Compared to November and December 2014, the total number of transactional instructions in January and February – comprised of both sales and purchases - increased by 127%, with remortgage instructions increasing by 84% over the same period. Total instructions for January/February 2015 were 112% up on the first two months of 2014.
The split between transaction and remortgage business widened with purchase levels in particular rising significantly. Transaction levels accounted for 69% of all business compared to 65% in the last two months of 2014, while remortgage instructions fell back from 35% to 31%.
The distributor said its instruction levels have increased due to a number of reasons notably the significant growth in the number of new brokers using the distributor each month. New users - those placing their first instructions - have now averaged over two a day for 10 consecutive months, while the total number of monthly users has more than doubled year-on-year.
Harpal Singh, Managing Director of Broker Conveyancing, commented: “Despite some evidence that suggests transaction levels have fallen since before the end of the year, Broker Conveyancing has seen growth in both our transaction and remortgage instructions, particularly for purchases. We put this down to a number of drivers including a rise in the level of new-build purchase activity as well as buy-to-let purchases. Add in the fact that the post-Mortgage Market Review environment undoubtedly favours the broker sector and we can see an improvement in overall broker business activity and a greater number of firms developing the conveyancing advice part of their propositions.
As well as this evolving market, a huge factor for us has been the success of our ‘time to switch’ marketing activity. We have seen a huge rise in the number of new broker registrations, the number of new users per month, and the number of total users. This meant that in February this year we had more than double the number of instructions than in the same month in 2014. Both users per month and the number of new registrations during February were also double those of the year previously, which is clearly feeding into the increased activity on the portal.
This is partly why we have increased the number of solicitor firms on panel over the last six months in order to make sure we have conveyancers who can cope with the increased level of business and can continue to provide a top-class service. 2015 has certainly kicked off well and, even with events which may dampen activity such as the General Election on the horizon, we are confident Broker Conveyancing can maintain this upward trajectory.”
