News Review: Lending


Remortgage market could provide positives by


David Finlay, intermediary channel director, Barclays


throughout 2011 i have waxed lyrical about the remortgage market and there is no doubt that i will continue to be an advocate of this market in 2012. the positive signs are


there for all to see. the latest figures at the time of writing show that according to data from the Bank of england, remortgage lending increased by 27.6% year-on-year in october 2011. it totalled £3.7bn, up from £2.9bn in october 2010 but down marginally on the £3.8bn lent in September. economic conditions for


the early part of 2012, at least, will remain challenging but there is certainly enough demand from homeowners and appetite from lenders to see the remortgage market continue on the positive trend experienced throughout 2011. However it is a market


which falls some way short of the huge potential on offer. this is certainly something


lenders and intermediaries can and should be working towards improving over the year ahead.


Mutuals any successful intermediary market needs innovation, competition and impetus. the mutual sector has long been one that has injected all of these components into the marketplace but in recent years, like the rest of the market, has been somewhat subdued. So with that in mind it’s great to see some heartening statistics coming from this sector. data from the Building Societies association shows that gross mortgage lending by mutuals totalled £2.3bn in october 2011, a 20% increase on the £2bn advanced in october 2010. commenting on these


figures adrian coles, director-general of the BSa, said: “With the government recently announcing policies that highlight the importance of the housing market to the uK economy, building societies and other mutual lenders continue to play their part supporting homebuyers.” i whole-heartedly concur


with these sentiments and another reassuring aspect stemming from the mutual sector is the growing activity surrounding the offset mortgage. in the final weeks of 2011 Leeds Building Society cut rates on its 2-year discount offset mortgage range and manchester Building Society announced a 1% discount variable offset product. Such innovation in what we still believe to be an under-utilised product is great for the market and for borrowers.


Property this is the time of year when we see a wide array of reflection on last year and predictions for the year ahead. in terms of the property market it comes as no real surprise that many of these sentiments are not hugely inspiring. according to Hometrack,


2011 is set to register the lowest level of property sales in 40 years. in its latest national housing survey, the firm says it forecasts 840,000 sales for 2011 and expects this trend of low transaction levels to continue into 2012. London estate agency


Fast-building a reputation as the home for BTL.


Whatever the Bank of England’s decision on base rates. Aldermore has it covered with a full range of variable and fixed BTL mortgages...


Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward agrees with these sentiments and is predicting property transactions to be flat in 2012. However it isn’t all discouraging news as when rightmove asked 25,000 people thinking about buying a house, it found that just three in ten were pessimistic about house prices. So on a positive note it appears that the public’s historically strong love affair and belief in the value of bricks and mortar seems to be somewhat defying the deteriorating economic situation. this can only be a heartening thing for the mortgage market moving forward and it will be proactive intermediaries who will be first in line to pick up on any of this activity.


FOR INTERMEDIARY USE ONLY


To find out more call 0333 321 1000 aldermore-mortgages.co.uk


mortgage introducer JANUARY 2012 7


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52