The survey revealed that 66% believe that business will be better this year while 74% believe that house prices will rise by up to 5% in 2010.
The majority of intermediaries (74%) believe that interest rates will rise by a maximum of 0.5 percentage points to 1% by the end of the year.
However intermediaries continue to have concerns, as 50% of intermediaries continue to be worried about the availability of funds in 2010 and 39% believe that unfair dual pricing will continue to be a major challenge for the sector.
Dual pricing continues to be a major issue with 64% of intermediaries wanting to see it abolished in 2010. A minority (22%) believe service levels of providers need to improve.
The FSA’s Mortgage Market Review Paper is also causing concern with 12% believing that the challenges caused by the paper will be great. Over three quarters (80%) of brokers also believe that the FSA’s recommendations will only be slightly different to its original plans despite moths of consultation.
David Tweedy, director of Platform, said the survey will be held annually to allow providers a chance to reassess their proposition and service by gauging the position of the market.
He added: “As this is the first survey that we have commissioned we hope to expand the survey going forwards and welcome any suggestions from the intermediary sector.”
