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‘Industry statistics do not reflect the reality of business’ – Marketwatch

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  • 03/06/2020
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‘Industry statistics do not reflect the reality of business’ – Marketwatch
As housing market data is being paused by some sources due to a lack of activity, the importance of these figures in revealing the state of the industry has been thrown into question.

 

So this week, Mortgage Solutions is asking: How important are industry statistics in your understanding of the overall market? 

 

Adam Wells, co-founder of Lloyd Wells Mortgages 

We regularly keep an eye on the industry news and between fellow co-founder Pete Lloyd and I, we will discuss anything that stands out. That being said, the importance of them is quite low.  

We are always pushing ourselves to be the best we can be and the news at the minute is that purchases have dried up, but there was a busy remortgaging period in April.  

We are still completing applications on purchases and remortgages, residential and buy-to-let. Maybe as a relatively young business in a strong Bristol market, we haven’t been impacted in the same way as the large brokerages who might be based in the South East.

We find that the industry statistics don’t always reflect how our business is performing. We see many brokerages who deal with newbuild homes, equity release, or buy-to-lets that have been severely impacted.  

As we haven’t concentrated on one niche, we have been able to adapt and focus on the clients that are looking for help during this difficult time. 

When it comes to data, we trust some more than others and tend to concentrate on the sources we know. Be that from Halifax or L&G for example. If the information is being reported from a reputable source, we are also more likely to read it. 

The pause in house price indexes is less of an issue for us as we don’t use it for our own forecasting. 

Our outlook will remain the same regardless. We know what our targets are and what we need to do to achieve them.

I’m sure most businesses are being realistic about this year and have already got their plans in place to make it a success. 

 

James McGregor, director of Mesa Financial 

I take industry stats with a huge pinch of salt.  

It seems every lender has their own stats on property prices and the market which usually supports their own business interests.

A lot of the time they are well away from the reality of the larger economic data that is being released.  

I would say the only two pieces of data you can rely on when looking at the property market is the actual sold prices and how many transactions have been completed.  

This gives a gauge on valuations as well as how liquid the market is.  

Luckily our outlook on business is nothing to do with any data that is released.

We can only work on things that we can control, so I do not believe there will be much impact on our business at all given the lack of data and pauses on house price indexes.  

Mesa Financial is all about looking after our clients and we will continue to do this through the good and bad times. 

 

Akhil Mair, managing director of Our Mortgage Broker 

To be honest it is not really something I pay much attention to because various sources conflict one another when it comes to the house price index (HPI) index, number of sales, average sale times and so on.   

They do not often reflect how business is going for me. In the last 12 weeks I have seen and managed to support more clients than in the previous 12 weeks.  

Our business continues to grow because of our strong client relationship and professional introducers.  

I don’t really trust or rely on any particular sources as I try to stay clear of data. I find it manipulated or find the source has an agenda.  

I tend to work with my introducers, clients and lenders and best support them with real time and live information.  

The lack of data has not influenced my outlook on this year. I strongly believe every property has a buyer and every vendor can achieve a sale.  

The key is to work with the right partners to understand the motives and create a winwin.  

The UK is lacking in new homes being built and borrowing is at the cheapest it has ever been; therefore, I strongly believe there will be a pent-up demand for the remainder of 2020 and in 2021.

 

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