Speaking on a panel at the Mortgage Solutions British New Homes Mortgage Senate, when asked if brokers felt valued, John Doughty, managing director at Just Mortgages’ employed division, said brokers held a “huge amount of value” through the mortgage process as they were present throughout.
He said with the end of Help to Buy, lenders had started to “communicate better” with advisers to help look at the options, and said there was evidence that lenders were engaging with developers too.
“I actually think we are in a much better place than maybe we were,” he added, saying this also depended on whether any suggestions made by brokers were taken on board by lenders, “or whether it’s just a conversation that we’ll be having again in 12 months’ time without action”.
The panel moderator asked, aside from higher proc fees, what would brokers request from lenders, and Doughty said he wanted to see product suggestions “become a reality”.
“We’ve seen newer [lenders] come to the market with some different stuff, and it would be great to see some of the big boys get involved with something a little bit different, because that then pushes the whole market along,” he added.
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Matt Coulson, founder of Heron Financial, said products needed to come to market faster as lenders often “end up solving problems from three years ago”.
He added: “I appreciate there are reasons for that, but if we can get ourselves into a headspace where the market moves way more quickly than it did a decade ago.
“There are loads of innovations, but it’s out of date by the time it arrives.”
Read the other coverage from this year’s event:
