Business finance can help brokers grow in a flat market – Walker

by: Steve Walker, managing director of Promise Specialist Lending
  • 15/11/2018
  • 0
Business finance can help brokers grow in a flat market – Walker
Where does the next opportunity lie for second charge and specialist lending? The obvious answer is the remortgage market.

 

And that’s a market that has enjoyed a period of growth lately (although it is starting to wane somewhat now).

Earlier in the year, UK Finance announced the residential remortgage market had seen its strongest month in a decade with 46,900 new homeowner remortgages in July, up 26% year-on-year.

It stands to reason, therefore, that the second charge market should also be surging.

But that’s not quite the case. We’re seeing growth, certainly, but not as much as one would expect.

 

Why is this?

From what we’re hearing it’s partly because many of those people who are remortgaging are not actually looking to raise any capital. They are just switching rate.

And that’s not necessarily surprising with the unsettling sense of uncertainty currently gripping the UK.

So what can brokers do?

The answer, as clichéd as it sounds, is we need to start looking at the bigger picture and attract a different customer.

Force of habit meant it is all too easy to offer a remortgage or secured loan for the conventional purposes such as home improvement and debt consolidation.

And I think perhaps we’re seeing that now, which in the current climate leads to a flat market.

 

Business and self-employed

Some brokers, however, are quite rightly having conversations with their clients which deliver further business opportunities, particularly those who have a good number of clients who are self-employed or business owners.

Second charge lenders are comfortable with business finance, even for start-ups, so clients you may not think you can help with business finance may well be business you’re missing out on.

What’s more, business finance gives brokers the opportunity to generate and easily refer more complex commercial enquiries which creates incremental income and fosters better long-term customer loyalty

Have the conversation about business finance. Think wider and look further.

There are opportunities to be found, if you’re willing to ask for them and plenty of firms willing to help you convert them.

 

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