The coronavirus pandemic may have flattened mortgage approvals across the UK but there are still hotspots of activity, UK Finance data has revealed.

A household finance review for the first quarter of 2020 by banking trade body UK Finance shows mortgage approvals slumped on average across the country but still increased in some parts for first-time buyers and home movers.

This suggests there could still be demand for estate agents to tap into now the market has reopened.

The figures show that mortgage approvals for first-time buyers fell across the UK but were up in the south east of England and London by 3% and 5% respectively during March when the market was on lockdown.

There were large drops elsewhere though, with approvals in Yorkshire down 16% and the north of England registering 20% drop.

The data also shows that while approvals for home mover mortgages were down overall, they rose in each month of the first quarter of 2020 in London, the south east of England and Northern Ireland.

Home mover approvals were also up annually in Wales, the south west of England and East Anglia during March but fell by more than 10% in the north of England and in Scotland.

There was some good news for the lettings sector as buy-to-let approvals rose 7% over the quarter.

UK Finance also warned of a modest pick-up in arrears towards the end of the quarter as the Covid-19 pandemic began to impact home owners, but said the level is still lower than a year ago.

The trade body said:

“It is likely that the significant disruption to activity over the quarter is creating some noise in the data and a clear picture of how trends have evolved in different parts of the country should become more apparent in the coming quarters.

“While regional house purchase year-on-year growth shows variances, the picture for the whole of the UK was fairly flat.”