Lenders added 804 products in June 2021, taking the total above 13,000 for the first time since before the pandemic, the latest data from Twenty7Tec reveal.

June’s figure was 6.6% higher than the previous month giving borrowers a level of choice not seen since March 2020. 

The number of searches for remortgage jumped by 9% to 437,555 in June compared to May.

The figure for purchases dipped by 4% to 849,845, leaving the overall total number of searches broadly unchanged at 1,252,345.

June’s data show the market rebalancing to a 65:35 split between purchase and remortgage, which is closer to the long-term average after recent highs of 70:30 which reflects buyers rushing to take advantage of the stamp duty holiday.

First-time buyer searches accounted for more than 20% of the total.

Twenty7Tec director Phil Bailey says: “The end of June saw a huge final push for closure of documents. 

“It’s quite funny that we bash solicitors constantly for being really slow and inefficient.

“ But it’s amazing when there’s a financial, commercial element how quickly they suddenly get stuff through. 

“Lenders, brokers, solicitors, conveyancers, the land registry, everyone just upped their game.

“I think that one big lesson from the past year is that the various parts of the market are, slowly, coming together a little more and understanding about the timeframes in which each works.”

The proportion of people who are self-employed as a total of all searches has been steadily increasing recently. 

“Over the past two years, the average is 8.4% of all searches. 

“In 2020, it’s 9.42% of all searches and in June 2021, it was 9.52% of all searches. 

“There’s a lot of talk of the future of work at the moment and it’s definitely a trend that we’re seeing more self-employed people looking for mortgages.

“In the last twelve months, we’ve seen just shy of a million self-employed searches – 926,344.

“We saw a huge rise in the number of products on the market this month – up 804 products. 

“Yet we are still only at 65% of the previous volumes of products on the market. 

“So, given that all searches and ESIS document volumes are still well up on the highs of last year, every product is having to work harder as demand is outstripping supply.”