Data from Legal & General’s SmartrCriteria tool revealed the number of brokers searching for mortgages for clients on furlough went up by 8% between January and February following a 69% increase in January.
It suggested activity in the mortgage market remained strong at the start of 2021, said Legal & General, despite the impact of Covid.
Indeed, while lockdown restrictions were set to be eased, around 4.7 million individuals remained reliant on the government’s furlough scheme.
The continued focus of advisers on mortgages for furloughed borrowers followed a dramatic 230% rise in searches for these products between December 2020 and January 2021.
Legal & General’s data comes from information gauged through more than 1,000 searches logged on its SmartrCriteria tool, which helps advisers quickly determine suitable mortgage lenders for their clients.
Its data also showed a 27% increase in searches for lenders which would consider borrowers who had missed a mortgage repayment. This, said Legal & General reflected the growing cohort of mortgage borrowers who have seen their finances negatively impacted by the crisis.
What’s more, the findings revealed rising house prices, stoked by strong market demand, could also be placing pressure on buyers to seek out more affordable routes onto the ladder.
SmartrCriteria tracked a 60% increase in searches for joint borrower-sole proprietor mortgages. The data followed an 8.5% increase in the UK’s average house price last year, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Clare Beardmore, head of mortgage transformation and operations at Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “The wide-ranging implications of COVID-19 are continuing to play out in the mortgage market and it’s clear that advisers are playing a critical role for borrowers.
“Not only are many focusing their efforts on finding lenders that meet the needs of those with more complex financial circumstances, including those on furlough, but they are increasingly supporting others with more affordable routes onto the ladder too.”
