It said the increase, recorded between the first and second weeks of June, were 20.3% higher than those in the same time period in May.
Nick Chadbourne, CEO of conveyancing solutions provider LMS, which has been producing weekly snapshots of the remortgaging market during the Covid-19 pandemic, said these rising cancellation numbers continued to be ‘a concern’.
He added: “The increase is being driven by changes to consumer personal circumstances, new products becoming available as rates are reducing and older cases being cleared out of the pipeline. All of these combinations could lead to a greater quantum of variance between Q1 and Q2 ends.”
Instructions and completions
Meanwhile, the report revealed instruction volumes increased in June, climbing 8.9% between the first and second week to elevate them to 16.3% higher than at the end of May.
LMS said June’s weekly average number of instructions was currently the second highest in 2020. The only month with a greater weekly average was February, which stood at just 0.7% higher.
When it came to mortgage completions, week two of June saw them fall 53.5% from the previous week.
However, LMS said this was ‘typical’ for the second week of a month and occurred because there was usually a surge of completions at the start of each month.
There was still a ‘significant’ reduction in completion volumes when comparing the data for the second week in June with the same time in May. Indeed, LMS said it had plunged by 42.3% but explained it was common to see drop offs in completions over the summer and last year’s total completion volumes in June were the lowest for the year in total.
Finally, LMS reported on the remortgage pipeline for the week, which spanned from 8 June to 12 June. It said steadily increasing instructions, coupled with the reduced volume of completions, had driven a 2.4% rise in pipeline cases.
Despite this modest growth overall volumes were currently down year-on-year and volumes through July and August were likely to be impacted, LMS predicted.
Chadbourne added: “Market performance continues to follow the trend we have seen over recent weeks, showing a combination of both positive and declining metrics.
“Instructions continue to rise as lenders promote competitively price products and offer attractive rates to customers.
“There are expected to be 10% to 15% fewer ERC expiries at the end of Q2 compared to the end of Q1.
“This will negatively impact the pipeline and completion volumes as fewer customers remortgage.
“However, the real impact on the pipeline will be felt from the increasing number of cancellations and the lack of high-LTV products excluding some customers out the market.”
