The Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association points to its latest market tracker to show that intermediary confidence grew slightly in the second quarter of this year.

In Q1 2020, 85 per cent of intermediaries reported a ‘fairly’ or ‘very’ confident outlook. This has since risen to 88 per cent.

Intermediaries are bullish about their own businesses too – in Q2, 93 per cent of the 200 respondents said that they are positive about their operations.

Imla says that the average number of cases for each intermediary hit a low of 81 in March. In June it found a more positive reading of 87.

However, not all of the findings are positive: Imla points out that 59 per cent of offers resulted in a competition in Q2 compared to 79 per cent in Q1 of this year and 85 per cent in the final quarter of 2019.

And the average number of Dips handled by brokers fell, too – from 24 each in Q1 2020 to 17 in Q2 2020.

Imla executive director Kate Davies says: “Despite a global pandemic and now recession, intermediaries are keeping confident and upbeat about the future of the mortgage market.

“With the government’s furlough scheme set to end in October, it remains to be seen how many jobs will have been saved and what the shape of the economic recovery will be. It’s too early to say whether the  demand we are currently seeing in the mortgage market will last, but for the moment it is clearly keeping intermediaries busy and positive, as they work through a wave of applications from hopeful buyers.”