Remortgaging is set to become a straightforward, seamless process in the future. While the current demands on conveyancers and the high expectations of consumers can make the process challenging, this presents an opportunity to work towards a shared goal: achieving efficient, stress-free transactions for everyone involved.
Stakeholders in the property ecosystem are committed to creating smooth and seamless experiences for consumers, seeking innovative solutions to achieve this goal. By fostering collaboration between lenders, conveyancers and forward-thinking Fintecs, the industry can deliver exceptional service, speed and transparency to both brokers and consumers. Lenders have an exciting opportunity to embrace innovation and strengthen partnerships with the tech industry, showcasing the benefits of digitisation in the remortgage market.
Hinckley & Rugby Building Society’s recent partnership with PEXA is an example of this industry collaboration. It has paved the way for the delivery of a more efficient and transparent experience for remortgage customers. The advancement in technology simplifies the remortgage process and saves conveyancers and lenders valuable time by reducing admin, while integrating APIs to alleviate the administrative friction that causes the delay in the transaction.
The remortgaging processing service is powered through PEXA’s conveyancing arm, Optima Legal. By leveraging PEXA’s integrated APIs, Optima Legal helps streamline the administration of remortgaging, helping to deliver more efficient and effective case management. This process is beneficial to all those across the transaction – the lenders and brokers overseeing the remortgage cases who get real-time updates on cases, conveyancers who can now spend less time on administrative duties and, crucially, the consumers receive an improved customer experience.
A streamlined, low-friction remortgaging process is important in the current UK mortgage market. Over the past 18 months, we have seen an increase in remortgage activity as borrowers move off fixed-rate deals, often onto higher rates thanks to the economic environment. Homeowners are pressured to secure new deals quickly, as many of the best-priced offers disappear rapidly in what has been a competitive and fast-moving market. Those who do not act in time risk moving to more onerous standard variable rates, pushing their monthly mortgage costs even higher.
The resulting surge in demand for remortgages has placed conveyancers under extreme pressure as they juggle sudden increases in case numbers without the infrastructure, investment or people to support this. Investment into digitising the remortgage process is vital in order to speed up transaction times and allow conveyancers to react positively to these sudden fluctuations without impacting the level of service and the desired timescales of both consumers and lenders.
This is only possible with wider industry collaboration. A number of high street lenders have already expressed interest in progressing with new remortgaging solutions, including NatWest and Metro Bank. Working together, we can secure better results and processes for all.
Technology integration can go beyond immediate efficiency gains in the remortgage market. PEXA Pay, for example, ensures faster and more secure fund transfers with simultaneous settlement and lodgment with land registry giving fraudsters far fewer chances to access the funds. Additional recent developments, such as support for limited company buy-to-let remortgages and enhanced title validation, have broadened the scope of transactions the platform can handle.
Ideally, the market would like to be able to deliver same-day remortgages — a goal that is eminently achievable as we can see other markets have done so, securing better outcomes for borrowers, conveyancers and lenders alike. Continued investment in technology and partnerships across the property transaction ecosystem are helping to bring this goal one step closer in the UK. Together, we can create a blueprint for modernising the remortgage market, delivering significant benefits for all.
