Mortgage lending in the last two years has been limited to say the least. My previous employment was for an in-house firm for a major mortgage lender. I recall personally completing sixty remortgages in a day for said lender. This was only five or six years ago.
Fast-forward to the end of 2009 when I visited my previous place of employment and I was informed that 95% of the lender's mortgage underwriters had been made redundant. I was also informed that the lender would now be content to complete one remortgage per day out of choice.
Mortgage brokers were in abundance and making vast sums of money by way of commission. Now, many of those same brokers have ceased trading.
Will 2010 be any different for the industry? Of course, I hope so and there have been some signs in the first four months that it may be different.
There are currently reports that Virgin Money is purchasing certain assets from Northern Rock. Tesco have moved into financial services, Sainsbury's bank is considering doing the same. I understand that Bank of China and Bank of East Asia have dipped its toes into the UK Market and O2 is also considering doing so according to reports. Aldermore are currently investigating suitable opportunities to enter the UK residential mortgage market and Metro Bank are opening soon advertising that it will be the first bank to open seven days a week.
Rumours in certain publications suggest that as many as thirty new lenders could be joining the market in 2010. I personally think that this is optimism rather than realism but if half as many do join, then this can only be a positive sign for the lending industry at the moment.
Let us hope these rumours turn out to be true as once mortgage lending returns to anywhere near where it used to be, the housing market can start to recover properly.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
