LMS, the conveyancing solutions provider, has published an update tracking remortgage market performance through the COVID-19 crisis.

The update includes LMS’ proprietary data on pipeline activity and cancellation volumes, and remortgage instructions and completions.

It provides an interesting insight into an influential sector of the mortgage market

Remortgage instruction volumes began to show signs of steadying in the week commencing 6th April, with a reduction of just 14% in new cases from the previous week, and 18.9% from the week commencing 16th March, when lockdown measures were first announced.

Remortgage completions returned to benchmark levels last week, following a bounce in the first week of the month, reflecting the peak in ERC [early redemption charges] expiries.

Completions in the week commencing 6th April were 22% higher than the week commencing 23rd March; a further sign that lenders and conveyancers are acclimatising to the process changes and demands imposed by the lockdown.

Remortgage pipeline activity coming into April was 6% higher than the same point last year, and ontinued growthis expected throughout the month, as normal, before resetting at the start of May.

Remortgage cancellations have seen a small increase in recent weeks, beginning on 27th March, which is to be expected given the changes in many borrowers’ individual circumstances, as a result of COVID-19.

As the baseline for cancellations in real terms was already very low, the overall increase of 35% still only accounts for less than 1% of all remortgage transactions, so has limited impact on overall market performance.

Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, commented:

“There is cause to be optimistic when looking at both yearly comparisons of our key indicators and the upcoming pipeline data.

“For borrowers looking to remortgage, the industry remains firmly open for business as usual.

“As we move further through this crisis, we expect the remortgage market to remain strong and much of the work from lenders and conveyancers to update and digitise their processes will result in stronger businesses and a stronger industry for years to come.”