Comment from Phil Bailey, Director at Twenty7Tec about the 95% market in terms of ESIS and searches:

“It’s fair to say that the Government’s 95% guarantee scheme has reignited mortgage searches in that loan to value range.

“Since March 3^rd, we have seen mortgage searches for products in the 95-100% range up eight-fold. The week after his announcement, 95% mortgages formed 1.02% of mortgage searches. 6 weeks later, after the first full week operating under the scheme, that’s now 8.00%. Total mortgage searches over those weeks were stable.

“In terms of first time buyers, volumes of mortgage searches have remained stable for products up to 95% since the Budget. But product searches in the 95% range have gone up 12-fold.

“In terms of having lenders sign up, it’s working. In terms of having demand find an outlet? It’s working.

“Over the same period, we have seen the total number of ESIS documents created in the 90-100% range rise by 50%. There’s clearly still unmet demand in the market, but we think that over coming days, we’ll see more matches made between products both in and out of the scheme in the 95% range and the obvious demand that has built up in this area over the past year.”