Conveyancers ended 2018 with business at a record high and are bullish on the market’s prospects for this year.

Software provider Search Acumen’s latest Conveyancing Market Tracker found that firms in England and Wales dealt with more cases on average in the final three months of 2018 than in any other quarter since before the EU referendum of June 2016.

The data, based on figures from quarter four, found that conveyancing firms dealt with 65 cases at the end of 2018, and as a result the average firm processed 26% more transactions than five years earlier and 10% more year-on-year.

Andrew Lloyd, managing director of Search Acumen, said: “While recent headlines continue to cast doubt over the short-term prospects of the property market, it’s great to see that conveyancers in England and Wales have been able to find more business regardless and enjoyed a busy end to 2018.

“Firms with high growth aspirations have taken full advantage of the increasing activity, ignoring any uncertainties around Brexit and forging ahead to build their market position.

“Back in the third quarter of last year, we noted that the wider political and economic landscape meant the shape of things to come in terms of transaction volumes is still to some extent anyone’s guess.

“That’s still very much the case as a concrete Brexit solution is yet to emerge from Westminster. But in the meantime, fears of a weaker fourth quarter haven’t materialised so to assume that 2019 will bring a Brexit downturn may be equally premature.”