There’s been a marked increase in the number of mortgage applications coming via mortgage brokers, according to Iress’ Mortgage Efficiency Survey.

The technology business said that the proportion of mortgages that came through intermediaries has risen from 77.5% last year to 90% now.

It also found that lenders have substantially improved their mortgage lending processes during the pandemic. Driven by the restrictions placed on the industry throughout the pandemic, they have focused on modernising their systems and becoming more efficient.

Despite this, there is still a wide variation in the time in takes for lenders to make an offer from when they receive your mortgage application, with averages ranging from 14 days to 32 days across the lenders surveyed.

Iress’ survey report describes “an industry emerging from a challenging year with a renewed focus on customer experience, technological efficiency and digital tools”.

Iress’ head of business development, Steve Carruthers, said: “A continued low interest rate environment, changing preferences amongst UK house buyers, the extended stamp duty holiday and the government’s 95% LTV guarantee scheme did much to restore confidence in mortgage lending and borrowing.

“It brought much change and new challenges for lenders – but the need to process business efficiently has not changed; whether because of the volatile volumes, the evolving requirements of borrowers, the risk appetites of lenders, or how applications need to be processed.

“Our report shows true evolution across all parts of the industry at a time when efficiency and agility is more critical than ever.”