Intermediaries confident about specialist lending prospects

Additionally, 89% are confident about their own company’s prospects over the next twelve months, an annual rise of 5%, and 27% expect their topline revenue to increase by 10%-20%.

When asked what customer types brokers expect to see more business from in the next 12 months, nearly half (47%) of respondents cited specialist finance. 19% expect to see more business from later life borrowers, followed by first-time buyers (14%).

Nearly a quarter (23%) of intermediaries said remortgaging is experiencing the most growth, closely followed by later life lending (20%) and short-term finance (13%).

19% believe property development needs the most innovation in order to meet growing customer demand, alongside later life lending (18%) and buy-to-let products (15%).

In terms of what intermediaries think matters most to customers when taking out a loan, over four in ten (41%) said low rates, followed by flexible criteria (30%) and speed (12%).

Lending criteria (28%) and the impact of regulation (14%) are both cited by intermediaries as being growth challenges in the market.

Jon Hall, managing director at Masthaven, commented: “Despite the ongoing uncertainty facing the UK economy, nothing, it seems, can compete with the resilience or dampen the confidence of specialist mortgage brokers. Instead, Masthaven’s second Broker Beat survey shows brokers’ confidence about the prospects for their own businesses and for the specialist mortgage market as a whole have actually increased over the past year.

“The positive noises from brokers are pleasing to hear, as is the diverse areas of growth identified in the report including remortgaging, later life lending and the short-term markets.

"Intermediaries want access to a range of lending solutions - both long and short-term - and should ensure that these are all options available as part of their broker toolkit. Property development, later life lending and the buy-to-let markets are all areas identified as needing the most innovation to grow – and Masthaven is innovating in each of these markets. The future looks bright – specialist lending intermediaries see no shortage of promising opportunities; and as lenders we should support this over the months and years ahead.”