Self-employed cases the most difficult to place, intermediaries say

45% of respondents indicated that self-employed cases are the most problematic in the current lending environment. This was followed by high LTV cases (34%), cases where the applicant is on furlough (12%) and cases where the applicant has taken a mortgage payment holiday (5%). ‘Other’ made up the final 4%, with respondents pointing to adverse and buy-to-let HMO as also being difficult cases to find a homes for.

'Difficult to place cases' was the most viewed category across cherry's forums in H1, with over 47,000 visits.

cherry launched in 2005 to provide an area of the web where financial services workers, especially intermediaries, could communicate about industry issues and gain access to industry news, press releases, events and products. To date, members have added more than 32,000 forum topics and over 208,000 comments.

Donna Hopton, director at cherry, said: “It’s evident from these results that intermediaries are struggling with self-employed applications and servicing the needs of those higher LTV borrowers. Whilst these results are hardly surprising, it’s important that the intermediary community finds their voice and forms a collective approach to highlight problem areas.

“Raising the profile of those ‘difficult cases’ will better inform lenders of the challenges they face and enable them to generate the types of solutions which will allow intermediary partners to service a wider range of client needs moving forward.”