The organisation’s statement led the concluding part of its state-of-the-nation report on the mortgage market, The Changing Shape of the UK Mortgage Market: Emerging Themes.
The publication identified mid- to long-term trends in the market that would likely be positively influenced by more joined up thinking at national and local level.
They included;
- The number of mortgage lenders being 13 per cent lower today compared to a decade ago and that number continuing to shrink;
- The competition between lenders intensifying and the apparent attractiveness of higher-risk and niche business continuing to increase;
- Housing transactions having plateaued, and turnover, relative to the size of private housing stock, reaching close to historic lows; and
- Housing and mortgage markets having become dependent on government interventions.
The third and final chapter of the report urged “all parties to recognise the growing polarisation of society along inter-generational lines and show appropriate levels of flexibility and sensitivity”.
It called for “government interventions to be more aligned and considered against the wider impacts across markets and tenures”. Further, government should “recognise that housing market interventions have become embedded into current market conditions,” it said.
And, it urged “all parties to think about what else can be done to help later-life households draw on housing equity or other sources of finance to support their living costs in retirement.”
“We have deliberately stopped short of making specific recommendations for particular bodies, whether government or regulators, “ said Jackie Bennett (pictured), director mortgages at UK Finance.
“Rather, we hope the report will act as a springboard for further discussion about the future direction of regulation and policy thinking,” Bennett said.
Kate Davies, executive director at the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, added: “We fully endorse the report’s conclusion that the challenges facing the housing market require long-term co-ordination of housing policy and mortgage regulation – and that policy needs to evolve rather than change abruptly in order to avoid market disruption.”
Part one of the report focused on how the housing market context for mortgage lending has changed in the decade since the financial crisis.
Part two looked at the key themes and trends in mortgage lending.
