Mortgage intermediaries are very confident in the state of their own business, signaling that most are confident in the thriving nature of the mortgage market.
Some 98% felt ‘very confident’ (46%) or ‘fairly confident’ (52%) about the prospects for their own business, while 92% were confident about the mortgage market generally, a poll by trade body the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA) shows.
Buy-to-let makes up a quarter of intermediary business, with two thirds being mainly residential lending, and the remaining being specialist lending.
Kate Davies, executive director of IMLA, said: “The buy-to-let sector continues to thrive, still accounting for almost a quarter of mortgage business, despite the extra Stamp Duty imposed on purchases in October’s Budget and continuing concerns over the impact of the Renters’ Rights Bill.”
She added: “These results suggest that, despite global economic and political uncertainty, the continued resilience of the UK housing market and the falling interest rate environment have combined to boost morale among mortgage intermediaries.
“The end of the stamp duty concessions on 1st April will have contributed somewhat to the uplift in average case numbers. However, the fact that first-time buyer businesses accounted for a smaller proportion of residential activity than remortgages and PTs demonstrates a more general recovery of business levels.
“With affordability continuing to improve as rates come down and the regulator encouraging more lender flexibility, brokers seem confident that these higher levels of activity may continue later into the year.
The Decision in Principle to completion ratio improved across all sectors.
