Use this year’s wins and losses to build on advice practices – Pierson

There’s been lots to celebrate; notable improvements in criteria and mortgage rates stabilising. But uncertainty in the market has weighed down on demand, and new build has endured some quieter months in the latter half of the year. 

But optimism in the office prevails and we’re looking forward to a cracking Q1 now the Budget is behind us. 

So, here are our key takeaways from 2025 that we’ll be carrying forward into 2026. 

Speak up, lenders are listening 

Brokers have been more vocal this year – we’ve noticed it among ourselves and other firms. And lenders, for the most part, have been listening.

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Notable wins that have come from broker feedback, not just from us but the whole community, include improvements in foreign national criteria, 95% for new-build flats and increases in acceptable builder incentives.

And we shouldn’t feel defeated when the response is ‘systems issues won’t allow it’. When lenders see a real unfulfilled need in the market, and there are targets to be hit, they listen. 

But we know it works both ways. We need strong relationships with lenders for them to trust us, our opinions and decisions. We’re proud of the work we’ve done with lenders such as Principality, Skipton and Barclays – focusing on learning their systems and nuances. And if we’re asking for an exception to be granted, we make sure the case is packaged to the highest standard to leave them in no doubt that we believe in the borrower. 

Staying vocal in 2026 will be a top priority. 

Educating builders 

All builders have targets. But not all understand how integral a new-build broker can be in helping them to meet or even beat them. 

That’s why we’ve been educating builders on how specialists with a good knowledge of the market will help them to deliver sales. 

One way we’ve done this is to sell the benefits of working with a new-build broker who understands the immediacy required. If one of their cases suddenly drops out, a new-build broker is best placed to get it back on track with the urgency needed and deliver outcomes that are far outside the norm of the wider mortgage market. 

In 2026, we have a packed programme of builder education we’re keen to deliver, so any developers who still don’t know the benefits of working with a specialist soon will. 

Improve our nurture journey 

One of our reflections from this year is that we could be better at keeping in touch with borrowers we’ve spoken to but who didn’t buy straight away. 

It’s easy to see how it happens. When there’s a steady stream of leads coming through, advisers are less focused on the ones who couldn’t immediately proceed. But it’s a valuable source of revenue and one that shouldn’t be neglected. One of our advisers, who is laser-focused on the nurture journey of his clients, credits this strategy for 50% of his business this year.

In 2026, we’ll be drawing on that expertise to emulate his success in the wider business while looking at ways that artificial intelligence (AI) can help us to achieve our goals. We’ll also be building on our culture of working as one team, and not a group of individual advisers. 

If one adviser doesn’t have the time to retain contact with a borrower whose buying journey is on pause, pass them over to someone who does. 

No more slow nos 

As a business, we’re pretty good at having the difficult borrower conversations that no one wants to have. But could we do better? There’s always room for improvement. 

In fact, it’s been the topic of much discussion in the office in the final months of the year – and something we’re keen to turn into a positive in 2026. 

Having the courage to have difficult conversations with clients straight away, who may not be able to proceed, need not end the relationship. We believe it can actually be the start of a much longer one.

We’ve had customers surprise us and say they can increase the size of their deposit if we can pause for six months, or they can pay off a loan with next quarter’s bonus. But a delay in delivering the message could result in that window of opportunity closing. 

No one likes to be the bearer of bad news – but we’ll continue to tackle the tough news head-on in 2026 to form those lifelong relationships.