That’s according to the latest data from mortgage technology expert, Mortgage Brain, which reported the volume of European Standardised Information Sheets (ESIS) being produced increased by 2.4%.

The rise, while small, marks the seventh consecutive weekly increase in these numbers and means ESIS levels are now 8.5% below those seen before the coronavirus pandemic began.

In the same week, however, Mortgage Brain reported product numbers fell by 3% to 8,746 following five weeks of rises.

Overall, the product numbers have gone up by 17.8% since the lowest point during the pandemic. But they still remain more than 40% lower than the nine-week average to 16 March.

Mortgage Brain said this is partly down to the fact lenders have removed their high loan-to-value (LTV) products.

Mark Lofthouse, CEO at Mortgage Brain, said: “The mortgage market has enjoyed quite the turnaround in the last six weeks, with product numbers and ESIS volumes in a far healthier position today than many would have dared imagine.

“While overall product numbers have dropped slightly, this is to be expected as lenders constantly review their ranges and get a feel for the lay of the land in this new normal.”

High LTV market

Lofthouse added: “This is clearly the case at the higher LTV end of the market, which represents a far smaller proportion of business now than we saw before the pandemic took hold. Hopefully we will see the health of this segment of the market improve in time as lender appetite grows.”

Indeed, the technology expert reported, while lending between 85% LTV and 90% LTV fell by 4.4% on the previous week, lending between 80% LTV and 85% LTV increased by the same margin.

Lending above 90% remained level and represented just 1.3% of the ESIS generated on Mortgage Brain’s sourcing systems, sharply down on the 6.6% average seen before the pandemic. In contrast, the LTV business mix below 80% has returned to the same levels seen before the crisis hit.