Recent IMLA research suggested 51% of mortgage advisers found interest-only mortgages to be the hardest cases to place.
We asked our expert panel why a market that has seen a raft of lender criteria changes from the likes of Virgin Money, Teachers BS, Leeds BS and Halifax Intermediaries, is still not offering enough of a product armoury for mortgage intermediaries to place cases.
Seasame Bankhall Group sales director Mark Graves suggests training from lenders is one way to help brokers review the market and promote the products to clients.
Our panel (from left to right) features Victoria Hartley, group editor and chair Mortgage Solutions; Andrew Montlake, director, Coreco; Mark Graves, sales director, Sesame Bankhall Group; Gareth Lowman, associate director, SPF Private Clients; and Martese Carton, head of intermediary distribution, Leeds Building Society.
With thanks to Leeds Building Society, our video sponsors.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.