For advisers who have spent the past 14 months or so dealing with clients largely via Zoom, Teams, phone, message and email, there might well be a considerable urge to ‘get back out there’ and start to see the whites of a client’s eyes again.
For a number of years, it looked like the mortgage and protection network sector was unlikely to see many new entrants, if any, given a number of factors seemingly working against it.
Before I write further about the Budget, there’s little doubt that the measures announced earlier this month should be viewed positively in terms of what they bring to the mortgage and housing market.
Certainly, if Don McLean were writing ‘American Pie’ in February 2021 he would have got it right in terms of the weather – the last few, often snow-dominated weeks and the very low temperatures have summed up a period in our lives.
I’m a supporter of the ‘If you don’t ask, you don’t get,’ approach especially when it comes to business, and this is as relevant in the adviser market as anywhere else.
Speculation about what the future might bring for the mortgage market, particularly at the likely end of the stamp duty holiday next March, continues and – despite a very busy sector currently – brokers are rightly thinking about what might come next.
Anyone active in the market will be under no illusion about just how difficult the March through May lockdown period was.
Over the past few years, we have appeared to move seamlessly from one ‘undefining moment’ to the next, fuelled by the EU referendum, a General Election, Brexit negotiations, Tory party leadership elections, another General Election, the COVID-19 pandemic, and further Brexit negotiations.
It might be deeply unpopular but perhaps now is the time to cut the 3% surcharge that additional homeowners have to pay.
There’s no doubting that the mortgage market will take time to get back on its feet but we’ve had some hugely encouraging news in recent days.