Broker confidence more upbeat in specialist lending sector

Masthaven’s second Broker Beat survey found that 73 per cent of specialist intermediaries feel confident in the market for the coming year, up from 61 per cent last time. The research questioned 120 brokers, directors and firm’s chief executives during April 2019.

Of these, 89 per cent feel confident about their firm’s prospects for the year, up from 84 per cent in the last survey. 

Further, a healthy 27 per cent anticipate that top-line revenue will rise by between 10 and 20 per cent in the coming 12 months.

The biggest challenges in the market were seen to be lending criteria by 28 per cent with regulation a top concern for 14 per cent of respondents.

Outlook improved

“Ongoing uncertainty in the UK economy has not dampened confidence among specialist mortgage brokers, whose outlook for their business and the market has improved since last year,” said Jon Hall, Masthaven managing director (pictured).

When asked to indicate which parts of the market were growing the fastest, remortgaging was noted by 23 per cent of intermediaries, 20 per cent said later life lending and 13 per cent opted for short-term finance.

Thinking about their wishlist for innovation, 19 per cent want developers to innovate more in order to meet customer demand, 18 per cent would welcome innovation in later life lending and 15 per cent want more innovative buy-to-let products.

Asked which customers they expect to see more business from, 47 per cent cited specialist lending, 19 per cent said later life borrowers, and first-time buyers were mentioned by 14 per cent. 

“The diverse areas of growth identified are pleasing to hear, including property development, later life lending and buy-to-let. We are innovating in each of these areas and brokers should ensure that long and short-term lending solutions form part of their toolkit,” Hall said.

In terms of what matters the most to customers when taking out a loan, 41 per cent of brokers said low rates, 30 per cent said flexible criteria and 12 per cent said speed.

“We recognise that customers don’t fit into pre-determined silos. Customer feedback drives the increasing flexibility of products and criteria and a commitment to underwriting complex cases,” added Masthaven’s managing director of mortgages Matt Andrews.