Jennifer Nursiah (pictured), partner at Coreco, recently gained the qualification through a scholarship offered by Lloyds Banking Group.
Nursiah decided to apply for the course, recognising how integral green technology would be to the future of housing and the mortgage market, and because she felt her knowledge at the time was not sufficient to support clients.
Nursiah said this was particularly useful when advising buy-to-let (BTL) landlords, who will be required to meet minimum energy-efficiency standards by law.
“If you look at all of the changes that landlords are having to take into consideration at the moment and are thinking about consequently offloading their buy to lets and coming out of the game altogether, maybe this isn’t actually as big an obstacle as they think it could be.
“Maybe there are solutions that aren’t overly costly. Also, in some cases, the capital gains tax a buy-to-let landlord pays to get rid of a property, versus the cost to upgrade it to the standards needed, maybe somebody just needs to point them in the right direction,” she said.
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She said this could help landlords weigh up their options with informed decisions.
A new view on energy efficiency
Nursiah said the course gave her a “wealth of information” and before doing the scholarship, she knew some products offered a better rate or cashback if a property met a certain Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating, but that was as far as her knowledge went.
Nursiah said the 10-week online programme was “really well-designed”, with course materials being sent every other week and a deadline for the final assessment, which is a multiple-choice test.
Nursiah passed with 100%.
She said the content was “very in-depth”; ” I learned about all of the different types of technologies that can help to improve a property’s energy performance. I learned more about the policy drivers as to why we have to do this and what the next 20 years is supposed to look like”.
Nursiah added: “It’s quite funny because when I’m driving past houses now, I’ll look at really old houses, and they are quite rundown and do need a lot of work.
“It just makes you think; there’s a lot of old housing stock in the UK, and some people aren’t bothered about carrying out any improvements to these houses. They’re just letting them get older and become more neglected. But somebody needs to do something about it because you can’t just build new homes and expect everyone to move into those. Something needs to be done with these older properties too.”
Nursiah said she understood it was not her job to remortgage for her clients to pay for these costs, but to help them understand how refinancing and further advances could fit into the process, as well as other options.
Putting education into practice
Nursiah has begun introducing energy efficiency to client conversations more proactively, which is one of the outcomes of the qualification.
“If anything, I’m just sowing it as a seed and telling clients it might be something they need to think about over the next five or 10 years. Some of them have only just bought and aren’t ready to think about these things, but it’s about putting the concept out there so it’s not a shock,” she said.
There have also been cases where the EPC was out of date and Nursiah has prompted a client to make sure the seller updated it so they were fully aware of a property’s condition.
“That’s been brought more to the forefront for me; it has also helped with future-proofing in terms of my own understanding,” she added.
Lenders backing broker education
Nursiah appreciated that Lloyds Banking Group was giving brokers this opportunity and said this was something more lenders should get involved with.
“I appreciate that the opportunity has come at a time where pushing the green agenda is important, and that’s probably why the scholarship opportunity is available. But I do think that lenders can do more to support the development of brokers,” she said.
She said it was good for a lender to support brokers in elevating their skills, as some had last trained 20-30 years ago. Even though every professional has to do CPD, “learning new skills is really valuable”, Nursiah added.
She continued: “I wonder if maybe brokers don’t really know that there are opportunities that can be provided and what benefit it can bring to them.
“The more scholarship and bursary opportunities that can be provided, the better. Brokers will be more educated and well-rounded for it as well. It’s a big contribution to the role that we can play in educating others.”
She added: “I’m quite surprised that people don’t rush to sign up for these things. Yes, it’s time out of your day and extra study. Many people don’t have the time for that, but it will help them support more people, so there will be a return on their investment of time.
“When lenders go out of their way to create an opportunity and fund something for broker development, brokers should grab that with two hands and be grateful for it because they don’t have to do that. I think it’s brilliant. I would love to see more lenders supporting learning and different skills.”
Nursiah said any broker thinking of achieving the qualification should “do it”, as she was not “much more confident and educated on the matter than I would have otherwise been”.
“The fact of the matter is that homes need to be upgraded over the next 10-20 years. Our job is to understand where we sit in the options available to clients and work alongside professional assessors to show customers how they can afford the upgrades,” she said.
