expect to do more business in the second half of 2010 than the first. Only 1 in 6 (15%) were pessimistic about the prospects for later in the year.

Brokers also confirmed that more than half of them (56%) had written more mortgage business in the first few months of 2010 than they had in 2009. Around a quarter (28%) had written less.

The poll, which was conducted amongst mortgage brokers who attended the lender's forum event last week at the O2 in London, also found that short term (3 years or less) fixed rate mortgages were predicted to be the biggest sellers in the second half of the year by 41% (5 years or more) fixed rate deals favoured by 30%. Maybe suprisingly, only a fifth (20%) of brokers thought that tracker deals would be best sellers.