Topics discussed include the economic environment, lending landscape, Consumer Duty, sustainability and protection.
Here are our key takeaways from the events.
1. Mortgage maturities will hit record 1.8m next year
Speaking at TMPE in Manchester, Clare Beardmore, Legal and General Mortgage Club, said UK Finance figures showed that over 1.8m customers will reach maturity next year.
She said that this represented a huge remortgaging and product transfer opportunity for brokers, as well as lenders.
She added that many borrowers were concerned about unexpected costs, and this is only likely to grow.
Beardmore pointed to rising mortgage rates, which she said no one expected to rise as quickly as they did, and to be set alongside the cost of living crisis.
TMPE 2022: ‘Mortgage maturities to hit record 1.8m next year’ – L&G Mortgage Club
2. Lloyds launch three-year PT to all channels after broker feedback
Andy Mason, Lloyds Banking Group’s head of strategic partnerships, said that the lender recognised broker frustration around a three-year direct only product transfer deal and that it was now open to all channels.
He said that the product was the outcome of an urgent trial following discussions with the government to reach out to struggling or indebted borrowers.
TMPE 2022: Lloyds launches three-year PT to all channels after ‘listening’ to brokers
3. Brokers need to start having ‘decarbonisation’ discussions with clients
In a fireside chat, finance partnerships manager at Sero, Cerys Williams, said that brokers were fundamental in promoting green mortgages.
She noted that green mortgages today were “dipping a toe” into energy efficiency but, in the future, the energy efficiency of a property would impact the salability.
Williams added that there was an emerging green premium for energy efficiency homes and that some properties in the future could be “unfavorably mortgaged potentially”.
She added that meeting net zero targets required a huge amount of retrofitting, which the country was already behind on, and upcoming EPC legislation was a tall ask.
TMPE 2022: Brokers need to start ‘planting the seed’ of decarbonisation ‒ Sero
4. Buy-to-let sector will be tough and private schemes will fill HTB gap
Charlotte Harrison, head of mortgage products at Skipton Building Society, said that the buy-to-let sector will remain challenging if rates remain elevated.
Panellists pointed to rising stress tests, interest rates and higher loan-to-value mortgages being harder to secure. They said that this could lead some to reconfigure their portfolio or dispose of properties, which could be good for first-time buyers.
Reece Beddall, sales and marketing director for Bluestone Mortgages, said that there were a lot of private schemes that could take the place of Help to Buy, but they needed to evolve in order to work with specialist lenders.
TMPE 2022: Buy-to-let space will be ‘tough’ until rates come down
5. Consumer Duty is ‘paradigm shift’ especially for evidencing
Chloe Timperley, senior policy adviser at Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, said complaints data would not be sufficient for upcoming Consumer Duty regulation.
She said that firms would have to look at clients who didn’t proceed or come back for repeat business and businesses would need to analyse why.
Timperley added that focusing on the customer’s end-to-end journey was a “way in” to thinking about Consumer Duty.
She also said that protection would become increasingly important and that whilst Consumer Duty did only apply to regulated business it would be good to “apply universal standards”.
TMPE 2022: ‘Complaints data is not going to be sufficient’ for Consumer Duty standards – Timperley
6. UK will experience ‘short shallow recession’
The UK will have a short-lived and shallow recession and house prices will not fall to the extent that experts have predicted, according to Jennet Siebrits, head of research at CBRE.
She noted that expectations were for inflation to peak at the end of the year at around 10.5 per cent then come down.
Siebrits added that she expected interest rates to peak at around four per cent next year, a little lower than the 4.5 per cent predicted.
TMPE 2022: ‘A short, shallow recession’ and no house price crash – Siebrits
