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by Michael Feeney, Meadow Mortgages, Pink, Glasgow


We are finding things quite good; in the past clients using the internet to get mortgages are now coming to a mortgage broker because they can no longer do it by themselves. Mortgages have become harder to get and borrowers don’t know whether to go to a bank or not. People are worrying about losing their jobs, especially people who were in no danger of losing jobs previously so more people are coming in to advisers and buying insurance. Letting agents have never been so


busy. Many people who can’t sell their house quickly enough, raise their deposit for their new house by remortgaging and rent their house out instead hoping market conditions will have picked up in a couple of years. I’m doing a lot of work in partnership with letting agencies where they let the house out and I’ll sometimes get two mortgages to arrange and the insurance.


by Tina Wilkinson, Summit Mortgages, Pink Newcastle


As a company we are growing year on year, we’ve been working with a property finding company (Forces Homes), which specialises in military personnel. Most of our clients are first time buyers and we’ve found that lenders are very willing to provide mortgages to this section of our community, including those based overseas.


Our job is definitely a lot harder now than it was, lenders have become increasingly strict with their criteria but are still lending, contrary to the impression the news can give. We can


26 mortgage introducer MARCH 2011


still obtain mortgages, providing we have full disclosure at the outset. We do a lot of due diligence which is probably why such a high percentage of our cases are accepted.


One of the positives of this crash is that now buyers have to put in some of their own money, they increasingly make much better choices, paying more attention to issues such as resale and affordability than they have in the past, this can only help to stabilise market foundations. Going forward I think rates will creep up, but I believe now is a brilliant time to buy and those who do will reap the benefits of future capital growth.


by David Sheppard, director, Perception Finance, Pink, London


January was quite quiet, but in the first ten days of February we wrote 150% of what we wrote in all of January. I think things are picking up and lending will be increased this year. We are already seeing that lenders want to do business with advisers – some lenders are now offering better deals through brokers than it’s possible to get direct. Of course, there will still be a finite amount of lending this year and brokers will have to offer a good proposition to compete. All areas of lending are seeing signs of


recovery and as we head towards Spring the purchase market will be buoyant. That said, remortgaging is the biggest enquiry we are seeing due to the widely anticipated base rate rises. Long term fixed rates are proving to be very popular as these have been extremely good value of late.


Getting a mortgage is still a difficult thing to do and someone with no background in finance will struggle, but that’s why they need a broker – it’s not just about getting the best rate, most people will use a broker because it’s so hard to get a mortgage alone.


by Daniel Mumford, Grange Mortgage and Protection Services, Pink, Northampton


January and February have been quite buoyant; last year was a year of two halves: the first half was very good, but with a noticeable drop in activity in the second half especially after the emergency budget as everyone was worried about job cuts, tax rises and how it would affect them. Where we go from here is a bit of a knife


edge - interest rates may stay low which would be good as many people have lost jobs are only just making ends meet because interest rates are so low. The speculation of a rate increase has


already meant a number of clients have been in contact to see if they should remortgage and we expect this to increase fourfold if rates do go up. With the increase in competition


amongst buy-to-let lenders, we’ve done more buy-to-let over the last four months than over the last three years combined. The reduction of LTVs and the launch of some very good rates has encouraged investors back in the market, although it used to be big portfolio investors, now it’s first time investors or people with just one or two properties.


by Graham Allsop, Mortgage Needs, Pink, Wirral


This side of Christmas has been very good and we have been writing business at 2008 levels. We have seen a significant rise in the number of enquiries we are receiving from several different areas. Our commercial and residential investors who have established property portfolios and have not been buying for the past three years are now buying again, this is a typical post recession sign that would seem to indicate that we have reached the bottom of the housing market.


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