4The number of borrowers rose again in June back to the levels seen in January, which is previously unheard of in the summer. Whether through ignorance, optimism or market need, the amount that they want to borrow has also risen to a national average of £136,400. Of course the regional pictures show different stories; there are many regions where the borrowing amounts have dropped, but the national average has been pulled up significantly by the South Central area where average borrowing amounts have gone up by 17% to £187,414 the highest loan amounts outside of London. In contrast the biggest drop in borrowing amounts is only 4.4% and this took place in the North West where the average loan requested is now £112,000.
The other region to see a big jump in the amount that its residents wanted to borrow was Scotland. There, borrowing amounts jumped by 8.6% to £112,122 the highest amounts it has ever seen, and the number of borrowers increased by almost 4% too.
As an aside, the number of borrowers looking for advice via the internet has increased across the board by an average of 3.7%, with the largest increase in borrowers occurring in Northern Ireland where there were 12.5% more people looking for advice than there were last month, and an incredible 55% more than last year.
The contrast with last year is remarkable in almost all respects: the amount that people want to borrow is 4% higher than last June; the number of borrowers has increased by 11% while the cost of accessing those people and buying leads has dropped by 22% in a year.
The brokers who are best off compared to this time last year are those in the South Central area: there are 10% more borrowers than a year ago and borrowers here still want to borrow almost 20% more than this time last year. And at the same time the price of buying leads has dropped by 27%.
The Midlands, the North and Wales were the only regions to see a drop in the amount that people wanted to borrow compared to this time last year although they were consistently the highest providers of people looking for mortgage advice, with those three regions providing almost 40% of all the UK’s borrowers.
While advisers are likely to convert fewer leads to business now than they were last year, with an average drop in lead prices of 22%, they can afford to buy that many more leads than they could last year, so converting 22% fewer will yield the same amount of income as a year ago. n
Grant Stevens is managing director of Leadbay
