There is usually valuable little time to take a step again and course of occasions which took place over any given time frame. Especially when it comes to how these occasions might have impacted your buyer base, their behaviours and future outlooks.
After overcoming the preliminary shock of the pandemic, the entire mortgage trade skilled a sustained interval of 100mph lending. Business was coming in from all angles on the again of pent-up demand and because of the stamp obligation vacation incentive.
When sat right here penning this, the stamp obligation vacation and its staggered deadlines to deal with the sheer quantity of business being written look like an age in the past, such are the winds of change which have blown although the housing and mortgage markets in additional recent instances.
The reality is that this deadline elapsed simply over two years in the past and we at the moment are working in a vastly completely different financial panorama the place borrowing calls for have modified, rates of interest have risen considerably and other people throughout the UK are having to search out methods to deal with rising dwelling prices and a mess of different components.
With this in thoughts, it was telling that the outcomes of a analysis paper known as Project Athena – carried out in collaboration between Pegasus Insight and Mortgage Marketing Forum – which highlighted that fast price modifications are inflicting stress and large inefficiencies for mortgage intermediaries.
According to the examine, six in 10 or 61% of shoppers consider that it isn’t a superb time to be searching for a mortgage, whereas a bigger proportion – almost three quarters or 73% – have needed to make cutbacks on expenditure amid financial and market situations, with eating out and takeaways being a key in the reduction of space.
Findings from Project Athena additionally confirmed a change in behaviours and attitudes, pushed by time constraints and the altering significance of business growth managers.
Whilst this makes for some attention-grabbing perception, it additionally bought me questioning what number of of those shoppers thought it wasn’t a superb time to be searching for a mortgage as a result of:
a) this was merely the perceived impression from the media.
b) they don’t consider they might be accepted/qualify due to credit score points – present or historic – on account of how they generate their revenue – being self-employed, a contractor, having a number of revenue streams or uncommon sources of revenue – on account of having a low credit score rating or being too near retirement age.
c) they hadn’t spoken to a mortgage middleman about their choices.
If there are every other choices I’ve missed I might love to listen to them, however I feel these assist underline how essential it’s to make sure that potential debtors are conscious of the available choices, even within the present financial local weather.
It’s clear that volumes throughout the residential mortgage market have diminished over the previous 12 months, and far of this may be put all the way down to the numerous falls within the extra vanilla kind of business which has, and at all times will to an extent, dominate. However, volumes within the specialist residential market have remained much more strong on account of this sector being much less price delicate and the unimaginable information round lending practices and available choices from a much more reactive and proactive middleman neighborhood. And the doorways of specialist residential lenders will stay open and accessible for a larger variety of credit-worthy debtors as we transfer into 2024.
