News Review: Packaging
Rates fall faster than by
Ian Balfour, CEO, Solent Mortgage Services
With the Mortgage Business Expo already in sight in November it is perhaps an appropriate moment to look back at the year and forward to 2012. I think it is fair to say that we all started 2011 with more of
a degree of confi dence that the market has turned the corner, I know I did. To be fair it has not been without its ups, with the increasing numbers of lenders vying for business at the same time as the fi rst real price war with rates falling faster than a tart’s knickers. The threat of rising interest rates also passed without being more of an alarm and it looks as if the smart money is on a rise no earlier than 2013.
About turn However, whatever progress we thought we would make in terms of the volume of mortgage origination has been sadly misplaced. It might be that when the bean counters do the maths, we will actually undershoot the CML’s forecasts. So what put the initial enthusiasm on the back burner? Of course, you don’t have to look very far just by picking
up the papers. Gloom abroad, particularly in the eurozone, with mind boggling sums being tossed about as the price of saving us from the effects of a 30s-style depression that the doomsayers are now saying is just round the corner. At home, the housing market is neither positive nor negative
with fi rst-time buyers having been partly replaced by buy-to- let landlords, which has curbed the predicted price downturn in many areas. On the positive side, the rise of smaller lenders, particularly among the building societies has been a positive as has the increasing infl uence of short-term lending as the go to medium for interim fi nance. There is more choice for intermediaries and their clients and the need for independent advice has become more valuable as the choice available has increased.
Confi dence is key Looking forward, when we come to write the obituaries for 2012, I hope that the fundamentally structural issues which are at the heart of the problems are tackled successfully or in such a way as to bring some much needed confi dence back to the housing and mortgage market. With so much emphasis being placed on the client’s past
record and income versus expenditure, in a post-crunch world those brokers who will have been the most successful in terms of application to completion ratios will be those who have got their clients to secure their credit fi les in advance of application. By having a proper snapshot of the client’s past history,
rather than relying on the client’s memory, they can place the mortgage with more certainty rather than on a wing and a prayer.
www.accordmortgages.com
Find out more at For use by authorised intermediaries only
Accord Mortgages’ products are available via limited partners – check with your club or network Accord Mortgages Limited is registered in England no. 2139881. Registered office, 1 Filey Street, Bradford BD1 5AT Accord Mortgages is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority
MORTGAGE INTRODUCER NOVEMBER 2011 19 ... and eat it
5 year tracker fixed, rates starting at: /
2.29% 2 year tracker - followed by
3.49% 3 year fixed rate
Standard, offset and incentive products, 75% and 85% LTV, product fees vary
Details correct at time of going to press
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