Yet, in all the noise and confusion, very little broker attention has focused on the building society movement, which has never gone away and is alive and kicking.

As an industry we had become rather used to a surfeit of lenders and a complete smorgasbord of product choices, all available with the click of a mouse.

What is now clear is that the idea of building relationships at a local level with mutuals is a skill which has gone rusty as brokers were inundated with BDMs directly from lenders and/or packagers, all keen to do the relationship work for the broking community.

The best brokers will have kept in touch with some building societies and, as a result, will have been able to place mortgages more easily than their counterparts, who still believe that the totality of lending exists on their sourcing system of choice.

However, even these brokers will have found it difficult to maintain the level of relationships across the range of building societies and the products which they are now offering.

Sponsored

Aldermore Insights with Jon Cooper: Edition 9 – Why lending strategy is becoming more central in buy to let

Sponsored by Aldermore

So, there are good reasons evident that the good old building society could be the rallying point for the industry.

While they might not be able to provide a volume fix for the lost capacity in the market, they are flexing their muscles.

Like the Leeds Building Society, mutuals are offering both proof positive of corporate intent to lend in greater volume, but also innovative products in niche areas, which brokers will not easily find just by relying on their sourcing systems.

So, to the specifics, what makes building societies so important for brokers not to ignore?

– Societies are lending in specific markets such as first-time buyer, shared equity, buy to let and offset at a time when mainstream lenders are particularly restrictive.

One of the major reasons for this area flourishing is that manual underwriting is still the norm. Cases are considered on their merits by underwriters who do not have to defer to a computer programme when assessing a case.

How many brokers are tired of seeing a case seemingly fit the criteria, only to have the lenders turn round and declare that the case has failed at the assessment stage? Manual underwriting is an advantage that needs to be emphasised.

– The best building societies, particularly the smaller ones such as the Saffron, Ipswich and Manchester Building Societies, have been quicker and more nimble to launch products in a specific area, before the competition becomes aware and before price becomes an issue.

Building societies can charge a respectable margin relative to the risk before that product area is flooded by providers which by default means that price becomes a larger factor in the sale.

The obsession with price, as the principal feature which brokers use to establish how good a product relative to its competition, is well overdue for reassessment.

This state of affairs has not been helped either by the way that sourcing systems default to a price grid and the regulator, to a lesser degree, intimating that price is a key determinant.

Most building societies resisted the ‘volume at any price’ business model during the boom years, which could have had much to do with a more limited appetite for new lending.

However, today their overall view is to be able to offer products that fill particular market segments where the needs of the client base are not governed by price sensitivity.

For brokers to make the most of the building society offerings, particularly those offered by smaller societies, they need to resist the siren call of the sourcing system and look to assess products for their practical application and whether the client will actually be eligible.

For intermediaries, distributors provide local and national market knowledge, as well as access to building society products, which they might very well miss on a sourcing engine.

The aim is to offer solutions, price competitive where possible, but as a holistic answer to the enquiry placed by an introducer. Distributors assist lenders by helping to control the flow of volumes to the lender thereby ensuring they are not swamped which could result in their service standards being adversely affected.

Building societies are still an undiscovered country for many advisers.

Brokers should invest time in researching their own local societies and/or looking at distributors that have the knowledge and contacts to provide access to lending facilities which can help make the best mortgage brokers into more indispensible resources for their clients.

Matthew Arena is managing director of Brilliant Solutions