Our H2 2025 Mortgage Lender Benchmark results reflect a market where brokers are placing growing importance on the overall experience, covering the clarity, speed and reliability that are central to every case journey.
In this latest edition, mainstream lenders lead our Broker Experience Index of 72.4, marking a notable uplift and the strongest performance across any sector. This may be the result of many mainstream lenders investing heavily in digital optimisation while maintaining consistent BDM support, helping them deliver the most dependable end-to-end broker journeys.
Buy to Let specialists also remain a high-performing lender group with a Broker Experience Index of 72.1. They continue to stand out for their online tools and systems (4.17). In addition, building societies maintain a stable and competitive position with a Broker Experience Index of 71.2. Although, while their overall scores have softened compared to previous editions, they continue to excel on relationship-led service, reflected in strong BDM satisfaction and communication.
Later life lenders achieve a Broker Experience Index of 69.2, scoring well for affordability, clarity and customer support. Although speed is behind other sectors, brokers note that many later life providers continue to balance caution with care, ensuring suitability on more sensitive client profiles.
Commercial and bridging lenders (68.3) show steady performance, with strong satisfaction around overall service and BDM support. While processing speeds remain slower, brokers highlight the value of specialist expertise in navigating non-standard or time-sensitive deals. The fact that these results have been achieved whilst the sector is seeing record levels of growth, according to the Bridging and Development Lenders Association (BDLA), should be applauded.
Specialist lenders continue to score below the market average, with a Broker Experience Index of 64.1. Lower satisfaction with speed and online systems remains a challenge, although brokers still note the sector’s importance for clients with more complex circumstances. However, with manual underwriting and the extra complexity of such cases needing extra scrutiny, such a result shouldn’t be unexpected.
All in all, the sectors combining reliable processing, strong communication, and supportive human touchpoints continue to deliver the best broker experiences.
How do lender types differ?
Broker feedback continues to fall into three broad categories: people, product and lending, and process, and our latest edition shows a clear pattern in how frequently these areas are mentioned and how positively brokers view them.
Process-related feedback dominates the verbatim, making up 61.9% of all comments. However, it also carries the lowest sentiment score at 69.7, showing that the day-to-day operations of working with lenders remain the biggest sources of friction. Process issues continue to have the strongest influence on overall experience.
Product-related themes account for 24% of broker feedback, with a sentiment score of 75.6, the highest across all groups. Brokers often highlight strengths in product suitability, criteria, and range, with relatively low levels of negative feedback.
People-based themes represent 14.2% of all feedback, and sentiment remains strong at 72.0. Brokers continue to value supportive BDMs, helpful underwriters, and responsive customer service teams. Even as digital tools improve, human support remains a major source of strength for many lenders, especially in complex or time-sensitive cases.
What matters most to intermediaries?
In summary, process drives the bulk of broker commentary. Product and people themes remain substantially more positive but make up a smaller share of the overall experience.
Brokers continue to highlight a diverse set of experiences, with clear themes shaping how lenders are judged. While the overall mix remains broadly familiar, there are noticeable differences in how strongly each theme influences sentiment.
Process themes remain the most prominent, with speed (15.0%), ease (13.4%) and underwriting (12.8%) again the top three areas brokers discuss. Together they account for more than 40% of all feedback, proving how central the practical case journey still is.
Ease stands out with sentiment at 83.7, showing the value brokers place on simple, intuitive processes, while speed remains a core expectation at 74.3. Underwriting continues to lag at 59.5, reflecting ongoing frustrations with inconsistency and delays.
Technology continues to shape many interactions. Online systems hold a 10.6% share of comments, with sentiment sitting at 66.4, suggesting that while many lenders have made improvements, reliability and usability remain essential to broker confidence.
Meanwhile, online tools were mentioned less often, but carry similar sentiment, and they still play an important role in how digital capability is perceived.
People-based themes continue to be among the most positive. BDMs (72.0) and customer service (71.5) remain important strengths across many lenders. Skill and knowledge, although mentioned infrequently, is one of the highest-rated themes at 83.9.
Product themes remain stable in both prominence and sentiment. Criteria (8.1%) continues to be the most discussed product-related area, with sentiment at 75.4, followed by strong scores for product range (80.1) and flexibility (79.5). Clarity of criteria, though a smaller share of comments, remains highly valued when present.
Finally, some of the lowest sentiment themes sit within operational areas such as valuations (63.4), communication (60.0) and legals (40.0), where delays and poor visibility continue to affect broker trust.
Conclusion
Overall, the H2 2025 results reinforce a consistent message from brokers: the best lender experiences are built on dependable processes, clear communication, and the right balance of digital efficiency with accessible human support.
Mainstream lenders currently set the pace, but strong performances from Buy to Let specialists and building societies show that sector leadership is achievable wherever tools are reliable and relationships are well supported. With process themes dominating broker feedback yet carrying the lowest sentiment, the biggest opportunity for lenders now lies in reducing friction across underwriting, valuations, legals and visibility throughout the case journey.
Those that can deliver faster, simpler and more consistent end-to-end journeys, without losing the specialist expertise and personal touch brokers value, will be best placed to strengthen confidence and win business in the next cycle.
