Placed on my desk before me are nine mortgages. Eight are remortgages.
I can’t remember the last time I had this many applications on my desk ready to go. So no Frankie, I won’t Relax, far from it.
In fact, I want to Shout but I can’t, I have some major keying to do.
A quick sip of my coffee and it’s game on. Another HSBC remortgage, and I am ready to Push it – you can see where this is going can’t you, that’s three 80s classics listed already.
Take my breath away
I am sick to my back-teeth of the doom and gloom that Brexit has brought to the industry, how the purchase market has crumbled and the hugely demotivating stats on how many down valuations we have all witnessed in the last three months.
Enough of the teardrops. My medicine to this, has not only been a throw-back to the good times with Heart 80s playing in the office, it’s been the availability of the ridiculous rates that we are currently blessed with in the re-mortgage market.
My god they are low, really, really low. Two-year money from the big lenders is dangerously close to going sub one per cent and five year deals could possibly go sub-1.5 per cent.
It’s a little crazy and proof that we are not on a road to nowhere in this industry. Business in the remortgage market is rife and the opportunity is there to rip it up. I look forward to seeing the second half year stats on remortgage applications so we can all have some positive reading.
The big lenders are definitely getting Into The Groove; squeezing their margins harder than Vinny Jones once famously squeezed Gazza’s crown jewels.
This big squeeze is seeing a huge benefit to the consumer. Regrettably, it’s also resulted in the loss of some of the lenders out there who have simply not been able to pull up to the bumper.
Thoughts go out to the teams of Sainsbury’s and Tesco to name a few.
Living on a prayer
If lenders don’t have a niche right now, if they don’t have a couple of USPs up their sleeve, it’s survival of the fittest and they are under pressure if their mainstay is Vanilla Mortgages and that alone.
Regrettably it won’t be long before another one bites the dust as the price war continues to consume the smaller, weaker victims.
Santander, HSBC, NatWest, Barclays are squeezing rates so hard, that it’s only a matter of time before the market sees more casualties of what can only be described as the most aggressive price war in our history.
While I fear for the future of some of the lenders out there, we must think of the consumer. This last quarter of 2019 represents probably the biggest remortgage opportunity I can ever remember.
Some lenders are now pushing 5.5 times income, rates lower than we have ever seen, nearly all lenders paying on product transfers.
This all represents a huge opportunity for our clients and for us as brokers if we are successfully managing our client base.
The only way is up
While the purchase side is suffering, there are other opportunities. Opportunities that hugely benefit our client, and hugely benefit our businesses.
As ever, the success to this opportunity lies in our management of client database.
So let’s all Sit Down, Pump Up The Volume on the remortgage market, and make the most of the final quarter of 2019.
I have heard a few brokers ask the question Should I stay or should I go, given how the market is. With the rates and weaponry available to us right now, nothing’s gonna stop us now so let’s get Back to Life and make this a quarter to be proud of.
Okay I make that 16 80s song titles right there.
Time to make our own greatest hits for this last quarter. Lenders, brokers, administrators, compliance, let’s unite and make it a quarter to remember.
Now That’s What I Call Mortgages 2019.
