Tell us a bit about your background in the mortgage industry, and what brought you to it?
This might sound familiar to a lot of people, but I pretty much fell into the financial services industry. I’d graduated from university just after the financial crisis and was struggling to get onto a Graduate Scheme. There was job in our local Yorkshire Building Society branch available, and I’ve always loved being with and interacting with people, even in my part-time jobs whilst studying. I’ve worked for Yorkshire Building Society and Accord for the past 13 years, doing a variety of different roles across the organisation before moving into my current role two and a half years ago. I now work to support and grow the relationships with our Key Lending Partners and find opportunities to collaborate. I also seek to use my external knowledge and relationships to help Accord to bring new and innovative propositions to the market to help intermediaries. So, what I thought was a stop-gap job has turned into a career, and I couldn’t see myself working in any other field!
What changes have you witnessed over the years, and what lessons do you think we can all learn from those?
Change is definitely constant! But if I were to pin it down to a couple of things, the first one would be the shift in behaviour from the end consumer. Clients are no longer satisfied with just having the best rate, their expectations are much higher. They want the best service, which includes being able to communicate easily and conveniently with their broker whilst also receiving additional support and guidance.
As a consumer, one of the first things we do now before we purchase a product or service is read a review or two, and I’m sure brokers are aware of this. It’s great if you’re a broker with a big existing client bank and get lots of referrals through word of mouth. But if you’re not at that stage, it’s critical that you invest time and effort in the service you provide, collating reviews or testimonials to showcase this to prospective clients, to help you stand out. And we see this within the broker community. Brokers will look to use Accord time and time again based on the great service we provide.
What’s your take on the current mortgage market?
The market started off pretty strong at the beginning of the year, as we saw pent up demand from last year. Rates trickling down really helped with consumer confidence and activity. However, since the announcement of the general election, people seemed to be waiting to see what would happen. Now we have a new government - and given the recent announcement from the MPC to finally reduce the base rate to 5% (which has just been held) - I think we’ll see more optimism, and consumer confidence return. There will be people out there who were holding off, but now will want to move into their first or new house, ready for Christmas. On the remortgaging side, we also know that there are over £200bn worth of mortgages to mature in H2 2024 (residential and BTL combined) and a lot of these will be coming off lower rates, meaning they may be facing a payment shock, which demonstrates the need and value of the advice of a broker.
What challenges and opportunities do intermediaries currently face?
There’s probably a couple of challenges which impact both brokers and their clients - affordability and deposit. We know lots of aspiring home owners across the UK are struggling to either save for a deposit or pass affordability assessments to buy their first or next home. Whilst we do need some government intervention to help support with some of these challenges, there are opportunities out there for intermediaries to help their clients. Education is one area where an intermediary can help to foster that long-term relationship with their client to help inform them on deposit requirements, perhaps looking at different locations for their home, or different product options such as our £5k Deposit Mortgage, which can make this much more achievable.
Education is also vital to help the client to be realistic with their expectations – for example – when helping a first-time buyer to understand what’s achievable for their first property. But again, further opportunities exist with intergenerational products such as joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP), which can help support that first step onto the property ladder.
What do you think the next decade might look like, in terms of the products and services borrowers – and the brokers who represent them – expect?
Quite a difficult one to predict having to look that far ahead. It’s fair to say that technology will continue to play a bigger role, we’re already seeing the positive impact that AI (Artificial intelligence) can have supporting brokers with their suitability reports for example, or integration with platforms, meaning brokers can save time submitting cases to lenders. Alongside this, the demands from the new consumer Generation Z - or maybe even Generation Alpha as we move on a decade - will no doubt change, meaning that brokers and the rest of the mortgage industry must keep evolving.
What we are seeing though, is that lives generally are much more complex now than they were 10 years ago, and if we carry on in the same trajectory, the value and advice an intermediary can provide will continue to be as important, if not more so, over the next decade.
Lenders will also need to continue to adapt to service the needs of brokers and their clients. This is something that, at Accord, we’re extremely keen to keep building on, by listening to our brokers, taking their feedback on board and acting upon it. This will help us to evolve and remain relevant, not just for the next decade, but for years into the future.
