72% of brokers believe that the specialist mortgage market presents more opportunity than ever before, United Trust Bank’s (UTB) white paper has revealed.
United Trust Bank Mortgages published the white paper looking at the health of the specialist mortgage sector two years after its inaugural report.
According to brokers who took part in the research, the higher inflationary environment appears to have pushed more consumers into the specialist mortgage sector, with one in five brokers now concentrating solely on servicing customers who fall into the specialist category.
60% of brokers said that they had written more specialist mortgage cases in the past 12 months as a proportion of their business than in the previous year.
17% indicated that more than half of their cases now required a specialist lender.
More than 130 brokers took part in quantitative research, followed by a number of deep-dive calls with individuals to obtain a more detailed understanding of the data collected.
Prominent industry figures, including Stephanie Charman, group partnerships and propositions director at Sesame Bankhall Group, Liz Simms, managing director of Connect Mortgages, William Lloyd-Hayward, COO of Brightstar Financial, and Matthew Arena, group managing director at Brilliant Solutions, were among those who took part in interviews relating to the research.
The report also included independent research from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), Registry Trust, UK Finance and the Insolvency Service.
Buster Tolfree, director of mortgages at United Trust Bank, said: “This report illustrates just how much the specialist mortgage market has evolved in such a short period, albeit with significant economic factors pushing it along.
“Specialist mortgage lending has certainly increased in importance, and its place in the market is only going to grow.
“For many customers it will be their only route to reaching their property-owning aspirations. Particularly as mainstream lenders are more frequently unable or unwilling to serve borrowers with more complex needs.”
He added: “The lender community can do more to help brokers recognise and then take full advantage of the opportunities the specialist lending market has to offer, and my colleagues and I at UTB are committed to doing just that, recognising that we achieve more if we work together and that united, we go further.
“A huge thank you to Jeff Knight for undertaking the research and to the brokers and industry experts who gave up their valuable time to share their valued opinions and insight. We really appreciate it.”
