During a panel discussion at the British New Homes Mortgage Senate, hosted by Mortgage Solutions, the relationship between brokers and developers came under the spotlight.
Felicity Barnett (pictured, right), new-build and affordable housing partnerships manager at Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB), said advisers and housebuilders can become too focused on securing a new-build purchase straight away, at the expense of building longer-term relationships with customers.
“We’re so focused on buying a new build today because of the pressure from site that we forget the long-term picture,” she said.
Barnett also challenged advisers who describe themselves as new-build specialists, questioning whether some are effectively acting as ‘new-build lead advisers’ given that not every customer introduced through a developer will go on to buy a new-build property.
She said brokers should provide developers with feedback on the outcomes of leads they receive, describing the importance of “demonstrating that data back to the developer”.
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Loyalty from developers needed
The discussion also explored what brokers expect in return from closer relationships with housebuilders.
Barnett said: “Brokers want more loyalty. New build is very fast-paced; you’re often only judged upon as good as the last case.”
She added: “Some loyalty would be great. Some developers have got that right, and some developers, not as much.”
Ed McCoy, group sales director of Persimmon Homes, said relationships between developers and brokers have certainly evolved beyond their previously transactional nature.
McCoy said Persimmon Homes has prioritised long-term partnerships, noting that the housebuilder has appointed only one new broker in the last five years.
He added that it “doesn’t happen often these days” that developers move away from a broker because of a single poor experience.
Barnett agreed this was generally the case among larger developers, but said there was still “much more work to do” among medium-sized and smaller housebuilders.
Nurturing prospective buyers
McCoy said there was a significant opportunity to maintain relationships with customers who are not yet in a position to buy.
“We get millions of people come to the Persimmon website, thousands of people that submit their enquiry, and we sell a couple of hundred homes a week,” he said.
“The development of the relationship is all about nurturing and developing the customers,” McCoy added.
He added that there was a “rich vein of opportunity” in helping prospective buyers return to the market when they are ready to purchase.
Morne Jacobs, director of strategic partnerships at The Mortgage Store, also highlighted the importance of engaging with borrowers early in the home buying journey.
“Get involved as early as possible,” he said, adding that successful partnerships depend on “trust between the builder and the broker” and greater “collaboration and trust” between developers and advisers.
