Conveyancing firms that survived the recession are handling more cases than in 2007, even though conveyancing activity is well down.

Last year, in an industry that experienced a cull of nearly one in four conveyancers, seven firms completed 6,000-plus cases – only one did the same ten years ago – and the top 200 firms achieved a collective 36% market share.

However, while the average number of transactions per firm reached a ten-year high, conveyancing activity was 23% less than in 2007.

A new conveyancing market tracker from Search Acumen, which does local authority searches, says there were 5,871 conveyancing firms active in the market last year, down 24% on the 7,733 in 2007.

The loss of 1,862 firms includes a drop of 204 last year, despite conveyancing activity rising to 1,025,634 transactions.

The average firm handled 33% more conveyancing cases last year than in 2013 – equating to a case load of 175.

This edges past the previous high of 173 in 2007.