Jeremy Duncombe, managing director at Accord Mortgages, discusses supporting brokers, first-time buyers (FTBs), and innovation amid current market challenges.
Can you tell me about the Mortgage Mentors podcast and how it fits into your strategy to support brokers or borrowers?
That’s something I wanted to do for a while. There are lots of podcasts out there where people talk about the market, but what I’ve tried to do recently, especially as this is something we see at Accord, is focus on mentoring as a really good way to support people coming into the industry.
We’ve done work both with Accord and with the Working in Mortgages website, which is a joint venture between the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) and the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association (IMLA). The aim is to encourage new and diverse talent into the market and to show that mortgages and finance can be a great career with many different paths.
Often, people assume that senior leaders have all followed the same route – university, then working at various lenders – but there are so many different stories. I’ve spoken to people like Ben Thompson, who became deputy CEO of Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) and left school without any qualifications, and Esther from Lloyds Banking Group, who moved across to the UK from the Netherlands.
These stories show that with the right attitude and drive, people can achieve all sorts of things, regardless of their background. The podcast is about sharing these journeys and the mentors who helped along the way. The feedback has been great – people are really interested in hearing these stories. It’s all part of our Growth Series, which is a free library of content we provide to brokers to help them grow their businesses.
Can we expect any significant innovations or new products before the end of 2025?
Yes, from a forward point of view, we’re looking to evolve our propositions further. There’s a long list of things we’d love to do, and we’re just prioritising the order in which we deliver them. This year, you’ve already seen several things from us – changes to affordability, enhancements to our 5k Deposit Mortgage, improvements to our buy-to-let (BTL) criteria, and a real focus on new build. We’ve expanded our ability to lend at 95% on new build houses, extended our cascade score to allow more people to borrow at high loan-to-value (LTV) on new builds, and introduced our loan-to-income (LTI) Boost, which is five times income, on all our new build products.
We’ve also removed the pricing differential between new build and non-new build, so there’s no longer an additional premium on new build pricing. All of this is about helping more people onto the housing ladder, especially FTBs. As we go forward, we’ll continue to look at how we can help more FTBs and evolve what we do further. There’s a lot coming, and it’s just a case of prioritisation and how quickly we can deliver.
What are your thoughts on the upcoming Autumn Budget and the potential challenges it may bring?
It’s difficult because the Chancellor has already said that a lot of people are speculating, and most of them are likely to be wrong. The budget is still two months away, so there’s a void in between where people will speculate on what might happen The Chancellor has to try and fill a gap, but there are a lot of people to keep happy on all sides. It’s a tough job, especially with rumours about how the Government will raise more money and the expectation of higher taxes somewhere in the chain.
The challenge is to balance raising revenue with growing the economy. I don’t think many people are looking forward to this budget, and it’s not expected to be a giveaway. The key is to make sure the country can continue to trade and grow. What I hope is that speculation doesn’t stop people from making decisions, especially in the housing market. We’re not seeing speculation about rates rising or dropping significantly, so my message is: don’t let the fact that the budget is two months away stop you from making decisions today – the housing market is resilient.
With more borrowers able to access mortgages, are you concerned about demand driving up prices?
Yes, it is a concern that if we don’t create enough supply while increasing demand, house prices could increase faster than inflation. Right now, we have a nice balance – house prices are increasing, but not faster than inflation, which is important because wages are also going up.
What you don’t want is for house prices to outstrip inflation, as that makes them less affordable. We need more supply in the market to prevent demand from outstripping supply, because when that happens, house prices go up too quickly. We’ve seen that in the past, with prices rising by 10 to 15%, which isn’t healthy for the market.
Amid recent changes in lender flexibility and affordability, which borrower groups are benefiting the most so far?
We hope it’s FTBs who are benefiting the most, as that’s where our changes are aimed. Stimulating FTB demand is important because it trickles through the whole housing chain – they’re the starting point of the market. Our changes, and a lot of the innovation in the market, are focused on helping FTBs with affordability and borrowing what they need to get on the housing ladder. That’s where we see the biggest opportunity and where we’re targeting our efforts.
How are current interest rates shaping borrower behaviour and your product offerings?
The good thing at the moment is that interest rates are pretty stable. We’ve had low rates for a long time, then a short period of high rates, but now things have settled somewhere in the middle. Most mortgages are funded based on swap rates, which have been relatively stable for a while. By stable, I mean they still move, but not as dramatically as before.
There’s now an assumption that rates will stay roughly where they are for a long period. 2-year and 5-year swaps are both between 3.5% to 4%, and even looking ahead, there’s no expectation that rates will drop significantly below 3.5%.
This stability means people aren’t waiting for rates to drop before making decisions. If you want to buy a house, there’s no point waiting for a better rate, because the market suggests that’s not likely, and house prices are still going up. People are making decisions for the right reasons, and our product offerings reflect that stability.
Do you have a final message for brokers?
The opportunities are there, and broker advice is key. There’s a lot of conversation about artificial intelligence (AI) and how it will change the market, but I think using AI as a support for the value of advice is critical. Don’t be frightened of AI or technology – embrace it – but remember that the value of advice has never been more important.
Housing transactions are complicated, especially for underserved borrowers or those with unusual circumstances, so they need advice more than ever. There’s so much conflicting advice online, from influencers or AI, so the value of professional advice is key. Go out there and promote the value of that advice.
