

Mortgage Brain chief executive Mark Lofthouse says: “It is little short of extraordinary that we have seen such a bumper July. 

“ESIS volumes have been trending healthily upwards for some time, a clear demonstration of just how strong demand to buy is from both owner occupiers and property investors. 

“This is traditionally a quieter time for the market, so it will be interesting to see if this momentum is maintained over the summer.

“Product numbers remain a concern however. While they have dropped by only modest amounts over the last four weeks, the fact is that brokers and their clients now have 4.4 per cent fewer deals to choose from than a month ago, and almost 40 per cent fewer than in the days before the pandemic.”