The property market recovery has led to a blossoming in intermediary confidence, which hit a six-year high in the spring sunshine.
Confidence increased sharply in the first quarter of the year, according to the latest quarterly tracking survey by specialist buy-to-let lender Paragon Mortgages.
Paragon's confidence index hit its highest level since the beginning of 2008 at 104.7.
But that is still well below its 2007 peak, when the index reached 147.6.
It subsequently fell to its lowest level of 63 in the third quarter of 2010.
John Heron, director of mortgages, said: "Thanks to this unique long-running survey we can see very clearly how confidence was knocked for six during the financial crisis.
"It stayed depressed through to 2011 when things started to improve."
At the start of 2013, the index still stood at a relatively low 87.2.
"We are now seeing a significant improvement in confidence as the market recovers and it will be interesting to see if this is maintained through the implementation of MMR," Heron said.
Intermediaries also reported during the first quarter that 21% of their mortgage cases were buy-to-let and 19% were for first-time buyers.
The gap between the two cases started to close during the past 12 months, as the number of first-time by cases steadily increased.
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